Slaughter Resumes in Texas - Monday, Feb. 5, 2007

Sad news. Under the guise of slaughtering for zoo food, Dallas Crown sadly resumed slaughtering. All 100 horses that were still on the premises are now dead. Please view this:

"Take Me Away"
www.kaufmanzoning.net/horsemeat/takemeaway020307.wmv

Jan. 20, 2007 - Texas Slaughterhouses Face Closure!!!!

Federal Appeals Court Declares Horse Slaughter in Texas Illegal
Two of the Nation's Three Horse Slaughter Plants Face Closure,Criminal Charges
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WASHINGTON (Jan. 20, 2007) – The Humane Society of the United States, which has been campaigning to ban the slaughter of Americanhorses for export for human consumption, hailed a decision yesterdayby the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuitoverturning a lower court decision that invalidated a Texas state law banning the sale of horsemeat for human consumption. The HSUSfiled an amicus brief in the case in March 2006, arguing in defenseof Texas' state law barring the slaughter of American horses forhuman consumption overseas.
"This is the most important court action ever on the issue of horseslaughter. A federal appeals court has ruled that America's horsescan no longer be slaughtered in Texas and shipped to foreigncountries for food," said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO for TheHumane Society of the United States. "When this ruling is enforced,a single plant in Illinois will stand alone in conducting thisgrisly business." [WINDOWS-1252?]
The criminal code of Texas has long prohibited the sale orpossession of horse meat, but the law has never been enforced. In2002, responding to citizen and local government concerns about thetwo foreign-owned horse slaughter plants in the state – Dallas Crown [WINDOWS-1252?]in Kaufman and Beltex in Fort Worth – then-Texas Attorney GeneralJohn Cornyn issued a written opinion that the 1949 Texas law appliesand may be enforced.
In response, the Tarrant County District Attorney attempted to enforce the law, but last year a federal district court in Texasruled that the law was repealed by another statute and preempted byfederal law. The District Attorney appealed that decision lastyear, and was supported by The HSUS in briefing before the Court of Appeals.
In its decision, the court flatly rejected the slaughterhouses'arguments that the ban on the sale of horsemeat does not protecthorses from theft and abuse, and that regulating horse slaughter can [WINDOWS-1252?]achieve those same purposes, noting instead that "it is a matter ofcommonsense that…alternatives…do not preserve horses as well ascompletely prohibiting the sale and transfer of horsemeat for humanconsumption." The court noted that the horse on the Texas trail is a cinematic icon, but "not once in memory did the cowboy eat hishorse."
The Court of Appeals also quickly brushed aside the slaughterplants' arguments that the Texas law at issue was invalid under state and federal law, noting that the Texas law "has not beenrepealed or preempted by federal law," and that "several states havealready banned its commercial use for human consumption."
"The Texas law prohibiting the sale of horse meat for human foodcould hardly be any more explicit," said Jonathan Lovvorn, vicepresident of animal protection litigation for The HSUS. "The court's decision means that any individual employee or corporation involvedin the horse slaughter business in Texas now stares straight aheadat criminal prosecution."
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 100,800 American horses were slaughtered in three foreign-owned slaughter houses in2006. Opponents of the slaughter ban argue the practice constitutesa humane way to kill old animals, but investigations by The HSUSshow cruelty and abuse throughout the process. USDA statistics show that more than 92 percent of horses slaughtered in the U.S. are notold and infirm but in good condition.
Legislation to ban the slaughter of American horses nationwide wasintroduced this week in the 110th Congress, and this court ruling will give further momentum to the federal legislative effort. Inthe U.S. Senate, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, S.311, was launched Jan. 17 by Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and JohnEnsign (R-Nev.), with 12 original cosponsors. In the U.S. House,Reps. Janice Schakowsky (D-Ill.) Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), John Spratt(D-S.C.), and Nick Rahall (D-W.V.) introduced a companion bill, H.R.503, the same day with 62 original cosponsors.
The measure received tremendous bipartisan support in the 109th Congress, winning a vote of 263 to 146 in the House. It stalled inthe Senate in late 2006, however, and was not brought up for a votebefore Congress adjourned, even though a similar effort had beenoverwhelmingly approved by the Senate in 2005.
Media Contact: Polly Shannon, 703 283 5104, pshannon@...
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The Humane Society of the United States is the nation's largestanimal protection organization with nearly 10 million members andconstituents. The HSUS is a mainstream voice for animals, withactive programs in companion animals, disaster preparedness andresponse, wildlife and habitat protection, marine mammals, animalsin research, equine protection, and farm animal welfare. The HSUS protects all animals through education, investigation, litigation,legislation, advocacy and field work. The nonprofit organization isbased in Washington and has field representatives and offices acrossthe country. On the web at http://www.humanesociety.org/ .
Interested in taking action online to help animals? Then join ouronline community and sign up for our Humane Action Network. Go to www.hsus.org/join .

