May 1, 2004, 9:31PM
Horse fans spur push to end U.S. slaughter
By JUDY HOLLAND
Hearst News Service
WASHINGTON -- Kentucky Derby devotees and other horse fans are rounding up
support in Congress to stop the slaughter of U.S. horses that would grace
gourmet dinner plates in Japan, Belgium and France.
Americans, who have a special love for the animal that carried pioneers into the
Wild West, U.S. soldiers into battle and jockeys into racetrack history, are
finding the notion of grilled horse steak and horse meat sushi extremely
distasteful.
When you watch a thoroughbred pulling ahead on the back stretch, remember that
"the winner could be some Frenchman's entree," said Rep. John Sweeney,
R-N.Y., chairman of the Congressional Horse Caucus, who has collected 209
co-sponsors on a bill to ban the slaughter or export of U.S. horses for human
consumption.
"We view horses as athletes and entertainers," Sweeney said. "The
American psyche is shocked by the notion that we are going to so inhumanely
treat such an important part of our culture."
Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., a veterinarian who introduced a matching bill in the
Senate last week, called the slaughter for human consumption of nearly 50,000 of
the nation's 7 million horses last year "barbaric."
To draw attention to the equine issue, Sweeney and actress Bo Derek, who rode to
fame on horseback in the movie 10, combed the halls of Capitol Hill last week
and plan to do so again this week. Also lobbying lawmakers are actor Tony Curtis
and his wife, Jill, who founded a horse rescue farm in Las Vegas.
Derek, an avid rider, says she was "shocked to find out that horses are
being slaughtered not for countries that have a famine, but for gourmet
meals."
"We're giving these magnificent animals a hideous death," Derek said
in an interview. "No one knows it's happening."
Curtis said he started to love horses when he began his film career.
"The history of horses on our continent is extraordinary," Curtis
said. "We wouldn't have discovered America the way we did without
horses."
U.S. soldiers and some civilians ate horse meat during World War II when beef
was scarce, but now virtually all of U.S. slaughtered horse meat is shipped to
Europe, primarily Belgium, France and Switzerland, as well as Russia and Mexico.
While a dozen horse slaughter plants dotted this country 20 years ago, now there
are just two in Texas, the Dallas Crown firm in Kaufman and Beltex Corp. in Fort
Worth. Another horse-meat plant, Cavel International, is under construction in
DeKalb, Ill., which has catapulted the issue into the state legislature.
Texas banned horse slaughter for human consumption in 1949, but the law was
never enforced.
In 2002, then-Texas Attorney General John Cornyn, now a Republican U.S. senator,
issued an opinion saying that the 1949 law outlawing the sale, possession and
transfer of horse meat for human consumption was still in effect. Tarrant County
has filed suit in federal court to close the slaughterhouses.
John Linebarger, an attorney representing both Texas slaughterhouses, said a lot
of the horses are unwanted and sold to the plants for an average of $300 to
$400.
"Some people would otherwise let these things die in the fields and
rot," Linebarger said.
Linebarger said horseflesh is very lean and is lower in cholesterol and fat than
white meat chicken, which is why many Japanese and European physicians recommend
it.
"Horses aren't bred as a food item and so they aren't filled with hormones
and chemicals," Linebarger said.
Oliver Kemseke, a native of Belgium who has owned Dallas Crown for 10 years,
notes that U.S. Department of Agriculture officials are at his plant to ensure
that the horses are humanely treated.
Kemseke said the American revulsion over horse meat is merely a cultural clash.
"It happens in Europe that we have another variety in the
supermarkets," he said.
The National Cattleman's Beef Association, which represents about 30,000
ranchers, opposes a horse meat ban, saying it would hurt ranchers by leaving
them with the cost of caring for unwanted animals.
"What is a rancher to do when it's time to sell their horses?" said
Bryan Dierlam, director of legislation affairs for the association.
The American Veterinary Medical Association also opposes the legislation because
it lacks funding to provide for the care of
unwanted horses that would otherwise be slaughtered. Gail Golab, a veterinarian
and spokeswoman for the association, said food and water for a horse costs about
$5 a day.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2542523
"This is not about consumption of horse meat -- this is about the welfare
of the horse," Golab said.
But Chris Heyde, executive director of the National Horse Protection Coalition,
said there are many preferred alternatives for horses, such as donating them to
horse rescues and riding schools, or even euthanasia.
Horse-saving activists jumped into action after Ferdinand, the 1986 Kentucky
Derby champion, was shipped to Japan to stand for stud and then slaughtered for
food after he turned out to be an unsuccessful stud.
Howard Keck Jr. of Los Angeles, whose father owned and bred Ferdinand, said he
tried to buy the horse back from the Japanese to put him out to pasture only to
find out he'd been slaughtered for food.