BACKSTORY
On November 18, 2011, President Obama signed budget bill H.R. 2112 into law. H.R. 2112 covers funding for the federal government’s fiscal year 2012, which runs October 1, 2011 through September 30, 2012. Agriculture Department spending, including the USDA, is part of that bill.
Before H.R. 2112 was presented to the President, a small group of politicians collaborated to remove the provision suspending funding for USDA inspection of horse slaughter plants which has prevented the slaughter of horses on U.S. soil effectively since 2007.
The funding prohibition was originally enacted in 2005 as part of the FY2006 Agriculture Appropriations Act. However, the USDA responded by adopting new rules that allowed the slaughterhouses to pay for the inspections themselves. A 2007 court ruling ordered the USDA to stop these inspections. See When Horse Slaughter Comes to Town, Part 3.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Occupy President Obama’s mailbox with your message against horse slaughter.
Send a postcard today — and every day you can — asking the President to sign an Executive Order making it illegal to slaughter or transport a horse for slaughter; OR push Congress to quickly pass H.R. 2966 / S. 1176.
We need big numbers, so that means our horses need everyone — and that includes you — to take this quick and easy step. I went out and bought a bunch of Kentucky postcards just for this.
So please join me, and let us all “occupy” the President’s mailbox until horse slaughter is banned.
CONTACT INFORMATION
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
If you prefer to call or fax,
Phone Numbers
Comments: 202-456-1111 *
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
* If the comment line is continuously busy, please call the White House switchboard.
Thank you everyone.
There is another thing people can do. Add a notation to your postcards and tell Obama that you will vote for him in 2012 if he signs a executive order banning US horses from being shipped across the borders for slaughter and being slaughtered in the US. If he and his staff think they can pick up a million votes he may go for it. He already spends most of his time campaigning all across the country and all of you live in different states. He couldn’t be anymore dismal than any of the other politicians that have rotated through the oval office. His staff sorts his mail and if this was on every postcard he gets, which will be baskets full they would have to pay attention.
Okay Barb, you are on the right track. A voting bloc of horse advocates could swing this our way. Politicians are afraid of voting blocs because they want to be re-elected. If we could organize horse advocates across the country, enough votes would make politicians pay attention even tho they may not agree with our position. .