It's About The Horse

Cracklinrose · Member Joined: 25 Jun 2011 Posts: 26 Location: usa

Just got this message...haven't checked it out yet. Anyone else know about this???

Obama Legalizes Horse Slaughter for Human Consumption
Author: madeline bernstein
Published: November 28, 2011 at 2:52 pm
Horse slaughter plants are legal again in the United States. Restrictions on horse meat processing for human consumption have been lifted.
In a bipartisan effort, the House of Representatives and the United States Senate approved the Conference Committee report on spending bill H2112, which among other things, funds the United States Department of Agriculture. On November 18th, as the country was celebrating Thanksgiving, President Obama signed a law, allowing Americans to kill and eat horses. Essentially, one turkey was pardoned in the presence of worldwide media while in the shadows, buried under pages of fiscal regulation, millions of horses were sentenced to death.

Horse slaughter has been prohibited in the United States as funding for inspections of horses in transit and at slaughter houses was non-existent. This worked because the horse meat cannot be sold for human consumption without such inspections. The House version of the bill retained the de-funding language and the Senate version did not. The conference committee charged with reconciling the two opted to not include it. The result is that it is now legal to slaughter horses for humans to eat.

Notwithstanding that 70% of Americans oppose horse slaughter, that President Obama made a campaign promise to permanently ban horse slaughter and exports of horses for human consumption (horses can be sent to Mexico and Canada), that documentation of animal cruelty, slaughterhouse stench, fluid runoff and negative community impact exists, it is taxpayers that will bear the costs!

Wyoming state representative Sue Wallis and her pro-slaughter group estimate that between 120,000 and 200,000 horses will be killed for human consumption per year and that Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Georgia and Missouri, are considering opening slaughter plants.

During these trying times, is the only thing that Democrats and Republicans can agree on is that Americans need to eat horses?

Read more: http://technorati.com/lifestyle/a...laughter-for-human/#ixzz1f9TXNPhq
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Shelly
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whisperingwindfarms · Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 2:08 pm Post subject:

Thank goodness. At last some common sense coming out of Washington.
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Erin

Visit my Blog! http://havesavvy.wordpress.com/

thelmanelle · Member Joined: 20 Sep 2009 Posts: 3246

I am not oppose to jobs. Being part of SHI with cattle thief up and horse thief industry...it concerns me. But, there will always be horse thieves.
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A Good Apple Pie. II Corinthians 4:16-18

Cracklinrose · Member Joined: 25 Jun 2011 Posts: 26 Location: usa

PasoBaby_CarolU · Site Admin Joined: 31 Jan 2009 Posts: 9015

Horses were slaughtered legally for meat up until Bush signed a law making it illegal for the USDA to inspect horse meat, effectively shutting down U.S. plants. There never was a lot of horse meat available, only in specialty shops. Most of it went to zoos and pet food manufactures, or canned and sent overseas.

What happened with the shutting of the plants was NOT the reduction of horse slaughter or over breeding of horses as the proponents wanted. Instead a hundred thousand horses a year were shipped to Canada (at least it is humane there, and that is where our zoo meat currently comes from since it has to be inspected), and Mexico, where they don't use a bolt gun. Instead they sever the spinal cord and hang the horse, fully aware, while it bleeds out. All the horrible anti-slaughter films were filmed just over the border. That is for the horses that make it that far...many starve to death in the holding pens awaiting slaughter. Elsewhere in the U.S. unwanted horses have been taken out and shot, abandoned in fields and open range, or just left to starve to death some place.

What we did to those horses was worse then what we saved them from.
A law against slaughter did not force people to care about their horses anymore then they care about their excess dogs and cats. Most people are NOT evolving into empathetic creatures. Look at our planet and rape of resources and dwindling habitat critical for other species.

I think all along, the focus should have been placed on finding humane euthanasia that kept the meat edible. The drugs used now means the carcass has to go to a landfill. This is a horrendous waste in today's world of 7 billion people, 1 in 5 are starving.
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Carol Nudell
Corazon de Oro Paso Finos

"The path to your horse's heart lies through your own."

