Today’s the day. Ask your Rep. to vote YES on the Sweeney-Spratt Agriculture amendment to end horse slaughter. HSUS’s page has all the info you need to call (with script) and send e-mails (with text) to your rep.
“Americans love horses—they are our trusted companions, our Olympic heroes, and our loyal work animals. Polls show time and time again that Americans don’t support slaughtering our horses for foreign dinner plates. This travesty must be stopped…and by taking action, you can ensure that it will be.” (HSUS page)
Thank you for posting this! I will be calling my Rep. today.
The video of the horrible conditions those horses are put in is just devastating 🙁
I haven’t watched the video. Sounds like it’s a good thing 🙁
My daughter sent this to me. She does a lot of work for HSUS, hands down the best group, imho.
Has anyone been to Assateague Island? Even though I’m here in the Southwest, a good friend of mine insisted that she take me to see the wild horses when I was visiting the East Coast. It was breathtaking.
Here are some links, Ford is becoming a more responsible corporation in some areas and working to get better in others.
http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2005/05/19/094114.html
http://fullcoverage.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050601/ap_on_re_us/wild_horses
http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=20866
http://www.returntofreedom.org/
Yeah, but they’re in favor of gay rights! Boooooooo.
That was my effort at a joke, i hope everyone realizes. (I wrote the other day about the ‘wingers who are boycotting Ford because of its employment policies that are supportive of gays.)
Frankly I don’t understand meat eaters deloc… so really I don’t see what the difference between slaughtering a cow and a horse is. I’ve seen cows go down in meatpacking plants and it’s horrific on a WW1 scale..
I’ve met a few “country” type people who hunt and butcher their own animals. Those folk I understand. But the rest of the mass-production meat eaters, really, it boggles my mind why anyone would consume it.
As for whomever mentioned Assoteague Island, you’re right, it’s breathtaking. My mother is a big fan of that place and usually makes a pilgrimage once a year there.
Pax
I completely agree with you – the slaughter of these horses is no less horrific than the slaughter of a cow.
Most people in this country (the U.S.) relate to horses as majestic creatures, as pets, as companions and cannot imagine them suffering or being eaten. Because of that sentiment we have a real chance to pass this amendment. We couldn’t do the same for cows because most people think of cows as a meal and little else. But maybe the issue of the horses will cause people to look at what is on their dinner plate and think about those animals too.
I refuse to apologize for being a meat eater, I refuse to apologize that I thank the animal I eat for providing me with sustenance. I refuse to apologize for having been raised on a farm that slaughtered its own meat and hunted for meat. I simply refuse to apologize for being who I am. Having said that, I ask for forgiveness when I buy meat from our local butcher, reaching out to the animal that will provide me with nourishment. Thanking the animal for giving up its life so that I might continue with my life. All things in life have balance and I strive to keep my life in balance. I eat when hungry, I drink when thirsty, I pray when it is needed. My life is not perfect, but I have more harmony within it today than yesterday because I strive to keep balance in my life.
I don’t think anyone here would ask you to apologize. That wouldn’t be right.
I eat meat on rare occasions but only when it comes from animals raised humanely. (Plus that meat is far better-tasting.) I wish I never did, but there it is. And I’ve given up fish altogether because the oceans are being raped and too many kinds of fish are at risk of extinction.
One of the big problems with meat consumption is the terrible, terrible environmental devastation which — even if one isn’t moved by the suffering of almost all animals raised for meat — should give one pause.
I don’t remember how many millions of acres of rainforest land in Brazil, etc. have been razed to give room to huge cattle ranches, most of that meat destined for McDonald’s and other fast food chains. The only way we can put a stop to that is by refusing to eat meat.
Then there’s the huge consumption of grains by animals raised for meat. That grain could end world hunger.
And the substitute meat products have gotten vastly better. Yves hotdogs are incredibly good, for example. And I’ve used Yves ground round substitute in chili, and it’s superb.
So, since I have a choice what I can eat to sustain me, and because I’m a sentient being, I try not to eat meat (‘cept very occasionally).
We love to bet on them. Go, baby, go.
