Subject: [Alert] Illinois Exec Cmte Vote 11/18 on
Horse Slaughter
Dear Horse Lovers:
Horse champion Illinois State Representative Bob Molaro has amended Senate Bill
1921 adding his horse slaughter ban language, and the bill will be heard before
the Illinois House Executive Committee on Tuesday, November 18.
The Executive Committee members need to hear from people in Illinois who own and
work with horses to know they oppose American live horse slaughter for human
consumption in Europe and Asia. Contact information for House Executive
Committee members can be found at http://www.legis.state.il.us/house/committees/members.asp?CommitteeID=25
Please help our horses by writing and asking the 12 Executive Committee members
to support SB 1921, and forward this message to your Illinois friends, asking
them to do the same.
Example letter:
The Honorable ________________
<Fill in with the address>
Dear Senator _______________:
I urge you to support S.B. 1921 and its "Save the Horses from
Slaughter" Amendment, an amendment introduced by Representative Robert S.
Molaro that would prohibit the slaughter of horses for human consumption in
Illinois and the trade and transport of horseflesh and live horses intended for
human consumption.
The foreign-owned horse slaughter industry has slaughtered and exported for
human consumption over 3 million American horses in the last 2 decades. One of
these slaughter plants, the Belgian owned Cavel International, Inc., is trying
to rebuild its facilities in DeKalb, Illinois. Please, do not let this happen!
Horses slaughtered in the United States have often been hauled several thousand
miles over several days, contrary to acceptable non-slaughter standards for
water, food, and rest. Horses sent to be slaughtered are often shipped on
crowded double deck trucks designed for shorter necked species such as pigs,
cattle and sheep, and are forced to travel in a bent position which can result
in suffering, injury and even death.
Once at the slaughterhouse, inhumane treatment there results in prolonged
suffering. Horses endure repeated blows to the head with stunning
equipment that often does not render the animals unconscious and often horses
remain alive and aware during their own slaughter, including throat slitting and
be bled out. Pregants mares' foals suffocate in the womb.
Americans do not eat horses; we do not raise our horses for food. The only
reason horse slaughter exists is to satisfy the palates of foreigners who
consider horseflesh a delicacy. Killer buyers who travel from one auction
to another fill up their trucks to provide horses for this industry. Others are
stolen; even our federally protected wild horse population can end
up there. In addition, horse slaughter promotes horse theft.
Additionally, as horses in America are not food animals, veterinarians commonly
prescribe and treat horses with potent drugs that may reside in the horseflesh
and be dangerous when consumed by humans, some now being thought to be
carcinogenic.