From: Clair
To: gsparrow@cityofdekalb.com
Cc: prasmussen@cityofdekalb.com ; rkeller@cityofdekalb.com ; inne@cityofdekalb.com ; cbryden@cityofdekalb.com
Sent: Saturday, September 06, 2003 7:23 PM
Subject: Some thoughts to ponder about Cavel
Honorable Mayor :
 
The 50 jobs that Cavel International will provide for the approximately 35,000 residents of DeKalb will not benefit  your city. There is no benefit to mention in either added income being spent in your town, or the image you will present to the rest of the country by letting this business rebuild. Having this business in your town will serve as an embarrassment for  you to be known as a "Horse Killer" town, much like it has placed the same stigma on our town of Kaufman Texas. We want rid of that moniker. Please listen to us. We don't want your city to fall in the trap that we are trying to crawl out of.  Listen to us and understand... and it's not like we give a rats ass about what people in Illinois are up to.  It's more like somebody put a puppy on the kitchen table, and we're trying to keep the puppy from walking off the edge. We'd hate to see you fall off. Just don't do it. Forget Cavel.
 
In Texas, the last two remaining horse slaughter operations in the US are operating illegally and in defiance of State law. A Federal lawsuit is pending with our hopes to finally close down the Dallas Crown operation  in Kaufman. It's an embarrassment for our city.
 
There are numerous  instances of stray dogs that live in the wooded areas near the horse plant here and they drag body parts from the plant out into the road, or into people's yards. It's nothing to drive by the plant and see a Mother stray dog  and her pups in the ditch eating some bloody body part. While these instances may only be of our local concern, they should concern you as well. Well meaning workers may be feeding stray dogs out of their kindness to the strays, while they participate in the slaughter of beautiful stallions inside the plant. As much as that probably doesn't make sense, it probably actually does from my own experiences:
 
I am not a stranger to meat packing plants, having worked at both Beef and Hog plants in Missouri working on the kill floors.  It's a very bloody business, and workers get very casual about being surrounded by kicking and bleeding and screaming animals hanging upside down and dying in the blood pit. I have had to dodge many a kicking cow hoof while squeegeeing their coagulating blood towards a drain that fed a tanker truck. Not a Spring Virgin here.
 
While slaughtering animals for human consumption is a very daily and common event- when you wake up at 5:00AM to enjoy your coffee, toast and bacon- I want you to think that in ONE PLANT ALONE, there is a new hog being put to death every 30 seconds at that time of day in order to fill the American wants and desires for bacon. In the hundreds of plants that process beef and hogs alone to fill the wants and desires of the American palate, I would really question you as to why you in Dekalb might be willing to allow yet another "Killer Plant" to process American horses for foreign palates-  How could you possibly even consider letting this business rebuild after you have rid yourselves of the embarassment? Why invite the blight back to your city to rebuild? Be well rid of it!
 
Think of it... two plants processing horses in Texas illegally by State Law. Federal suit pending... And you would allow such a plant to open in your town to provide 50 ordinary paychecks? You should think pretty hard on this issue.
 
And Don't say we never warned y'all!
 
Damn, if we ain't tried.
 
Respectfully yours,
 
Clair Willeman
P.O.Box 878
Kaufman, TX 75142