Member since: January 23rd 2006
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This site is dedicated to the thousands of horses that inhumanely lose their lives every month in one of three remaining slaughter plants in the USA. Their meat is exported to Europe and Asia for human consumption. You may have wondered about the recent news articles on horse slaughter nestled in between stories of indictments, scandals, war and natural disasters. Even a horse lover might wonder if the battle to stop horse slaughter merits national attention in such tumultuous times. Yet there is a story within the horse slaughter story that lays bare just how dysfunctional our “representative democracy†has become.
If ever there should have been an easy law to pass, it should have been one to ban horse slaughter. The business has negligible economic impact on Americans. It is foreign owned, pays few taxes, provides only a few dangerous and low paying jobs, and is generally unwelcome in the very communities where it exists.
The most immediate action we must take in our goal to end the horse slaughter industry is to stop the inhumane transportation of horses to slaughter.
A federal transportation bill, which was supposed to ensure the humane transportation of horses bound for slaughter, has had virtually no effect, and in fact, will be causing more harm than good. The USDA is about adopt "guidelines" which were opposed by almost every major equine and animal protection organization in this country. The only support for these so-called "guidelines" came from the horse meat industry, the cattlemen, the American Horse Council and the AVMA. These inadequate "guidelines" allow horses to travel over 28 hours without food, water, or rest, and allow for the continued use of inhumane double-decker trailers for the transportation of horses to slaughter.
Prohibiting the use of inhumane double-decker cattle trailers for the transportation of horses is the least that this inadequate legislation should have accomplished. It doesn't even do that!
The inhumane double-decker cattle trailers used to transport horses
We have also come to learn about what we feel are bogus studies on the deprivation of water of slaughter-bound horses. These "studies" are just another ploy by the horse meat industry to try to fool the public and politicians into believing that horses can go for over 24 hours without water or rest.
The inside of the trailer used to transport horses to slaughter
This is yet another attempt by the horse meat industry and the US government to justify the cruel and inhumane way horses are transported from auctions to slaughter plants.
The beauty of the Transportation Bill in New York State, enacted in 1980, is that it applies to all horses, not just slaughter-bound horses. The federal bill, as it is now written, applies only to horses bound for slaughter.
The federal bill just regulates and legitimizes horse slaughter more than ever before, and allows horses to be classified as agricultural livestock animals who may be slaughtered for human consumption.
