From: Jody

Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2003 3:04 PM

Subject: LIVE HORSE SLAUGHTER FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION

Although I am not from Illinois, this bill affects all horse enthusiasts in our country since 90% of all horses at slaughterhouses come from the remaining continental states. Please allow me to outline some points for you,

1. Horse slaughter promotes horse theft. We all want a horse that loads easily in the trailer and we work hard to train them to do so. Unlike our children, whom we teach to only go with certain people, a properly trained horse will load into the trailer for any human making horses easy prey for horse thieves who can quickly sell the horse to the slaughterhouse. If live horse slaughter is banned, the quick cash outlet will be closed.

2. Horses are medicated with products clearly labeled "Not to be used on animals intended for food". The life span of these products is not tested since horses were not intended to be food. These products include, wormers (both paste wormer and daily wormer), bute (pain medication for horses), promazine, (a calming medication for horses), a variety of injectibles including West Nile Vaccine (which requires two doses per year in most parts of the country), rabies (depending on your location. It should be noted here that the rabies vaccine is a live vaccine), and a variety of vaccines for types of flu and sleeping sickness.

3. Horses are not considered food in our country. The owners of horse slaughterhouses are from foreign countries. Keeping that in mind, what would stop people from cultures where dogmeat is a delicacy from starting a dog slaughterhouse here?

5. By declaring live horse slaughter illegal, there will be no loss of jobs. Our American producers can be supported by converting horse slaughter facilities in to beef, pork, etc. These products do supply income to our country through export tax and provide additional income to the farmers.

6. In 1998, California passed Proposition 6 declaring live horse slaughter illegal in their state. Since that passing, horse theft has decreased by 30% - 50% and also showing no rise in starvation cases or abandonment cases pertaining to horses.

7. In 2002, 42316 horses were slaughtered. There are a total of 5.3 million horses in our country making the slaughter count less than 1% which is down considerably from the 350,000 slaughtered in the 1990's. Since fewer are slaughtered, the theory of slaughter supporters of "horses running loose in the streets and being abandoned" has been proven false.

8. On the national average, horses add significant income to our economy. Costs of feed, hay, medicine, hoof care, etc., can easily enter into the range of $2000 - $4000 per horse per year making them a great asset to the our economy.

If there is any clarification needed on any of these points, please contact me. As I stated, even though I am not a resident of your state, this issue affects me and every other American horse enthusiast.