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Congress Has a Chance to Strike a Blow Against Horse Slaughter

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It was certainly interesting for me to read this article. Thank you for it. I like such themes and anything that is connected to them. I definitely want to read a bit more soon. BTW, rather good design you have here, but what do you think about changing it from time to time?
Kate Stone

girl london escort of AL 9:07PM July 06, 2010

The reason people are so against horses being sold to slaughter is because a horse isn't like a cow. Cows were bred to be eaten, other then milk that is the cows only function. Horses are a different matter, though they are listed as livestock. Humans would not be where we are today without horses. They should demand a certain amount of respect. Though in today's society we have made horses a luxury instead of a necessity. It is a proven fact that horse meat is dangerous to eat. Because horses are not raised for food we inject them with several different kinds of required medications that should never be ingested by a human. If people are so worried about getting over populated then all we need to do is help spay and neuter the horses that are out there and put regulations on horse breeding. Horses are not like cats and dogs it take them 18 months to gestate and they only have one at a time. I feel that eating a horse is wrong just like eating a cat and dog is wrong. I have no problem with other countries participating in the barbarity of horse consumption but they can breed their own damn horses, we should not be exporting.
Because there is no market in the US for horse consumption us contributing to this inhumane act gains us nothing. Because it is already illegal in the US to slaughter horses us shipping overseas only benefits the person selling and shipping the meat. We can not collect any taxes for our country.
It has been proven that it is not the sick horses that are being eaten. You don't eat sick, low quality beef. They don't eat sick, low quality horses. So it isn't helping us in any way to ship horses for slaughter because they are killing the ones that can be put up for adoption. In fact almost half of the stolen horses that are someones pet or someones racer or someones baby are sold for shipment overseas and slaughter. If we ban shipment of horses for slaughter the rate of stolen horses will decrease to nothing.
So because of this I am against slaughter of horses in the US and I am against selling and shipping horses for slaughter overseas. I believe that it should be made illegal and those of us who rescue horses will deal with the "unwanted horses"
Thank you!

Bethie of WA 8:59PM February 18, 2010

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acai berry girl of AL 4:29AM December 01, 2009

I am a horse owner and yes I have bought and sold at horse auctions. The point I want to make is since the slaughter plants have closed, the horse industry and peoples livelyhoods have suffered tremendously. A horse has and always will be livestock. I say reopen the slaughter operations. People all over the world eat horsemeat and always will. The only thing the closers have accomplished is more suffering for the horse and less money for horse owners.

Steve of TN 12:04PM August 09, 2009

Instead of converging on Captiol Hill, covering Breakfast meetings, and writing these ridiculous editorials, why not put your time to use by rescuing one of those unwanted, unhandled, slaughterbound horses yourself and breaking it or paying someone else to break it? You can then give it a "forever home".
Then instead of the writing the same old tired rhetoric, and being part of the problem, you can actually use this space to teach, and become part of the solution.

Emma of WI 10:55PM July 23, 2009

Thank you Anne, nice response.
"Hypothetically speaking, lets say there was a species above us, that was smarter than us, and they treated us the way in which we treat the species below us, what would that say about them?? (Would you say they were civilized? Like we claim ourselves to be?)
Kim Nahla

Kim of HI 3:10PM July 22, 2009

Dear Leigh Haney,
Thank you for that enlightening response. Enlightening to the fact that people like you are the very cause of the unwanted horse problem. You breed and breed and breed, only to keep the ones that compliment your bloodlines and send the rest to slaughter, or sell them cheaply where they eventually dwindle down to the slaughter pipeline. How convenient for you that you do not need to learn to breed according to tru market demand.
You know very well that all horses going to slaughter are not unwanted horses, because you admit yourself that you breed them just to bring them to slaughter if they do not satisfy your standards. You know very well that killer buyers want the strong, the healthy and the young, aka the perfectly adoptable ones, because this is the most tender meat and fetches them the highest price per pound. They leave the meek, weak and injured for society to deal with.
You know very well that the tru amount of unwanted horses is more like 30,000
You know very well that is only costs 200 to euthanize a horse, and your horses earn you more than that over their lifetime. Do they not earn their own euthanazia, for everything they do for you?
It is because people like you exist, with a lack of everything that makes a human human, that we need a federal ban.
If you do not now what compassion feels like, it is only natural that you are a very unhappy unfulfilled person. I feel sorry for your wife, your children, your parents, your pets, your horses, for you live only for yourself and feel the right to use every thing and every one else. You deserve your unhappiness 100%, you selfish selfish human being.
Sincerely,
Anne

Anne of AZ 2:39PM July 22, 2009

To say that eating horses is wrong is ethnocentric and bigoted. Who are you to say what should and should not be eaten? If I were to single out a specific group, based on ethnicity or lifestyle choice, and decry them as wrong for their beliefs or actions, I would be publicly vilified, yet anti-horse eaters do this with supreme confidence that they are in the right. I don't care if it is primarily a European thing or not. Given that we are one big happy melting pot over here, there are doubtless a few folks living within our borders that would love to be able to pick up a horse haunch at the local market. Who are you to say they shouldn't? This desire to protect horses is born of anthropomorphism, no more, no less. We have all seen Flicka or National Velvet one too many times. Consider this, if I told you that I had a pet chicken, and that I felt consumption of chicken was morally reprehensible, should I make an attempt to have all chicken processors shut down? Would you champion my cause as vehemently as you have tried to protect horses?

Jay of CA 2:28AM July 22, 2009

I wonder where all the horses are going to go. Who is going to feed the unwanted, useless horses that only slaughter has found a place for in the past years. How long before there is no room for all the wild horses that no one wants to see put down. Heck even in the old days Indians were smart enough to use the horse when it was not useful to ride anymore by eating it. As long as I have to pay livestock tax on my horses then I should have the right to say what happens to them.. THEY ARE LIVESTOCK. they are not pets. You all need to look at the big picture. Where are we going to put all the horses that you have a vet put down? Do you think that the Dumps are going to be open to take them after a year? NO.. 100,000 more horses are going to be needing a place to go.. in your back yard or in the dump and that is only the fist year. I will not stop breeding my horses just because you dumb people cant seem to pull your head out of your butts. I have worked for over 25 years to get this bloodline and its one of the best. Not your or anyone is going to stop me from making sure the bloodline stays.. and if i get one that needs to be sent to slaughter.. then its going. even if I have to take it up to the slaughter house myself and tell them to kill cut and wrap it up. You will not tell me what i can and can not eat. or how i get my food.
you are the sick people. you are the ones that think you can tell people what they can and can not do.
YOU ARE NOT MY KEEPER...

Leigh Haney of MT 3:28PM July 20, 2009

I am totally against horse slaughter........not only because of the suffering and pain that these majestic animals go thru but because it is written in the Bible that only the animals with cloven hooves, which are the split hooves like the cows have, can be killed for meat. The horse DOES NOT have split hooves and therefore SHOULD NOT be slaughtered for meat. These are the words from our Heavenly Father Himself....I don't pity the souls of the people that slaughter and abuse these precious horses or any animal. When they meet their Creator, they will have to answer for their greediness in killing His horses for profit. He will have the last word.

Jeanette of NM 3:09PM July 20, 2009