U.S. Reps. Rahall and Whitfield Introduce Bill to Stop Slaughter of America's Wild Horses on Day Two of 110th Congress

January 5, 2007
WASHINGTON – A bill to restore the 34-year ban on the commercial sale and slaughter of America's wild, free-roaming horses and burros (H.R. 249) was introduced today by U.S. Representatives Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) and Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.). Similar legislation was passed unanimously last May as an amendment to the House Interior Appropriations bill, but stripped from the final bill in a House-Senate conference committee. The Humane Society of the United States commends the representatives for taking quick action to make this one of their top priorities of the new Congress.
A bill to permanently ban the sale and transport of all American horses – the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act , also co-sponsored by Reps. Rahall and Whitfield – passed the House by a wide margin of 263 to 146 last September, but failed to get a vote in the Senate before adjourning. Legislation to ban horse slaughter is expected to be introduced soon in the House and Senate.
"The slaughtering of America's horses is a betrayal of our responsibility to animals who are symbols of the American spirit," said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The HSUS. "We're grateful to Representatives Rahall and Whitfield for their tireless efforts to help bring an end to the misery and suffering of these iconic and majestic animals and we pledge to work with them until we put the foreign-owned slaughterhouses out of business."
Today's actions seek to restore the federal protections for wild horses and burros from sale and slaughter for human consumption overseas. Wild horses and burros had been protected from commercial sale and slaughter since the passage of the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. The longstanding protections for wild horses were removed by a controversial rider slipped into an omnibus spending bill by former U.S. Senator Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) in late 2004. Burns was defeated in the 2006 elections.
"Horses are an integral part of the tapestry of this country, and Americans have always championed their survival and expect they will be protected," Rep. Rahall said. "The time has long since passed to restore the prohibition on the sale and slaughter of wild free-roaming horses and burros, and I urge the Congress to heed the will of the American public and respond to common decency by supporting this legislation. We owe no less to these living symbols of the American West."
"In this country, horses are raised as work, sport, and companion animals and have never been part of the food chain here," said Rep. Whitfield. "The industry claims banning slaughter will lead to a proliferation of abandoned and neglected horses and that horses being sent to slaughter are old and unwanted. Nothing could be further from the truth. Less than 1 percent of the total horse population is sent to slaughter, a percentage easily absorbed. Furthermore, we must remember that a large number of these horses are stolen and most certainly are not unwanted. I look forward to working with Chairman Rahall to pass this legislation and restore the BLM policy that has served us well for the past 34 year."
The HSUS continues to work toward a permanent ban on horse slaughter with the support of members of Congress, the National Show Horse Registry, National Thoroughbred Racing Association, National Steeplechase Association, Churchill Downs and the majority of Americans.

Kentucky lawmakers considering state ban on horse slaughter

Great news! Hopefully more states will take notice and jump on board!
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2007/jan/04/bill-would-ban-horse-slaughter/

Update: Where Horse Slaughter Legislation Stands Today

Equine Advocates
http://www.equineadvocates.org/
January 2, 2007

Many of you already know about the tragic defeat for America's wild and domestic equines once again with the failure by the Senate in not allowing S.1915 to come to the floor for a vote. The votes in the Senate for passage were definitely there and that would have meant a huge victory for America's horses and the American people who have strongly been behind the passage of a horse slaughter ban since 1998 when California passed a state initiative banning the slaughter of horses for human consumption.

For those of you who do not know the details, here is an update: The Senate version of The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, S.1915 was never allowed to come to the Senate floor for a vote in 2006. Consequently, the great victory of H.R. 503, the version of the same bill that passed in the House of Representatives on September 7, 2006, is now lost and the entire process must start all over again - the hard work and dedication by so many people to pass this vital legislation in 2006 so that it would take effect in 2007 was ignored and disregarded by both those with hidden and not-so-hidden agendas - not the least of which includes the Bush Administration.

