http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2008/02/04/new...aab3037914354934.txt

Horse-slaughter bill outcry keeps it alive
By Bill Harlan,
Rapid City Journal
Monday, February 04, 2008

PIERRE – After an avalanche of criticism, public support is growing for a bill proposing horse slaughtering in South Dakota, a state lawmaker says.

“I’m getting e-mails 2-to-1 or 3-to-1 in favor of it,” Sen. Frank Kloucek, D-Scotland said Monday.

Kloucek introduced SB170, which, in its original version, would have allowed up to $1 million in state economic development loans to establish a horse slaughtering plant.

The Senate Agriculture Committee killed the bill last week, but mainly for procedural reasons. A number of committee members who voted against the measure said they were not opposed to horse slaughtering.

Before the vote, lawmakers got hundreds of e-mails and phone calls from all over the country, prompted in part by a blitz campaign by the Animal Welfare Institute, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C.

“They even had our cell numbers,” Kloucek said. “That tells me they had someone on the inside. They were very organized.”

Kloucek proposed the bill because the last two horse-processing plants in the United States –- in Texas and Illinois –- were closed by state laws. A bill in Congress would institute a nationwide ban.

In the meantime, Kloucek said, hundreds of thousands of unwanted horses are languishing, either at taxpayers’ expense, or at the owners’ expense. And some horses are simply abandoned.

“It’s appalling that we don’t have horse harvesting in the United States,” he said.

He also pointed out that the Midwestern Legislative Conference of the Council of State Governments passed a resolution last year, unanimously, encouraging Congress to support new horse-processing plants.

Kloucek admitted he wasn’t prepared for the national outcry, but in the past week, he said, he has received hundreds of messages of support.

A veterinary student from the University of Washington wrote in an e-mail: “I greatly lament the horse slaughter ban in Texas and Illinois. I am not alone in this sentiment; the vast majority of large-animal veterinary students that I know of oppose the horse slaughter ban. “

A Kansas horse owner wrote, “Horses are currently in a crisis situation, and we need regulated U.S. slaughter plants to handle the excess horses that are no longer able to be cared for by their owners.”

John Kabeiseman, a horse trainer from Yankton wrote, “I would be willing to come to Pierre and speak to anyone you wish if that would help.”

Kabeiseman said Monday, “A kill market sets a base price for horses.”

With no kill market, people are forced to care for old, sick or unmanageable horses, at great expense. Or, they have to put them down, which Kabeiseman said was difficult.

Sharon Herron of Union Center, who raises horses, also raised that issue in a letter to the editor in the Rapid City Journal. “How many people have the means to euthanize and bury their horses?” she wrote. “The cost is astronomical! Not the least the chemicals that would be put in the soil.”

Herron said she tries to do everything she can to save horses, but she added, “This is ridiculous.”

Kloucek said he’s considering two options. He might try to “smoke out” the bill -– a legislative maneuver to force another committee vote, then the vote of the full Senate. Failing that, Kloucek will ask the Legislature’s Executive Board for a summer study.

“We’re firing back,” Kloucek said.

According to this opinion piece in the Press & Dakotan, the author of this bill says he will not "quit on this issue until we have at least one horse plant in our nation."

http://www.yankton.net/stories/021408/ope_246801175.shtml

Thursday, February 14, 2008
Story last updated at 12:54 am on 2/14/2008

Horse Slaughter Measure Is Needed

By: Sen. Frank Kloucek
D-District 19 (Scotland)

SB 170 horse harvesting bill was permissive (not mandated) legislation that may allow $1 million to be put aside for the construction of a horse harvesting facility. Less than 1 percent of U.S. horses are processed now and the issue of horse disposal is becoming a national problem. Currently there are no such plants in the US.

There are two federal bills being considered that would ban horse harvesting and ban transportation to the plant. We must call our federal legislators to oppose the S.311 horse slaughter ban and H.R. 503 horse transportation ban. We must do so soon to avoid a big mess concerning the future of the horse industry in America. The bill was defeated with a request for a summer study amended on. It will not go away and we will work hard to keep the pressure on.

There are many individuals, towns and reservations interested in such a project. There was a very organized effort from the animal rights groups who e-mailed and called against this bill. We must remember the opposition is in the minority.

The facts are overwhelming. We must stop the anti-horse groups from bullying our legislators. I shall not quit on this issue until we have at least one horse plant in our nation.

It was a difficult decision on whether to introduce SB170 or not. The bill was brought forward to turn the tide in favor of horse slaughter. We may have lost a small battle in its defeat, but in the long run, we will win the war and allow the horse industry to continue this humane practice. I am introducing a resolution in support and there may be others, as well.

Thank you to all for the overwhelming support from throughout South Dakota the United States and even Canada! My e-mails and phone calls have gone more than four to one in favor of SB170. The opponents make no factual case against it except emotion. I sincerely believe that we must make every effort to allow this to continue in the US. If the anti-meat activists win here, what is next?

I agree that there needs to a horse slaughter plant in the United States! It was the only thing holding the base price on horses. I recently sold my pony because of health issues. He had COPD and was hypo-thyroid. I tryed every imageable way to improve his health. I'm 17 and only have so much money to spend. I also have three other horses to care for. Still I spend hundreds of dollars trying to get that pony stable again. Some days he was in so poor health I thought I should put him down, but how could I? For one thing I spent all my money trying to get him well that I didn't have the $225 some dollars need to put him down and for another thing, this was my first pony! I couldn't do that to him. However trying to sell him was a horrored mess. Both because he had health problems and because the bottom was out on the horse market. So there I was with no options, out of time, and out of money. Thankful some family did buy the pony, but I fear for horses and horse owners everywhere.

Hi MG,

It's great to have young people involved here; thanks for stopping by and posting your viewpoint!

Caring for horses is expensive! At UAN, we believe that the $225 cost of humanely euthanizing a horse is part of a horse owner's responsibility to make sure horses in their care receive humane treatment.

Unfortunately, horse slaughter is not at all a humane substitute for euthanasia. I'm sure you wouldn't have wanted your pony to suffer terribly during slaughter. As you learn more about horses and care for your remaining three horses, I hope that you'll learn more about the realities of horse slaughter. This forum is one of many great places to learn more! Here is a page on UAN's Web site with more information. The Animal Welfare Institute also has some great information.

You're right that horse prices are falling. Part of the reason for that is because horse slaughter was legal. When slaughter plants were in operation in the U.S., slaughter was profitable. That made a financial incentive for people to breed horses that didn't have homes. The vast majority of horses that went to slaughter were young and healthy. When the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act passes, it will help breeders become more responsible for all the offspring of their horses.

That was loving of you to find a home for your pony. I hope his new family wants him to be treated humanely for the rest of his life.

Please check out the blogs under this section - "Horse slaughter forces are not done yet". You anti-slaughter groups are doing more to hurt the horses than you care to admit. It's a crying shame you cannot see the errors you have been making. It's also sad to see that you have too much pride to admit the mistakes and to try to correct them. A crying shame on behalf of the horses. By the way, do you know that the chemicals used in euthanasia also kills the wildlife when they are not disposed of appropriately. Also, ever try to bury a horse? Know how much land space that would take? A crying shame what you people are doing. Please take off the glasses and see reality. Kill a cow, to save a horse.