Cc: Sid Miller ; Rick Hardcastle ; Pete Laney ; Lon Burnam ; James Laney ; Delwin Jones ; David Swinford

Sent: Monday, March 24, 2003 8:13 AM

Subject: Betty Brown's American Live Horse Slaughter House Bill 1324

Dear Ms. Brown:

Thank you for your intelligent and thoughtful response to my March 5 letter.

You said HB 1324 sets out to clarify existing law.

John Cornyn's Aug 7, 2002 AG Opinion says that the two Texas horse slaughter plants are operating illegally. Your bill would grant them legal status. That is hardly a "clarification" of the existing law. See Cornyn's opinion letter at http://www.oag.state.tx.us/opinopen/opinions/op49cornyn/jc-0539.htm

You mentioned that brands are inspected at the slaughter plants, but truly, what difference does that make? Dallas Crown does not file records with the Kaufman County Clerk's office although Ag Code Section 148 says they should. I personally visited the Kaufman County Clerk's office on Monday, March 17, and there are no records. If your horse is stolen near Dallas Crown, you have no way of determining if he was in fact slaughtered, and if he was slaughtered you have no way of knowing who delivered him to Dallas Crown, BECAUSE DALLAS CROWN DOES NOT FILE RECORDS WITH THE KAUFMAN COUNTY CLERK'S OFFICE.
You said that without American live horse slaughter that many horses would end up being slaughtered in Mexico where there is no regulation and no hope of rescuing stolen animals.

The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (H.R. 857, federal legislation introduced 2/13/2003 by Congressman John Sweeney (R-NY) and Congressman John Spratt, Jr. (D-SC)) would prohibit the transport of live horses to Mexico and Canada for slaughter. See http://www.saplonline.org/Legislation/ahpa.htm
You said there is expense incurred with either placing a horse with caring owners or mercifully euthanizing a horse and disposing of his carcass.

If you can't afford to humanely euthanize your horse and bury, burn, or haul his carcass to a rendering plant, then you can't afford to feed and care for him. In short, you have no business owning a horse in the first place.

Of the 7 million horses in the U.S., it is estimated that about 10% (700,000) die each year. (See transcript of conversation between Chris Heyde, Society for Animal Protective Legislation, and Dr. Tom Lenz, President-elect of the American Association of Equine Practitioners at http://kaufmanzoning.net/horsemeat/Heyde-Lynz.htm . Last year 42,312 horses were slaughtered at Beltex and Dallas Crown. What do you think happened to the 657,688 horses that died that were not slaughtered? To say that slaughter provides a "service" is ridiculous.

American live horse slaughter is a way for French and Belgians to get rich off our young, healthy quarterhorses (the slaughterer's breed of choice), by selling the meat in Europe and Asia for $15-$20 per pound, and
American live horse slaughter is an economic safety net for irresponsible horse owners and over-breeders.

Beltex in Fort Worth has begun filing reports with the Tarrant County Clerk's Office, and some of their records are posted on the Internet at http://www.horsesintx.org/transcript.html. At the beginning of February, a Jeff Smith brought in 103 horses, a Jim Ryan brought in 31 from Elizabethtown, KY, an entity identified as "M&M" brought in 25, the Jones Brothers brought in 54, a Joe Simon brought in 33, another Simon (or possibly Joe Simon) brought in 49, Bailey Kemp of Boyd, Texas brought in 28. You can read about killer-buyers, and about Bailey Kemp in particular, in an October 1, 1998 article in the Dallas Observer at http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/1998-10-01/feature2.html/1/index.html

As I wrote to you earlier, I own land adjacent to Dallas Crown in Kaufman. I am well aware that the slaughtered horses are not old and sick. They are young, healthy horses hauled in by killer-buyers who travel from auction to auction to fill their "quotas." Your American Live Horse Slaughter HB 1324 will grant legal status to the killer-buyers who prey upon young, healthy horses, and it will grant legal status to the Belgians at Beltex and the French at Dallas Crown who have exploited our resource of horses in order to make huge profits. Wealthy French diners do not pay $15-$20 a pound to eat old and sick horses. They eat horses like the ones in this photo taken at Dallas Crown on September 1, 2002. http://www.kaufmanzoning.net/horsemeat/Photos/97.JPG

The horses are stunned with a gun, strung up by their hind legs, and they have their throats slit while still alive so their beating hearts can pump the blood from their bodies. That's why it is called live horse slaughter.

Regards,
Mary S. Nash
104 S. Houston St.
Kaufman, Tx 75142
972-962-7706
NashHulme@msn.com

"Proud to be a Texan"