I refuse to buy meat from anyone other than a local butcher shop, where I have watched them slaughter the pigs and cows and they do it as humanely as possible. All the meat coming into this shop are range fed with some grain added to their diets in the last 30 days. I don’t eat nearly the meat I used to, one because my wife and son are not big meat eaters. But I do enjoy what meat I do eat and hope one day that the small shops take back from the big corporate slaughter houses.
That’s the only way to do it. Good for you. We have one market, about 15 miles away, that does much the same.
What’s astonishing is how much better the meat is. I usually only buy a chicken breast, which I stretch out to 3-4 meals — and share with the cats (!). The taste, texture, etc. are vastly different from a typical supermarket chicken breast.
Sadly the trend seems to be away from butcher shops.
I agree, though small town Kansas is alive and well, even if wal mart is trying to bankrupt every small business with 50 miles of its super stores. I am working diligently to wean my wife off of wal mart and pay the extra to shop locally owned small businesses.
Thanks for posting this – horses are such magnificent creatures – ornery too – guess that’s why I like them. The movie, “The Misfits”, with Clarke and Marilyn (her last, I think) was what got me to stop eating meat. Got to go contact my rep – thanks again!
http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/CTDSites.woa/58/wa/gotoSite?destSite=AnimalRes
cueSite&origin=thstab&wosid=7j30004p0006A100K3&revisionCode=ON_THS_ARS_Tab
hey susan, went and sent off letter..I am putting up link again for animal site that is a free click daily and does support places like the Black Beauty Ranch in Texas. Your click will help supply food for animals who need it or in shelters and places like Black Beauty Ranch.
This site works with the Fund for Animals and the North Shore Animal League of America.
I named her Jeanette, after not knowing what to name her and calling her “the jenet” for the first week I had her.
She was one of three jenets (female donkeys/burros) unclaimed at a BLM Wild Horse and Burro auction. I suspect it was because she was medium-sized (too small to be ridden by an adult or carry a large pack) and rather plain in color and markings.
It only took the two of us a month to negotiate our relationship. She would come when called, willingly put her head in a halter, and I would provide lots of hay, treats, and the frequent sessions of scratching and grooming of which fastidious equines are so rightly fond.
She was a joy to work with: smart, sassy, and a bit impish once she felt secure enough to kick up her heels. I learned more from her about training horses than I did in several years of study.
When I moved to Australia, I found her a new home as a horse companion, and later a children’s mount, living on 15 beautiful acres in Northern California.
We humans only hurt/rob ourselves when we take something so wonderful as a joyous being and reduce it to mere matter – something to be bought and sold by the pound. As with most of things, it’s actually ourselves, we are “saving.”
Keres, what a beautiful story. I hope you’ll write it up in a diary. I have a hunch you have more stories just like that about Jeanette.
Susan, I do have other Jeanette stories, but I just realized I haven’t provided the context for talking about her on this thread.
Senator Conrad Burns (R-Montana) slipped a rider, without public review or comment, into the 2005 federal Appropriations Bill that:
1. It amends the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act to allow the sale of wild horses for processing into commercial products.
The BLM has had control of the US’s wild horse and burro population since 1971. This was intend as an improvement over their previous status, which let the animals be killed or captured by anyone, using whatever means.
But the reality was that under the BLM, horse and burro numbers were often kept unreasonably and often unviably low in order to defer to economic interests and the political power of cattle ranchers with leases on public lands. Additionally, while the Wild Horse Act legislated humane treatment of adopted animals, the reality was that many “adoptions” were unpublicised, so that the only “adopters” were friends and relatives of BLM staff. Who showed up with large livestock haulers, “adopted” as many animals as they could fit it them, and drove them directly to slaughter houses. For an average profit of $200 per horse.
It’s my understanding that it wasn’t until the late 1990’s that the BLM was told to straighten up and fly right, at which time much more vigorous enforcement of the humane treatment provisions started taking place. (My facilities for holding Jeanette were inspected about a month after I got her, and I had to provide a vet’s certificate to get title to her a year after the adoption).
Now we’re back to wild horses and burros being “adopted” one day, and slaughtered the next.
I saw horses at the adoption where I got Jeanette, that would easily fetch thousands of dollars from Mustang breeders – if the right person were there to see them. A stallion from the Keiger heard (in eastern Oregon) recently fetched $40,000 at a competitive bidding adoption.
For more info (and a video clip from Viggo Mortensen) go here:
http://www.wildhorsepreservation.org/