I would like to open a discussion with anyone that can truly tell me why the slaughter houses should not be reopened in the US. Bury a horse to kill a cow. Does it matter if the cow is Asian? You aren't going to make everyone vegetarian. Ever tried to bury a horse anyways? Why not use our horse meat to feed the zoo animmals in the US. Bury a horse, but kill a chicken to feed the aligators. It makes no sense to bury a horse! Spend your money and resources on preventing the births in the first place. That is the most humane thing to do for all of the animals. Bring them back to the US so we can regulate them.

See the attached link. Here's where you guys got your information. I wish someone out there would for once appologize and realize the grave disservice that has been done to our american horses. Bring the slaughter houses back!

http://www.activistcash.com/organization_overview.cfm/oid/136

Gripper,
Thank you for keeping this issue in front the people who are driving this bus.

As you know from my past posts, I don't much believe in the internet survey numbers.

Here are some first hand facts from the mid section of the country.

1. Abuse has not risen. Hmmmm. I recently spoke at length with an auction barn owner I have known for many years. He is second generation horse auction proprietor. Between the two of us we have been in this industry long enough to have seen several rises and falls in the market. In his estimation 75% percent of the horses he sees coming through the sale are thin. This is the worst this has ever been.

2. Fort Dodge Animal labs has cut the contracts for people raising horses for their vaccines and research programs. There has been that much of a drop in sales of these products. Which means people are not doing routine vet work for their horses.

3. Several vets in this part of the country refuse to work on a horse for any reason. The new cliental of horse owners has apparently not bothered to pay their bills or make their horses sane enough not to kill the vet.

You are absolutely correct on the horse/cow issue. The dismantling of the horse industry from the floor market up is based entirely on visceral emotion not animal husbandry facts. It is no more humane to slaughter cattle than horses. I have spent my life working around both. Cattle in many situations are kinder and more nuturing to their herd mates than horses.

The NCBA (National Cattlemens Beef Alliance) has spent many millions of dollars working with Dr. Temple Grandin to help flow and quality control in the beef industry. Why? The answer is very simple. Cattle are herd instinct flight based prey animal. The hieght and neck length factor are the ONLY difference between horses and cattle in the packing situation. Both assimilate and react to fear and pain the same.

The only slaughter prevented in this new bill is for human consumption. We can kill horses en masse for any other reason. Don't let anyone eat them. This is aimed entirely at taking the market value out of slaughter nothing more or less. Ironically the very thing that insures a marketable palatable product in the slaughter situation (cattle or horses) is humane handling of the animal prior to and during the slaughter process. Cut outs (meat which can't be used) increases with stress and bruising.

Humane consumption is also the most tightly regulated form of slaughter. Any deviation from proper procedure is more likely to be noticed here than anywhere else.

The form of slaughter most likely to be humane would be the human consumption market. If humane issues are the driving factor why would the law ban the most humane slaughter and keep all others?

On personal note for those among us who seem to think one personal horse saved from slaughter justifies legislation like this.

I recently attended the Triangle Sale in Shawnee, Ok. (June 7). This is a nationally advertised rather exspensive to sell at sale. At this sale I bought a very thin well bred yearling colt. He looked as though he had not seen a good meal since he left his mother last fall. He is the animal whose life all this companion animal status was supposed to make better. He cost $75 and the first tank of fuel to get him out of Ok. cost $98.

On the way home I passed a rancher caking his cow herd. These cows will never be used for anything other than producing beef calves. They will die someday in a slaughterhouse. They are livestock. They are there only to produce income. They are not pets.

Why are they fat in knee deep grass, bucking and frolicking behind the cake truck for a meal, without a care in their world today, when this yearling colt whose humane treatment has everyone running to Washington is standing thin and dejected looking in the back of my trailer?

It is very hard for me to see that being classified as companion animals is better than being livestock.