Please Write Your Local Newspaper and Your U.S. Representative

in Support of the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act

Dear Friends:

Although HB 1324, the bill to legalize horse slaughter for human consumption, was — with your help — defeated in the Texas Legislature this past session, it's “business as usual” at Beltex and Dallas Crown, the only two remaining horse slaughter plants in the nation.

We must make a concerted effort to contact our U.S. Representatives from Texas and urge them to help pass the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (HR 857) to prohibit horse slaughter and the transportation of horses for the purpose of slaughter.

To find your U.S. Representative, go to http://www.saplonline.org/congress.htm.

    We also encourage you to take a moment to write a letter “To the Editor” and send it to your local newspaper. Most newspapers list an e-mail address at the bottom of the “Letters to the Editor” section for you to use, so e-mailing is an option as well as faxing or snail mailing.

    You can also use your letter to encourage readers to write their U.S. Representative and include the web address http://www.saplonline.org/congress.htm. in your letter for those who do not know who their representative is.

    Below are two sample letters you might use as a guide, but, of course, we encourage you to personalize them as much as possible. You may also want to make a reference to “Ferdinand,” the Kentucky Derby winner who tragically met his fate in a slaughter house in Japan .

Sample letter # 1:

To the Editor:

    The legend of “Seabiscuit” lives on through the book and movie, but today, horses with the same spirit and passion are being brutally slaughtered in the only two remaining horse slaughter plants in the nation, both located in Texas.

    These two foreign-owned plants slaughter horses alive and send their meat to France , Belgium and Japan , where it is eaten as a delicacy. Although these plants are operating in violation of state law, their attorneys won a temporary injunction in federal court, allowing them to continue the brutal slaughter of as many as 1,000 horses per week.

    Horses are sensitive, affectionate, human-loving creatures who work and run their hearts out to please us. They deserve to live out their lives under the care and protection of loving, responsible owners who will afford them a peaceful, dignified death through humane euthanasia when the time comes. To spend the final days of their lives crammed into cattle trailers, denied food and water for long periods of time, put through hours of immeasurable fear and panic and then whipped and prodded into a kill shoot to be brutally slaughtered is truly unconscionable.

    If you’ve ever heard the sound of a horse pleading for mercy, it’s a sound you will never forget.

    Please write your U.S. Representative and urge him or her to co-sponsor the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (HR 857). (You can find out who your U.S. Representative is by logging on to http://www.saplonline.org/congress.htm.)  If passed, HR 857 will prohibit the slaughter of horses for human consumption, as well as the transport of horses across state lines and U.S. Borders for the purpose of slaughter.

    For more information on horse slaughter, log on to: www.kaufmanzoning.net/horsemeat (all lowercase).

Your name, city, and state

Sample letter # 2:

To the Editor:

Texans across the state joined forces earlier this year to defeat one of the most reprehensible pieces of legislation to ever surface under the Capitol dome of Texas: HB 1324, the bill to legalize horse slaughter for human consumption, sponsored by State Rep. Betty Brown (R-Terrell).

Although the bill was defeated, two foreign-owned horse slaughter plants in Texas , the only two remaining in the nation, are still open for business, slaughtering up to 1,000 horses per week. These plants, Beltex in Fort Worth , and Dallas Crown in Kaufman, slaughter horses alive and ship their meat to France , Belgium and Japan , where horsemeat is eaten as a delicacy.

To end the brutal slaughter of horses, please write your U.S. Representative and urge

him or her to co-sponsor the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (HR 857).

(You can find out who your U.S. Representative is by logging on to http://www.saplonline.org/congress.htm.) If passed, HR 857 will prohibit the slaughter of horses for human consumption, as well as the transport of horses across state lines and U.S. Borders for the purpose of slaughter.

For more information on horse slaughter, please log on to www.kaufmanzoning.net/horsemeat (all lowercase).

Your name, city, and state

Additional points you might want to include in your letters:

· The vast majority of horses slaughtered in these plants are not old, sick or lame, but, in reality, are young, healthy horses bought by "killer buyers" who attend horse auctions where they compete with people looking to buy good, sound horses for work, recreation or to enjoy as animal companions.

· Ninety percent of the horses slaughtered in these two plants are from out of state, as far away as New Holland, Pennsylvania, the largest horse auction house in the nation. The "killer buyers" who purchase these horses transport them in crowded, inhumane conditions, expose them to extreme weather temperatures and deny them food and water for long periods of time.

· Many of these horses are "downed" during transportation and arrive badly injured. Horses that arrive too badly injured to walk are often dragged by chains on to the slaughter house floor. The buyers have even been known to transport pregnant mares to slaughter who give birth during transportation, ensuring a cruel death for both mother and foal.

· Slaughter is not an alternative to humane euthanasia by a qualified veterinarian as some would like you to believe. Euthanasia, according to an article written by Dr. Sean Bowman in the February 22, 2003 issue of The Blood-Horse, "is an induction to anesthesia, just like for surgery, but in this case the veterinarian continues to overdose. The horses are not afraid; there is no fear or anticipation."

· Horse slaughter provides an incentive for horse theft and consumer fraud. Horse theft decreased significantly in California after horse slaughter was banned by state law in 1998. Also, many people who sell their horses are told by the buyers that they are going to good homes, not slaughter houses.

· Disposing of a horse that has been euthanized is not a problem. There are state certified "dead animal haulers" who are licensed to pick up dead animals and take them to a rendering plant or a land fill certified for dead animals.

Thank you for taking the time to write these letters. Please encourage family and friends to do so as well. If the Texas Legislators had not heard the public outcry against horse slaughter this past legislative session, it would, without a doubt, have been legalized and states' rights would have prevailed indefinitely. It was your actions as constituents that made the difference. For the sake of the horses, let's keep the momentum going until the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act becomes law!

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