The Honorable Jim Sacia
210 N. Stratton
Dear Representative Sacia:
Please read and respond.
I too have been around horses all my life (my wife and I currently have
10).
The information given you by
the HCI has some truth to it, however, most of it is misinformation to mislead
you.
HCI claims the horse industry
is a multibillion-dollar business in
I know that the HCI, AVMA,
AAEP, AQHA, ILFB, HARP, etc. are pro-slaughter, however, these are the views of
their administration and not the views of the members that they supposedly
represent. Unlike these
associations, our supporters have the backing of most of our members.
A large amount of those other association members are unaware of their
association’s stand. These
associations do not want to poll their members because they know that 70-90% of
Americans are opposed to slaughter of horses as is shown where polls have been
conducted.
I am a farmer and my wife and
I raise Boer meat goats for slaughter. We
are not animal rights activists and we know the difference between a slaughter
animal and a recreational animal/pet. What
is the difference? When one thinks
of cattle, they think hamburger, steak and dairy products.
When one thinks of sheep they think lamb or wool.
When one thinks of a chicken they think eggs or Kentucky Fried.
When one thinks of a horse they think cowboys or merry-go-rounds and
names like Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy, John Wayne, and the Lone Ranger to name
a few.
NOW BE HONEST
AND TELL THE TRUTH…. WHEN YOU SEE A HORSE DOES A ROAST OR BURGERS POP INTO
YOUR HEAD? DOES IT LOOK DELICIOUS?
Additionally, I hope you do
not believe that the 70-90% of folks opposed to horse slaughter are all animal
rights activists.
Their statement, “If
slaughter is banned 85,000 unwanted, unusable, unsound or unsafe horses in the
U.S. will have to be disposed of every year by another means” is totally
incorrect if you think about it. First
these horses are not unwanted. If
they were, the killer buyers would not have to bid against others wanting them.
The killer buyers simply have more money.
Most people selling them do not realize they could wind up being
slaughtered. According to studies
conducted, 90% of these horses have nothing wrong with them.
The average age of the slaughter horse is 11.
Many of them are pregnant mares and mores with foals at their sides.
The Bureau of Land Management
DOES NOT
have thousands and thousands of horses penned up in small corrals awaiting
adoption. The truth is that the horses are put in pens on a short-term
basis where veterinarians examine their physical condition, treat them with
worming medication and treat any wounds or injuries.
They are monitored in this way for a month, which includes
“gentling”, by natural horse trainers contracted by the BLM.
After this they go to adoption centers where carefully screened
applicants will bid on the horse of their choice.
Horses that are not adopted, mostly older horses that would be to hard to
train, are sent to BLM approved retirement sanctuaries in Oklahoma and Kansas to
live out their lives. The BLM is
also working on birth control measures to try to control herd size.
This information was provided to me by Ken
Greenberger of the Bureau
of Land Management,
202-452-5066.
He would be happy to confirm this information for you.
The HCI uses the term
“euthanasia” at slaughterhouses. Webster’s
Dictionary definition of euthanasia is “the act or practice of killing or
permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals (as persons or
domestic animals) in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy.”
The captive bolt is not a
bullet but a 4” pin and does
not
cause instantaneous death. The USDA
requires that the animals be alive so the heart continues to beat to pump out
the blood. I challenge you to watch
the “Blood Country: A Texas
Shame” video (www.arthuranimations.com/BloodCountry)
and the Humane Farming horse slaughter video (www.hfa.org).
These horses are hit sometimes three or four times with the captive bolt
before being stunned and going down.
When they say it takes up to
30 minutes with drugs to euthanize a horse, they are talking about a drug (T61)
that paralyzed the horse but the horse was fully conscious until it suffocated.
This drug is now banned in the United States.
Properly administered euthanasia drugs are almost instantaneous.
Yes horses can be transported
humanely, however double-decker trailers are still in use and will be so until
2006, but who enforces these laws? Officers
are trained in safety and traffic laws and not animal welfare laws.
To say slaughter is necessary
because the cost of euthanasia, trucking a horse to rendering plants and/or lack
of burial grounds would cause many of these animals to suffer starvation, abuse
and possible abandonment is also false. In
the nearly two years that Cavel, International has been shut down, the incidence
of cruelty/neglect cases in Illinois have significantly decreased according to
the Hooved Animal Humane Society. However,
in Texas where two slaughterhouses are in full operation, the incidence of
neglect/abuse cases saw one of the highest increases in the nation.
Even with two slaughterhouses in the state, these people are not opting
to take their “unwanted” horse to slaughter.
In short, the horse slaughter
proponents have not taken the time to fully research the issues and their
consequences. Ending the slaughter
of horses in the United States will not overburden the landscape with unwanted
horses. Instead, it will have a
trickle down effect and will have positive results as horse theft and cruelty
cases (as evidenced by the statistics) will decrease.
The numbers don’t lie.
Sincerely,
Tom and Julia Durfee
Ches-N-Oak Farms
8317 Grassland Drive
Sandy Level, VA 24161
434-927-5297
LaughingHorse@PMTnet.net