9/24/11

ACTION ALERT! Support The Ban On Horse Slaughter

Everyone, this may be the most important thing you do for horses this year! This petition is a new venture launched by the White House, with the promise that if a petition can collect a minimum of 5000 signatures in 30 DAYS, White House staff WILL read and review the petition- and forward it up the ladder of 'insiders' if it merits their attention.
 
This is huge! How many times have you asked yourself or someone else, "WHY doesn't President Obama stop the slaughter of American horses?!"... when inside, you knew that this is an issue of which he is probably not even aware.
Here's our chance to make the President aware of what is happening, and why it should never happen again! You do have to create an account and log in, but it only takes a moment, and this is so important!
Sign this petition. Forward it to EVERYONE you know, and implore them to sign it and share it! If we will each take this VERY seriously, we can make our concerns known at a whole new level!
Forward ho!! Let's do this- NOW!
https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/%21/petition/support-b an-horse-slaughter/q30gJg1k?ut m_source=wh.gov&utm_medium=sho rturl&utm_campaign=shorturl

Horses injured in transit

Www
A screen shot of Sue Wallis on Facebook declaring that bute is safe after 30 days. She knows it is not, but doesn't seem to care.
Sue_wallis_facebook
Children at risk from bute in American horse meat.

Irish_Vet_White_Paper.pdf Download this file
 
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9/20/11

TCEQ Cites Company For Dumping Dead Horses On Rriver Bed






Yet another reason for ending this cruel and dishonest business for good.

by KVUE News

kvue.com

Posted on September 19, 2011 at 8:33 PM

Updated today at 5:35 PM 


PRESIDIO -- KVUE News has a follow-up to a story on the horse export pens on the border.
Horses in this country headed to slaughter in Mexico are held in livestock pens in this tiny West Texas town before they cross the border. A recent report revealed allegations of abuse and neglect at one facility. Now, the Texas Environmental Agency has cited that same company for illegally dumping dead horses along a river bed.

KVUE News has obtained video shot by investigators with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. They flew over the export pens in a DPS helicopter after complaints this summer about dead horses dumped in a dry river bed.

"The smell is horrendous," said Amber Taylor, who works with a horse rescue group in Virginia.  She shot her own video of the illegal dumping site.  Taylor came to Presidio to document allegations of abuse and neglect of horses kept in the Texas export pens before they’re sent to slaughter in Mexico.

"You can just look up where these horses are and see the buzzards flying around," she said.
Taylor said she saw dying and dead horses at the export pens leased by the C-4 Cattle Company.
"I have to believe there are so many more," she said.

Environmental investigators also videotaped a path they discovered at the illegal dump site. It lead straight to the C-4 export pens.

The investigation details four serious violations. Most focus on the C-4’s failure to document the number of horses that died at the facility, the cause of death, and proof that the animals were disposed of at an authorized dump site.

In an e-mail, the owner of  C-4 said his lawyer would appeal the decision to cite his business.  The environmental agency has not imposed a penalty yet.

The company faces up to $10,000  a day per violation.
 
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U.S. Representatives Praised for Introducing Bill to End Horse Slaughter

from the Humane Society of the United States

We have been waiting for this for years. Here is our best chance of finally getting the horror of horse slaughter outlawed for good.

The pro-slaughter factions - especially well funded and organized groups like the so-called "United Horsemen" have misled not only our law makers, but many well meaning members of the public as well. They have claimed that the "unwanted" horses such as the old, sick, crippled and otherwise "useless" horses will be left to suffer because their owners "cannot afford" to pay for veterinarian administered euthanasia.

They have said that slaughter is "euthanasia" or even more disgusting, "humane harvesting." and that in the U.S. slaughter was well regulated and humane.

They have even gone so far as to deny the food safety issues in American horses despite the undeniable fact that American horses are not raised like food animals and that slaughter in this country is not intended for food production anyway. The only reason horse slaughter exists here is so the large breeders can breed indiscriminately and have a dumping ground for "culls" that don't meet their expectations, aren't the "right" color or don't have the conformation to excel in whatever sport they were bred for. Slaughter makes it easy for irresponsible, heartless owners to get rid of horses they no longer want for whatever reason.

