Act Now! Dangerous Farm Bill amendment

U.S. FARM BILL: KING AMENDMENT

The Farm Bill has passed the Senate and is currently in the House Rules Committee. It will go to the House floor on Tuesday or sometime this week for a vote, so please voice your opposition NOW.

The Farm Bill being considered in the House of Representatives contains an amendment from Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) that could wipe out animal-protection laws nationwide, including Arizona’s law banning gestation crates, Michigan’s law banning veal crates, and California’s law banning battery cages. In fact, state factory farm confinement laws, horse slaughter bans, and puppy mill regulations are all at risk.

Make a call today on behalf of horses and all animals horribly used by animal agriculture.

TAKE ACTION

Please call your U.S. Representative and urge him or her to oppose King’s amendment to the Farm Bill right away. Say something like: “As a constituent, I’m asking you to oppose the King Amendment to the Farm Bill because, like most Americans, I want farm animals to have protection from cruelty, not just at the federal level, but also in our State.”

CONTACT INFORMATION

– If you know who your U.S. Representative is, find their phone number here.
http://www.house.gov/representatives/
Click on their name to visit their website and use their contact webform.

– If you do not know who your U.S. Representative is, you will first need to find your 9 digit zip code and write it down.
https://tools.usps.com/go/ZipLookupAction!input.action

Once you have it, use it in the zip code search box here.
http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

Please do this today, right now! Our horses and all animals used for food are depending on you.

Thank you.

JOIN US

Become a Member of the Int’l Fund for Horses for a yearly donation of $24.00.

What does this mean for you?

It means that you are active in supporting our lobbying and advocacy work on a myriad of issues including our chief focus and the reason we began 10 years ago: horse slaughter.

It is also means you will receive exclusive updates and information, as well as opportunities to take part in special events such as drawings for books and publications that will inspire you and keep you informed. Added this year is our Equine Champion campaign detailed below.

BE AN EQUINE CHAMPION

We are excited to introduce you to our Equine Champion campaign for all Fund for Horses Members.

In order to qualify as an Equine Champion you will need to:

1. Become a Member (10 points).

2. Show that you have taken part in calls to action on behalf of horses and their protection.

You can demonstrate this by endorsing bills on PopVox, or send us a copy of a response to a letter or email you have sent out. This includes direct replies from your State or Federal lawmakers. (10 points each).

Remember. Your legislators are under no obligation to reply unless you specifically ask them to. So be sure to add this “ask” to all of your communications.

Accumulate 30 points and you will qualify as an Equine Champion and placed on an Honors List on our website.

But don’t stop there.

Write an editorial defending horses on any cruelty or abuse issue, get it published and send us the link to it or a copy of it (20 points each).

Accumulate more points by not only responding to action alerts but also showing us you have (1) signed an equine defense petition (2) made a helpful, informative comment on online articles on any of the issues we cover or (3) email us feedback on a phone call you have made in defense of horses (all 5 points each).

This is open to everyone in any country. If you do not have legislation pending in your country, write a letter to your Parliamentary or like Member asking them to introduce a bill, to end horse slaughter for example, and win 10 points. Write a letter of protest to the EU on horse slaughter and the toxic horse meat issue. Make sure you notify us and get those points.

THANK YOU

Thank you everyone.

Vivian Grant Farrell
Founding President
Int’l Fund for Horses
Protecting Horses through Intervention, Education and Legislation
http://www.horsefund.org

Chemically tainted horse meat unfit for human consumption

NM Attorney General: Meat’s pedigree would have to be proven before slaughter

KOAT, Channel 7, Albuquerque, New Mexico reports:

ROSWELL, N.M. —The attorney general’s office said there is another hurdle that could stand in the way of horse slaughter plans in Roswell.

Horse meat, fitting the legal definition of an adulterated food product, may not be manufactured, sold or delivered anywhere in New Mexico regardless of where the food is ultimately consumed, said the state’s Attorney General Gary King.



