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Posted on Fri, Jul. 21, 2006 |
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Posted on Fri, Jul. 21, 2006 WASHINGTON - Texas oil tycoon
Boone Pickens is galloping into a congressional fight to end the slaughter of
horses for consumption overseas. Pickens,
founder of BP Capital and Mesa Petroleum, issued a news release Friday saying
he was launching an attack against "foreign-owned horse killing
plants." He called
horse slaughter "America's dirty little secret." Two of the
nation's three horse slaughter plants are in Texas and one is in Illinois.
Most of the meat from the slaughtered horses is shipped overseas where it is
sold as a delicacy. "The
brutal slaughter of horses for consumption by wealthy diners in Europe and
Japan cuts against our moral and cultural fiber - it's just plain
un-American," Pickens said in the news release. House
Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Thursday the House will vote when
it returns from its summer recess in September on a bill seeking to end horse
slaughter for human consumption by outlawing the transport and sale of horses
for slaughter. Pickens will
testify at a hearing on the bill Tuesday before a subcommittee of the House
Energy and Commerce Committee. Texas Republican Rep. Joe Barton of Fort Worth
chairs the full committee. The bill is
sponsored by Reps. John Sweeney, R-N.Y., John Spratt, D-S.C. and Ed
Whitfield, R-Ky. Similar legislation is being sponsored in the Senate by John
Ensign, R-Nev., who is a veterinarian, and Mary Landrieu, D-La. "T.
Boone Pickens ... appears to be a nontraditional ally, and those are the best
allies to have in a fight on animal welfare," said Wayne Pacelli, Humane
Society of the United States president. "I think his emergence on this
issue will cause people to do a double take and will attract many more
supporters to our cause." Pickens is a
top contributor to Republicans, most recently providing money for Republican
congressional races, Bush's 2004 inauguration and the Swift Boat Veterans for
Truth, a group that campaigned against presidential candidate Sen. John
Kerry. His support
for the bill sets up a duel with another Texan, former Democratic Rep.
Charles Stenholm, who lobbies for the plants and Livestock Marketing
Association. "One of
the big issues on this is private property rights. T.Boone has been a big
advocate for private property rights for land he's purchased," Stenholm
said. He said he supports horse owners who don't want to slaughter their
horses, but those who do have a constitutional right to do so because the
horse is private property. Congress
voted overwhelmingly for legislation eliminating money in the U.S. Department
of Agriculture budget this year for salaries and expenses for horse meat
inspectors. But USDA worked with the plants to establish a fee system for
inspections. The plants
are Beltex Corp. of Fort Worth; Dallas Crown Inc., based in Kaufman, Texas;
and Cavel International Inc. in DeKalb, Ill. The Kaufman
zoning board voted in May to order the Dallas Crown plant to close because of
concerns about health and safety. That decision is being appealed. Pickens has
been listed by Forbes as one of its 400 richest Americans. His news release
said he and his wife, Madeleine, are animal lovers and charted a jet to
airlift cats and dogs stranded by Hurricane Katrina, which hit the Gulf Coast
last summer. --- The House
bill is H.R. 503 and the Senate bill is S1915. |
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