But now, with the appearance of this Irish Veterinary Paper which clearly describes the lengths the European Union is going to in order to protect its citizens from the drug that is probably the most commonly prescribed drug in American Veterinary Medicine: Phenylbutazone - bute. It is an NSAID, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory, and is used in horses the way aspirin/ibuprofen is used in human medicine.

This paper clearly states what we have been trying to tell our legislators for years: Even minute amounts of bute in horse meat can cause aplastic anemia in children, and even a single dose in a horse's lifetime requires mandatory, permanent removal from the human food chain.
The United States simply cannot continue to knowingly export horse meat containing this dangerous drug - as well as many other banned substances.- for consumption of unsuspecting consumers overseas. It is despicable as well as illegal.

Please contact your own Senators and Representatives and ask them to co-sponsor S.1176/H.R. 2966 The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act of 2011.

September 19, 2011

U.S. Representatives Praised for Introducing Bill to End Horse Slaughter

The HSUS applauds U.S. Reps. Dan Burton, R-Ind., and Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., for introducing H.R. 2966, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act of 2011.

The Humane Society of the United States applauds U.S. Reps. Dan Burton, R-Ind., and Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., for introducing H.R. 2966, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act of 2011, a bipartisan measure that will end the export and inhumane killing of American horses for human consumption across our borders. The bill was introduced in the House with 57 original co-sponsors.
“Although horse slaughter plants no longer operate in the United States, many thousands of American horses still endure the long journey to Canada and Mexico to be killed in cruel and unacceptable ways,” said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The HSUS. “Americans don’t eat horses, and we don’t have to be the nation that is the pipeline for horse meat to satisfy the demand for a small group of high-end foreign consumers in Belgium and Japan.”

“I personally believe in the importance of treating all horses as humanely and respectfully as possible,” said Rep. Burton. “I look forward to working with Representative Schakowsky to end the cruelty after decades of effort to stop these practices.”
 
“I am proud to join Representative Burton in supporting this bill to put a stop to the cruel practice of shipping horses abroad for slaughter,” said Rep. Schakowsky. “As a strong supporter of animal rights and a horse lover, I recognize the need to protect animals that aren’t able to protect themselves. Protecting animals ought to be a bipartisan issue, and this bill is a strong step in the right direction.”


Approximately 100,000 American horses are sent across U.S. borders to slaughter each year. This represents 1 percent of the total population of American horses, as the vast majority of horse owners choose humane euthanasia—not long-distance transport and slaughter—as an end-of-life option for their beloved companions. States have acted to stop horse slaughter, shuttering the last remaining horse slaughter plants in the United States in 2007, and federal courts have upheld these state laws. Now Congress must act to stop the export of live horses for slaughter in Canada and Mexico.

The horrendous end for these American icons sold for slaughter begins at an auction. The journey to and across a border can mean confinement in a trailer at temperatures in excess of 100 degrees for thousands of miles without access to food or water. Once unloaded, the exhausted, dehydrated and often battered horses are recklessly shoved into kill boxes where they suffer abuse as workers’ attempts to render the panic-stricken animals unconscious cause additional suffering.

A recently released GAO report also recommends that “Congress may wish to consider instituting an explicit ban on the domestic slaughter of horses and exports of U.S. horses intended for slaughter in foreign countries.” National polls show that 70 percent of Americans favor a ban on the slaughter of these animals, which hold an iconic place in the nation’s history and its self-image. The HSUS joins Reps. Burton and Schakowsky, along with the vast majority of Americans, in support of this bill to protect our treasured equine companions from this cruelty by banning their slaughter for human consumption.

A Senate bill, S. 1176, was introduced in June by U.S. Sens. Mary Landrieu, D-La, and Lindsey Graham, R.S.C., and now has 24 co-sponsors.

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9/12/11

NEED TO KNOW | Removing horses from the wild | PBS

  

Another on target video from Ginger Kathrens. Please watch & share! At the rate the BLM is removing the horses don't have much time left before the herds are so small that they are no longer genetically viable.