This now means having to deal with staunch horse slaughter proponents again like Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), who remains the head of the Agriculture Committee in the House, and who strongly opposed the horse slaughter ban, along with Steve King (R-IA) and others representing special pro-horse-slaughter interests. We all saw their award-winning "performances" as they purposely distorted and twisted the meaning of this important legislation both during the hearings in the House and on September 7, 2006, the day it was voted on. Luckily, not only did they lose, but hostile amendments proposed by both Goodlatte and King were soundly defeated and H.R. 503 was passed as written. Had it passed in the Senate, a bill supported by the vast majority of Americans would have finally become law after eight long years of waiting. Now, we have to start from scratch, including going back to the House of Representatives again, even though the legislation passed there with 263 votes. Talk about government waste and red tape! This was truly a national disgrace!

California still has the distinction of being the only state in the nation where the slaughter of horses for human consumption is illegal, as passed by 60% of the California electorate in 1998. The historic state initiative campaign was organized and expedited by the California Equine Council and Save the Horses. Broad-based support from law enforcement, to major factions of the horse industry to people and organizations from all walks of life contributed to the resounding success of this initiative. While horse slaughter statistics fell steadily through the late '90's, the Bush Administration made sure that all the progress made in that area was reversed. Horse slaughter had reached all-time lows to under 50,000, but now is back to over 120,000 annually.

Defeated former Senator, Conrad Burns (R-MT) with his strong ties to the Cattlemen and other pro-horse slaughter groups, succeeded in helping to prevent this vital legislation from coming to the Senate floor for a vote, thus thwarting the will of the American people yet again on this issue in favor of special interests. The Cattlemen now have a direct profit-making stake in promoting horse slaughter, as they receive a fee for every horse slaughtered in the State of Texas, home to two of the three remaining horse slaughterhouses in the United States. Former Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist (R-TN) and former Senate Majority Whip, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) also did nothing to try to get S.1915 to the Senate floor for a vote. Active horse slaughter proponents, including Charles Grassley (R-IA), Burns and others also threatened to block it. Without Frist ordering a motion to proceed, the bill was going nowhere...and it didn't.

Conrad Burns was the subject of a scathing article in the November 2006 issue of Vanity Fair. Quoting directly from the article:

"Exhausted and terrified, a herd of wild mustangs gallop around the side of the mountain, miraculously managing to skirt the treacherous prairie-dog holes and deep crevices as they try to escape the screaming, whirling predator on their tail. Their instincts tell them they can out-run most any animal, but this one is relentless. You wish a director would yell 'cut' and the horses would be led to a plush Hollywood stable for rest, food, water. But it's not a movie, and the pilot flying the helicopter is not an actor. He works for a government program to round up wild horses from public lands. The target horses this week are from the Sandwash Basin herd, in northwestern Colorado....When the crew is finished, a few of the horses will be released back onto the range, some will be put up for adoption, but most will be relocated to government holding facilities, and a large number will be eligible to be sold to slaughterhouses, thanks to (now former) Senator Conrad Burns (Republican, Montana). In 1971, Congress passed a law that banned the inhumane treatment of wild horses, and put safeguards into place so they couldn't be sold for slaughter. That law was the result of a two-decades-long crusade by Velma Johnson, better known as 'Wild Horse Annie'. But in December 2004, that law was gutted. Just days before the Thanksgiving holiday recess, when most of Washington was getting ready to leave for the long weekend, Senator Burns put the final touches on the rider No. 142, which removed all protections for wild horses (and burros) that were over the age of 10 or had been offered unsuccessfully for adoption three times. Such animals could now be sold 'without limitation', including through auction to the highest bidder, at local sale yards or other convenient livestock selling facilities. Burns inserted his one-page rider into a 3,300-page budget-appropriations bill on the eve of the bill's congressional deadline, and there would be no opportunity for either public or legislative debate...Despite protests, President Bush, who likes to borrow the imagery and ethos of the American cowboy, signed the rider into law, capping a series of policy moves at the Bureau of Land Management ( B.L.M.), the government agency in charge of managing the horses, that have sought to diminish the protected status of these 'living symbols of the West,' as the 1971 law called them. The rider caused so much anger that in May 2005, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan bill to restore the original intent of the 1971 law. A similar amendment in the Senate had to make one stop before its confirmation vote: The appropriations subcommittee for the Department of the Interior, which has jurisdiction over all federal lands and the National Park Service. Burns was chairman of that committee. Proving again that one man can make a difference, he blocked the amendment from going to a vote"...

...And it was deja vu all over again in 2006 with the federal bill to ban horse slaughter. Disgusting!

