Harnessracing.com

Hogan against slaughter
July 26, 2006

Dr. Patty Hogan of the New Jersey Equine Clinic testified Tuesday on Capitol Hill before the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumber Protection in support of a bill prohibiting the slaughter of horses in the United States for human consumption overseas. Hogan, a Standardbred owner, is the wife of horseman Ed Lohmeyer, and she herself formerly worked at Hanover Shoe Farms.

“The American culture does not accept consumption of our dogs or cats for food, but there are other cultures in this world that do,” testified Hogan. “Yet we do not allow the commercial slaughter of dogs and cats for export in this country because we as Americans find that practice deplorable.

“Can we image sending (Barbara) to slaughter if he can’t recover? And if not Barbaro, why any other horse?”

Hogan, Hanover Shoe Farms’ vice president Russell Williams and Texas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens testified on behalf of the bill. Those testifying against the bill spoke of a concern of who would pay for the thousands of horses that were destined to be slaughtered and were thus saved.

"We are all concerned about the fate of unwanted horses," said Hogan. "We are just removing one option (by passing this bill)."

Hogan related her experience while working at a slaughterhouse during her residency.

“Once these horses enter the path to the slaughterhouse, their treatment is not humane in any way,” she said, adding that the horses were killed by a tool called a captive bolt, which shoots a bolt between the horse’s eyes directly into the brain.

The bill is sponsored by House Reps. John Sweeney and Ed Whitfield. It is scheduled to go before the full House in September.