It's sad and frightening that our government is allowing the DOI/BLM to decimate our wild herds in the name of "balance" when it's obvious that there was no "balance" even before more horses were removed. The millions of range destroying cattle and the pitiful remnant of our once thriving herds of wild horses barely hanging on as herd after herd are torn apart, families torn apart, never to see each other again.

It is cruel, unnecessary and illegal.



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9/11/11

Animal Welfare Groups Challenge GAO Findings

Excellent article and report from The Equine Welfare Alliance (EWA) and Animal Law Coalition (ALC) on the unacceptable shortcomings of the recent GAO Report on horse welfare.

Please click on the links below to read their exhaustive analysis and executive summary. Both are nothing short of excellent and points out failures and bias that needed a light shown on them.

Please share this with your friends!
Amplify’d from horsebackmagazine.com

Animal Welfare Groups Challenge GAO Findings

September 7, 2011
GAO Follows Horse Slaughter Lobby Down the Rabbit Hole
Chicago (EWA) – The long awaited Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on horse welfare fell far short of the respectable reporting we have come to expect from the GAO, even raising questions as to the agency’s credibility.

The Equine Welfare Alliance (EWA) and Animal Law Coalition (ALC) have issued an exhaustive analysis and executive summary, demonstrating the embarrassing and shocking lack of evidence for GAO’s findings.

The analysis concludes that the GAO report is “disturbing” as it is filled with speculation, anecdotes, hearsay and unsupported opinions. The GAO sources appear to be largely known slaughter proponents.

“The GAO’s pro-slaughter bias is clearly evident in the report’s defamatory accusation that the Cavel fire in 2002 was started by so-called anti-slaughter arsonists,” states co-author and EWA vice president, Vicki Tobin. The cause of the fire was never determined and it was Cavel’s owners who benefitted from the fire, claiming $5M when the damages were estimated at $2M.

The EWA/ALC analysis details how, instead of doing the hard work of gathering actual data, the GAO relied on chitchats with a handful of state veterinarians with a few livestock board and other state officials and on information provided by pro-slaughter organizations.

“The GAO’s economic models fail to credibly take into account basic principles of supply and demand, the extremely limited effect of slaughter on the horse industry and the devastating effects of one of the worst economic downturns since the Great Depression”, said ALC’s Laura Allen. “Instead, the GAO report blamed the closing of 3 U.S. horse slaughter plants in 2007 for a decline in live horse prices, loss of horse markets, and a rise in horses in need.”

Carolyn Betts, Ph.D. Economics explains, “There is, by definition, no correlation between something that stays roughly constant over time – the number of horses slaughtered – and something that the GAO claims has gone up significantly over the same time period – the number of horses abandoned and neglected. In the absence of an observable correlation, it is nothing short of “heroic” for the GAO to assume a causal relation from a proximate constant to a variable that it argues has increased.”

A FOIA request for the data and methods the GAO used in developing its economic models was denied by the Congressional Committee that requested the GAO report. The EWA/ALC analysis concludes that this is nothing short of a Congressional cover-up for the GAO’s unsubstantiated claims.

study by John Holland, co-founder and president of EWA, which was provided to GAO, found that cases of horse abuse and neglect in Illinois rose and fell with the unemployment rate. The same study found absolutely no mathematical correlation between these cases and the rate of slaughter.

The EWA contends that slaughter actually contributes to the problem of too many horses by enabling over-breeding and driving down prices. GAO’s economic model, done correctly, would have shown that prohibiting export of horses for slaughter would be the one thing that would really improve horse welfare over the long term.

The analysis also points out that the GAO report completely glossed over critical food safety issues raised by the slaughter of American horses for human consumption. The GAO was indifferent to the export of U.S. horses for slaughter for human consumption despite the fact that these horses contain drugs, such as phenylbutazone, which the FDA bans for use in animals used for food. Vicki Tobin explains, “U.S. horses are not raised or regulated as food animals. Given the importance of food safety, horse slaughter for human consumption should not even be a discussion point in a government report, let alone a recommendation.”