Sadly, unlike the great work of Congressmen Ed Whitfield (R-KY), who won his re-election bid in 2006 and John Sweeney (R-NY), who did not, the Senate did not have dedicated members to work for its passage, as was the case in the House. Whitfield won his re-election bid by a landslide and vows to continue to work just as hard to get this legislation passed again in the House in 2007. What this legislation now desperately needs is a real advocate in the Senate - someone with the integrity and dedication to do the work of the citizens of this country and get this legislation passed once and for all. Thus far, no one comes to mind, including the initial sponsors of the Senate bill, John Ensign (R-NV) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA) (Landrieu is sympathetic, but is still (and understandably) overwhelmed with Katrina issues; Ensign has too many ties to the Cattlemen and ranchers to be truly effective). Hopefully, this legislation will have new sponsors and better leadership to get this done.

Equine Advocates will keep you informed on all of the latest developments. We will also let you know who the friends and foes of America's equines are in Congress. For many of us who believed that the slaughter ban would pass in 2006, this holiday season was dampened by the fact that misery, suffering, cruelty and brutality of America's wild and domestic equines are continuing and will continue indefinitely until legislation is finally passed. We, at Equine Advocates would like to thank the countless numbers of people who acted and made their voices heard to get this done. Unfortunately, the Senate leadership did not want to pass it because if they did, it would have passed. They knew they had the votes to pass it, but sadly, and yet again, special interests overruled democracy and the will of the people. We have no choice, but to continue to move forward and try again. Perhaps this new Congress will finally act to reflect the will and strong sentiment of the American people on this issue?

*** Please visit Equine Advocates' official web site at http://www.equineadvocates.org/ for more information about horse slaughter and other important equine issues.(Note: Our web site is being continually updated, so please visit it periodically. Action alerts will be sent out regularly as news develops).

I Am Horseracing

Updated: Jan. 1, 2007, 9:48 PM ET

By Bill FinleySpecial to ESPN.comArchive

I am horse racing and these are my New Year's resolutions:
I will finally get serious about the problem of illegal drugs, something, shamefully, I have never done. I will implement a detention barn system, where the horses must be under lock and key for at least 24 hours prior to post time, for every Grade I race. I will find a way to come up with the money the industry needs to bring its drug detection methods into the 21st century. I will stop handing out meaningless 30 or 60-day suspensions to trainers, whose stables, run by assistants, chug right along uninterrupted. I will watch and learn from what they are doing in Ontario, a place that is showing the way when it comes to going after the cheats.
I will also go after the widespread use of legal drugs, which has gotten way out of hand. Virtually every horse that races today runs on Lasix, yet horses are more brittle and run less often than ever. There has to be a connection here. The sport was far better off before all these drugs were legalized. I will start by barring Lasix in all 2-year-old races and all graded stakes races, the first steps toward a total ban.
I will stop burying my head in the sand when it comes to the issue of horse slaughter. I have the clout and the money to put an end to this reprehensible practice. I am truly ashamed that I have allowed thousands of retired race horses to perish in this grisly manner each year and I will do something about it. For an industry that generates $14 billion a year in business, there shouldn't be any problem coming up with the money to make this happen. I'm going to stop pretending this isn't a serious problem.
While I will continue to pursue slot machines because they represent easy money, I will not put all my eggs in their basket. Besides increasing purses, slot machines do nothing for the sport and they don't create new racing fans. I will be more creative than I have ever been in my marketing efforts and I will succeed in convincing people that horse racing is a beautiful sport that is also the most intellectually stimulating gambling game there is. I will not get lazy just because everyone is making a few bucks off the slots.
I will increase the purses of the Preakness and Belmont to $2 million each. That two of my three biggest races have a purse equal to that of the Delta Downs Jackpot is something I will no longer tolerate.
Speaking of the Triple Crown, I will not so much as listen to anyone who insists the set up of the series needs to be changed.
I will get all the big shots into the same room and I won't let them out until there is a resolution or a compromise that solves the account wagering mess. The Internet and television are the keys to growing this industry, yet we have managed to make a mess of all this. I understand that I can only turn off players by making them watch two different racing channels and having at least two betting accounts in order to play all the major tracks. This foolishness will stop.
I will order that every racetrack that has a slots room also have a mutuel window in that area, television screens showing the races and, whenever possible, an unobstructed view of the racetrack. I've had it with racino managements who do everything possible to keep the slot players from even knowing that horse racing is going on somewhere else on the premises.
I will no longer require that Eclipse Award ballots be in before the year is actually over. What's the rush? What have I been thinking? I dodged a bullet when Balance didn't win the Grade I La Brea Dec. 30. That would have made her a serious candidate for the 3-year-old filly championship, yet the race, as far as the Eclipse Awards go, wouldn't have mattered. I need to be more patient.
Happy New Year.