Rumors are carried by haters, spread by fools, and accepted by idiots. - Words of Wisdom - Mhar

‎"Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss activities; Small minds discuss people." - Eleanor Roosevelt

merle · Member Joined: 13 Feb 2009 Posts: 444

merle · Member Joined: 13 Feb 2009 Posts: 444

PasoBaby_CarolU · Site Admin Joined: 31 Jan 2009 Posts: 9015

BTW - consumption of horse meat is and always has been legal. I know many ranchers who sell horses to people who slaughter and eat them. With all the immigrants from all over the world who the LDS church has converted and moved to Salt Lake, they had to pass a law making it illegal to eat cats and dogs. It is not illegal any place where a law hasn't specifically passed forbidding it.
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Carol Nudell
Corazon de Oro Paso Finos

"The path to your horse's heart lies through your own."

Rumors are carried by haters, spread by fools, and accepted by idiots. - Words of Wisdom - Mhar

‎"Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss activities; Small minds discuss people." - Eleanor Roosevelt

PasoBaby_CarolU · Site Admin Joined: 31 Jan 2009 Posts: 9015

I agree Merle. Life is precious, all life. It should mean something.
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Carol Nudell
Corazon de Oro Paso Finos

"The path to your horse's heart lies through your own."

Rumors are carried by haters, spread by fools, and accepted by idiots. - Words of Wisdom - Mhar

‎"Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss activities; Small minds discuss people." - Eleanor Roosevelt

whisperingwindfarms · Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 7:08 pm Post subject:

I'm all for humane euthanasia of any species including my own.
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Erin

Visit my Blog! http://havesavvy.wordpress.com/

becdubie · Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 9:39 pm Post subject:

Well this is a touchy subject for sure. I would rather see the US allow horse slaughter, and inspect and make sure it's humane. Not havng them in the US was not stopping it.

I don't like laws telling people what they can and cannot eat.......Just because I won't ever eat horse meat (unless in dire circumstances) doesnt' mean I should tell others they can't eat it.

To me it's more important that at the end of their life, they are treated humanely. Horses, dogs, cats, pet birds, gunnea pigs.... cows, pigs, chickens, elk, deer....etc......

Unfortunately regulating the breeding, or over breeding of horses AND our house pets has proven to be nearly impossible, there needs to be a solution.
Think about how many "rescue" operations we have heard about recently......

I second this...

Cracklinrose · Member Joined: 25 Jun 2011 Posts: 26 Location: usa

coveredbridgefarm · Member Joined: 06 Feb 2009 Posts: 1618 Location: Missouri

Shelly wrote:

whisperingwindfarms · Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2011 2:43 pm Post subject:

I have a a very good friend who has made a ton of money in the last little bit taking all the free horses he can get. He gathers them at his farm in SC then loads them on his stock trailer and drives them to Canada. I don't have any idea what the slaughter laws are in Canada.

It is what it is. I'd much prefer them to be slaughtered humanely here where the cash stays here than have the cash and the horses go to Mexico where I can't even talk about what I know about horse slaughter there.

It doesn't bother the horses nearly as much as it bothers us.
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Erin

Visit my Blog! http://havesavvy.wordpress.com/

coveredbridgefarm · Member Joined: 06 Feb 2009 Posts: 1618 Location: Missouri

But Erin, you're still talking about free horses as far as your friend is concerned. If the number of free horses meets the demand, then your point may be valid. But if it doesn't, and we can probably expect a shortage of beef next year due to many ranchers selling off parts of their cow herds because of the drought this year, then that might increase demand for horse meat. We can probably expect beef prices to be high for the next few years. That might make horse meat more attractive, especially with the economy and high unemployment. And I'm not sure that we can assume that slaughter houses here in the U.S. are necessarily always humane. I raise beef cattle and sometimes I hear about things that aren't always as they should be. So I view this new law with some apprehension. I'm not necessarily opposed to it but I don't see it as a slam dunk good thing either. It depends on a lot of things.

The timing of this bill with the drought this year is interesting. I would like to know who lobbied for it.

Larry