Artwork, Tuesday’s Horse. Free to use.

Sometimes it is difficult to know the pedigree of horses, he said, citing the Federal Food and Drug Administration, and chemically tainted meat is unfit for consumption.

A number of horses are treated with chemicals in horse racing, for example.

King said if the Roswell plant cannot prove meat has not been tainted with chemicals then that meat would be illegal under New Mexico law, adding the slaughter plant would have to prove the pedigree of the meat before a horse could be slaughtered for consumption. (emphasis added)

Failure to comply with the New Mexico food act can result in criminal charges, fines and or seizure of the food product.

It would be up to the Environmental Improvement Board and the Livestock Board to assist in enforcing this law, he said.

Read full report at source >>

WE SAY

This is good in that the burden of proof is on horse slaughter plant operators. From what we are told, when arrested for violations, plant operators telling authorities that horse owners or traders have lied and submitted forged, illegal or faulty documents concerning a horse’s medical history will not be accepted as mitigating circumstances. In other words, authorities will not accept incorrect documentation as an excuse.

We know that killer buyers dump tens of thousands of horses across U.S. borders for slaughter with absent and forged documentation constantly, and are not prosecuted by Canada or Mexico, or the horses in almost every single instance not turned away. Every random testing of horse meat we have seen reported have contained some toxic residues dangerous for human consumption.

Drugged horses slipping into slaughterhouses another Toronto Star investigation shows

I know we have already reported numerous times on the failed documentation systems intending to keep toxic horse meat from entering the human food chain. However, there are more and more people becoming aware of horse slaughter every day, and this is always worth reporting and reminding all of us about.

First though, from the comments section on the Paulick Report, I nominate this for quote of the month and possibly the year regarding horse slaughter and racing. It was posted by “betterthannothing” at this link.

Slaughter is like racing: A system designed to ignore suffering and fraud to maximize profits while managing public outrage.”

 

Here’s an intro to the Toronto Star report. You will want to read it all.

The horse “passport” Canada relies on to keep toxic meat off dinner tables around the world is open to fraud and error, a Star investigation reveals.

Using undercover reporters, the Star found problems with passports — which are supposed to detail a horse’s complete medical history — for several horses headed to the slaughterhouse.

The Star also obtained 10 passports, nine of which were incomplete or mistake-filled.

In some cases, signatures did not match the names of people claiming to be the horse’s owner. In other interactions witnessed at a busy Waterloo-area auction house, the document was partially filled out by an auction-house worker instead of the owners.

The Star ran its first story about Backstreet Bully and the horsemeat food chain on its front page in March.

What was seen at auction confirms the findings of an international audit obtained by the Star: that Canada’s ability to trace prohibited drugs in food-bound horses “is inadequate” to protect consumers. Some common horse medications, like “bute” and nitrofurazone, are linked to causing bone-marrow disease and cancer in people if eaten in meat.

Canada’s equine information document is the first step in protecting the public from drug-tainted meat. The document is a type of animal passport that relies on voluntary ownership disclosure of information such as a horse’s physical description, its primary use — racehorse, for example — and drug history.

About $90 million in horsemeat from more than 80,000 animals is exported from Canada annually. Each horse to be slaughtered is to have a passport stating it is free of drugs that would be dangerous to humans if consumed. Horsemeat is a common dish eaten in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Japan and Quebec, and is even available at select restaurants in Toronto.

Read full report >>

RELATED GRAPHIC

Horse Slaughter Chart by Latitude News. Click to enlarge.

RELATED READING

– Read “The Shady Trade in American Horse Meat“, Latitude News
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State politicians propose anti-horse slaughter bill in Albany

Cross-posted from The Saratogian

by ANDREW CHAMPAGNE

ALBANY — Fewer stories in horse racing have had higher highs and lower lows than that of Ferdinand.

