Up until approximately 1 year ago, I was training TB race horses on the Chicago circuit, in addition to operating my farm for my own personal retired horses and also lay-ups from the track.

Since Cavel announced plans that they would rebuild their factory of horrors, I have taken time out of career and life to do little else than work to shut down this plant in Illinois as well as the 2 in Texas. I am the point person for the Illinois legislation (HB 649) that will outlaw the slaughter of horses for human consumption in my state.

Prior to all this, to answer your question, I have always in my 30 year career with horses rescued horses, dogs, cats or any other animal in need. I have rehabbed, retrained, and re-homed dozens of horses throughout my life. So, you see....I DO "walk the walk".

Now on to your latest misinformation.

FYI the Cavel plant was NOT burned down by "animal rights terrorist groups", in fact it is highly suspect that the Cavel company torched its own plant. You see, the town was fed up with the old, antiquated plant constantly polluting
the community, so Cavel needed to either A) Move (which they tried to do, but were turned down 22-1 in McHenry county) B) Buy new ground and build new (which DeKalb also turned them down) or C) rebuild/upgrade the existing plant. How convenient for Cavel that fire was indeed. They collected 5.4 million dollars for a out of date dump, of which they have spent approximately 3 million to rebuild. Follow the money Doc....it always tells the truth! ps...I think you have a lot of nerve to talk on a subject you clearly know NOTHING about. As for your claims about the video on the internet, that video was shot by the Humane Farming Association in the very late 90's. Nothing has changed in the plants since. Like I said, the plants will tell you themselves that they violate the humane slaughter act. It is a fact of life in these plants. Period.
I guess you would never know the facts, as you have never witnessed horses down and dying in parking lot at Cavel like those of us who live here have. Please do call Dr. Gray. Her trip to Cavel was shortly prior to the fire in March of 2002. She can also tell you that according to HAHS abuse and neglect figures, the number of cases substantially DECREASED during the time Illinois was sans horse slaughter.

You see Dr. Sue, horse slaughter breeds abuse and neglect, it does not diminish it.

As far as AAEP big shot coming to Cavel... where and when was this? Even if it were true, how could one ever believe a word they have to say? We have asked Dr. Lenz and company to give us the figures statistics and research the AVMA/AAEP has to document their claims that abuse and neglect would rise should horse slaughter be banned, and guess what? They cannot do this. Do you know why? The answer is simple, they DO NOT HAVE ANY BASIS IN FACT TO MAKE THESE CLAIMS. NO RESEARCH, NO STATISTICS, NO FACTS!!!! If these plants are the modicum of humanity, why then do they NOT allow people to film what they do? In fact, Cavel would not even allow camera's in there prior to their reopening. What are they and their supporters hiding?

I have read most of what Temple Grandin has written, in fact more than once. She is paid by the slaughter industry to conduct her research...hardly an unbiased, uncorrupt source of information.

You wrote:
"I will continue to "Just say no to HR857" until it adequately addresses how they are going to care for 50k+/- horses a year and how they will enforce regulations that will not impinge upon the freedoms of the average horse owners.   "Let me ask you this, Dr. Sue, where did the over 3 million horses go that have not been slaughtered in the last decade due to the drastic decline in the horse slaughter trade? You answer that question and you will have answered the question to where the remaining 50k per year will go. I will await your answer. Please respond.

Finally you state you dont like the bill because it impinges on the freedoms of horse owners. Well if this is true, then you better support the AHSPA right away, because it will only get worse should horses continue to be slaughtered for human consumption.

Surely even though you are a dog and cat vet, you are aware that horses are NOT medicated as a food-stock animal? How long do you think it will be before the government enacts its Equine ID program in order to regulate our horses as a
food animal?

Surely you are aware of the United States Animal Identification Plan? www.usaip.info I suggest you read up on this plan and that all other members of this forum do so as well. You see, our government in order to continue to trade meat products internationally has to adopt new standards that our international trading partners now require. This means that if U.S. horses are to continue to be fed to Europeans we will have to adopt their food animal policies. For the owners of 6.9 million US horses to comply with all this government regulation and HUGE expense for the benefit of 3 foreign owned horse slaughter plants is contemptible. Let the Europeans raise and eat their own horses, we have far better uses for our US horses than to supply a gourmet meat product to them. I am astonished that as a veterinarian you would ever condone the feeding of a tainted meat product to HUMAN BEINGS. Even if you care nothing about the horrors our horses endure at the hands of the horse slaughter trade, surely you should care something about human life.

Your position on this issue is as shameful as it is uninformed.

Gail Vacca
DeKalb, Illinois