Sent: Friday, October 24, 2003 10:18 AM

Subject: [againstslaughter] Re: Diane Strands article about horse slaughter

In Ms. Strands recent article about horse slaughter, Mr. Tucker is quoted as saying the slaughter horses are killed by a captive bolt. I am surprised at his lack of knowledge in his own industry. Live slaughter means that the animal is bled out while the heart is still beating. That cannot occur if the animal is dead. This is the correct procedure in slaughterhouses across the US, not just for horses.

The captive bolt is suppose to stun the animal, not kill it. All too often the horse is improperly stunned, due to the speed of the assembly line-like environment which does not allow enough time for the stun gun to fully recharge between uses, poorly trained workers, and a general lack of concern for the suffering of the terrified, struggling animal. These captive bolts may have been in use for a 100 years, but they were designed for short-necked livestock that are adequately restrained, not for butchering horses. We never raised horses for meat in America, Mr. Tucker.

To hit a horse multiple times in the head with a captive bolt is anything but humane. According to many photographs and foot of undercover film, all too often a horse is not only alive, but conscious as its strung up by a hind leg, it's throat slit, and skinning and dismemberment occurs. This is not just inhumane, Mr. Tucker, this the most violent type of abuse that can be inflicted on an animal.

He said the animal is killed at the plant with a captive bolt gun.

“It is a killing device which releases a bolt to the brain, and it causes immediate death.

“(Critics) imply that it has to be done several times, but that is not true. It is not difficult to administer, and almost always it takes one hit and the animal is dead. All of those details are foreign to most people. Otherwise, they don’t understand.”

Use of the captive bolt gun is widely accepted as a humane slaughtering method approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and it has been used for 100 years, Tucker said.