Probably one of the more ridiculous recommendations by the GAO is that USDA/APHIS will do better in enforcing humane transport regulations if there is slaughter available in the U.S. But historically, USDA/APHIS has always done an abysmal job of enforcing these regulations. Long before the 2007 closings, horses were exported for slaughter in large numbers and suffered on long, arduous trips over the borders and within the U.S.

In fact, the GAO’s discussion of APHIS’ shocking ineptitude and indifference to horses and the horrific mistreatment they endure throughout the slaughter pipeline is reason enough for Congress to ban horse slaughter and to do it now.

#

The GAO report and the EWA/ALC report will be discussed at the upcoming International Equine Conference, Sept. 26-28. Visithttp://www.equinewelfarealliance.org/Int_l_Equine_Conference.html for additional information and to register.

The Equine Welfare Alliance is a dues-free 501(c)(4) umbrella organization representing 189 organizations and hundreds of individual members worldwide. The organization focuses its efforts on the welfare of all equines and the preservation of wild equids. www.equinewelfarealliance.org

The Animal Law Coalition is a coalition of pet owners and rescuers, advocates, attorneys, law students, veterinarians, shelter workers, decision makers, and other citizens, that advocates for the rights of animals to live and live free of cruelty and neglect. www.animallawcoalition.com
Read more at horsebackmagazine.com


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9/3/11

UK Horse Owner Law - Coming to Canada And Mexico

I just got this from the UK site, HORSE 4 Life. These are the regulations for the "Passport System" for horses in countries that export horses to be slaughtered for human consumption. This is what is coming to Canada and Mexico next year. If you objected to NAIS, you're going to go nuts over this!


HORSE 4 LIFE equine support - UK Horse Owner Law
UK Horse Owners
Do You Know The law?

The Horse Passports Regulations 2009

It is an offense to own or keep a horse without a passport, therefore it is an offense to sell or purchase a horse without a passport

It is an offense to fail to notify the Passport Issuing Organization of the change of ownership, this should be done within 30 days of purchase or change of ownership.

Any horse born after the 1 July 2009, or which doesn’t already have a passport, must also have a transponder (microchip) fitted. These can only be inserted by veterinary surgeons.

It is an offense to have more than one passport for a horse, if you have, then arrange to return one to the relevant issuing organization.

Passports must accompany your horse at all times, including during transportation (except in emergency situations). The person with primary responsibility for the horse must have the passport made available to them if they are not the owner.

Foals must have a microchip and passport by the 31 December in the year of birth or within six months of birth, whichever is the longer. If the ‘foal’ is to be moved before then it must have a microchip and passport, except where it is being moved with the dam.

All horses presented for slaughter to export to the European Union must follow these regulations - especially ours.
Is this what you want to do so that the Big Breed Organizations and Sue
Wallis can continue to over breed and dump their unfortunate "culls" on
a one way trip to Hell - individuals that most people would be proud to own, except they are not the right color,right size, right conformation for the breeder's sport of choice, etc.,
etc., etc.

What these people really need is a stiff dose of truth serum! If slaughter were the answer, why hasn't it worked? We are sending more horses to slaughter now than when we had plants in the US, and there is absolutely no way to blame any "excess" horses on the fact that the plants are now in Canada and Mexico. Hell, we always sent horses to slaughter in Canada and Mexico, and I never heard even one sniffle about how much "longer the trip" was and/or how much "more humane" the US plants were - until we shut down the three remaining horse slaughter plants in the US that is.

No matter that there are many places in the US that are closer to the Mexican plant just across the river from El Paso than the two in North Central Texas - a long way from El Paso! - and I'm certain many are also closer to Alberta than Illinois. No matter that our plants weren't even slightly more humane than Canada or the EU certified plants in Mexico - where most ofour horses go in Mexico.

So, to all those who are falsifying the affidavits that are required now to export American horses to Canada and EU certified plants in Mexico, I say to you: How ya gonna fake a transponder?
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"From my earliest memories, I have loved horses with a longing beyond words." ~ Robert Vavra