Illinois Leader  letters to the editor
Why won't Hastert order the release of anti-horse slaughter bill?
Thursday, August 12, 2004

Mr. Biver, regarding your August 5th opinion-piece, "Keyes and Hastert to the Rescue," and the accompanying graphic (a cavalry unit making a mad dash to the front lines), I suggest that for his journey to Illinois Alan Keyes adopt a horse from Pimlico (the famed racetrack in Maryland) at racing season's end and ride in on his rescued steed.

Otherwise, chances are good that the horse -- sound, but seconds-too-slow to win races -- will end up in the rapacious hands of a killer buyer in New Holland, PA, and then trailered to Mr. Keyes' newly adopted state. Why not spare one horse the agony of being butchered at Cavel in DeKalb, IL?

As for Speaker Hastert's cavalry exploits, perhaps he could explain why during a book-promotion tour in his home state his office refuses to order the chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), to release the federal bill that he is holding hostage. This is a bill that will easily pass in Congress if permitted to get to the floor, a bill that will free America's horses from the senseless slaughter that dooms them to death before they have a chance to live the life God intended for them.

Susan Clay
Houston, TX