Mary S. Nash
104 S. Houston St .
Kaufman , Tx 75142
972-962-7706
NashHulme@msn.com
www.kaufmanzoning.net/horsemeat
October 3, 2003

State Representative Bob Molaro
19 West Hillgrove Avenue
LaGrange, Illinois  60525

Re: Your bill to ban Illinois live horse slaughter for human consumption

Dear Representative Molaro:

Thank you for standing up for the horses.  Enclosed is my contribution for your next election campaign along with a copy of Tiff Bartlett's Blood Country…a Texas Shame.  I live near the Dallas Crown live horse slaughter plant in Kaufman, Texas, and I have been active in the effort to stop Texas live horse slaughter for human consumption in Europe.

• In the United States there are only two plants that slaughter live horses for human consumption. Belgian owned Beltex in Fort Worth, Tx and French owned Dallas Crown in Kaufman, Tx are both operating in violation of Texas Agriculture Code Section 149. After a federal lawsuit is resolved, I hope they will both be closed.
• Texans joined forces earlier this year to defeat HB 1324, a bill to legalize horse slaughter for human consumption. Some Texas Senators said they received more mail and phone calls on the horse slaughter bill than on all other bills combined.
• 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.
• According to statistics from the California Bureau of Livestock Identification, after voters outlawed horse slaughter for human consumption in 1998, reports of horse theft dropped in California by 34%.
• The European Union tariff structure favors the Belgian and French slaughterers who come to America and harvest our fat young healthy horses. Their import tariff on American beef is 20%, but the European Union import tariff on American horsemeat is only 5.1%.
• HR 857, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act will prohibit the slaughter of American horses for human consumption and will prohibit the transport of slaughter horses across international borders.
• Killer-buyers from as far away as Minnesota and Florida buy horses at auction then haul them to Fort Worth and Kaufman in double deck trailers designed for cattle. The horses are forced to stand for long hours with their heads bent in an unnatural position, only to arrive at the plants where their sculls are shattered by a penetrating captive bolt, they are strung up by one hind leg, their throats are slit, and their beating hearts pump the blood from their bodies.

Thank you from Kaufman, Texas.

Sincerely,

Mary S. Nash
Encl.