Resolution in support of H.R. 857, The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act
Adopted at the Kaufman County, Texas Democratic Convention March 27, 2004

WHEREAS, Texas Agriculture Code Section 149 prohibits the sale, transport, or possession of horse meat for human consumption; and

WHEREAS, on August 7, 2002, Texas Attorney General John Cornyn issued an opinion letter confirming that Texas Agriculture Code Section 149 prohibits the sale, transport, or possession of horse meat for human consumption, even if the consumption takes place outside the United States of America; and

WHEREAS, on February 13, 2003, U.S. Congressman John Sweeney (R) New York presented H.R. 857, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act to prevent the slaughter of horses in and from the United States for human consumption by prohibiting the slaughter of horses for human consumption and by prohibiting the trade and transport of horseflesh and live horses intended for human consumption, and for other purposes; and

WHEREAS, An opinion poll conducted May 4-6, 2003 by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research for Blue Horse Charities revealed that an overwhelming majority of Texas voters (72%) are opposed to the slaughtering of horses for human consumption, and

WHEREAS, Texans joined forces in 2003 to defeat Texas House Bill 1324, a bill to legalize horse slaughter for human consumption; and

WHEREAS, Although the bill was defeated, two foreign owned horse slaughter plants in Texas (Fort Worth and Kaufman), the only two remaining in the nation, are still open for business slaughtering up to 1,000 horses a week while the issue awaits a ruling by a Texas federal judge; and

WHEREAS, The horses are slaughtered alive and the meat is shipped to France, Belgium, and Japan, where horse meat is eaten as a delicacy; and

WHEREAS, According to statistics from the California Bureau of Livestock Identification, after voters outlawed horse slaughter for human consumption in 1998, horse theft dropped in California by 34%; and

WHEREAS, Although slaughter proponents argue that slaughter plants only take old, sick, crippled and crazy horses and there would be no place for 50,000 unwanted horses each year; in fact, of the 6.9 million horses in the U.S., up to 10% die each year from all causes, and rendering plants and other facilities easily dispose of the 640,000 horses that die each year which are not slaughtered live for human consumption in Europe and Asia.

WHEREAS, the horses bound for slaughter are purchased by killer-buyers at horse auctions all over the U.S. where the killer-buyers routinely outbid other buyers looking for pets and working horses; and

WHEREAS, as of March 26, 2004, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (H.R. 857) had 192 cosponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives; and

WHEREAS, Texans love and revere their horses;

THEREFORE, Be it resolved that the Democratic Party supports H.R. 857, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, and

Be it further resolved that all Democrats are urged to write their congressmen and ask that they cosponsor the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act.