The 1986 Kentucky Derby winner banked more than $3.7 million in a stellar career and went to the breeding shed in 1988. However, the champion thoroughbred was slaughtered in Japan in 2002, setting off outrage in the horse racing community.

That story was repeated Wednesday by Assemblyman Jim Tedisco, one of several state politicians who spoke out in support of a bill that would criminalize the transport of horses for slaughter in the Empire State.

“It is a shame and a tragedy,” Tedisco said, “and we as a state should be ashamed for allowing that to happen.”

The bill is sponsored by Rep. Deborah Glick and Sen. Kathy Marchione, among others, and the press conference was held in the well of the Legislative Office Building. The proposed legislation has support from both sides of the aisle, but may not be voted on in this current legislative session. Read full report >>

COMMENTS

In the comments to this article, Lisa Griffith writes:

The grisly death, two weeks ago, of 30 horses burned in a kill buyer’s truck is another reminder of the consequences of allowing these trucks to run, unimpeded and often with multiple safety violations, on New York roads and highways. If they want to take their horses to slaughter, let them find another route, not on NY roads. Thank you Assemblyman Tedisco for supporting this bill and all the others who appeared in support.

Well said Lisa.

Dutch arrest meat works owner in horse meat probe

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MIKE CORDER, reporting for the Associated Press, writes:

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch authorities on Thursday arrested the director of a meat-processing and wholesale company whose business is at the center of an investigation into undeclared mixing of horse meat with beef.

Investigators from the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority arrested the man on suspicion of fraud and detained him for further questioning. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of six year’s imprisonment, according to prosecutors.

His identity was not released, in line with Dutch privacy laws, but local media identified him as Willy Selten, whose company is at the heart of a huge recall of beef that had possibly been mixed with horse meat. An interim director of the company was arrested on Tuesday and an administrative employee also is suspected of fraud, but has not been detained, prosecutors said.

The company involved also was not identified, but is based in the province of North Brabant, which is home to Selten’s meat works.

The company allegedly bought 300 tons of horse meat from the Netherlands, Britain and Ireland from 2011-2012 and sold it on as beef, prosecutors said in a statement.

Investigators who pored over the company’s books were unable to establish where exactly all the meat came from or where it went.

Selten has, in the past, denied having sold horse meat as beef. He was in police custody Thursday and unavailable for comment.

His business has collapsed since it was linked to the horse-meat scandal, which broke in mid-January, when Ireland’s food safety watchdog announced that it had discovered traces of horse DNA in burger products sold by major British and Irish supermarkets. The mislabeled products came from Irish processor Silvercrest Foods, which withdrew 10 million burgers from store shelves. Read full report >>

FSA delayed plans to test every horse prior to crisis

UK NEWS

Cross-posted from BBC News

Written by MATT McGRATH, Environment Correspondent, BBC News

PHOTO CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES
Most of the meat from horses slaughtered in the UK was exported to other European countries.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) explored the idea of testing all horses slaughtered in the UK months before the horsemeat food crisis began in January.

But the agency was concerned that the costs of extra testing would cause every horse abattoir to close down.

Without the faster tests, it is likely that meat tainted with phenylbutazone continued to enter the food chain.

The agency says the testing was delayed to allow a comprehensive review of all the impacts.

The number of horses presented for slaughter in the UK has doubled in recent years, with more than 9,000 animals killed at the five approved abattoirs in 2012. Most of the meat was exported to Europe.

FRAUDULENT PASSPORTS

Animals that have been treated with the anti-inflammatory medicine phenylbutazone or bute are legally barred from entering the food chain. Details of any treatment with the drug are meant to be recorded in a passport document.

But the UK has had considerable problems with fraudulent passports due to the large number of organisations of varying quality licensed to issue the documents.

Last year the FSA was made aware that increasing numbers of horses with questionable passports were turning up at abattoirs. In the summer it implemented a series of extra tests to determine if bute-tainted meat was getting through. Continue reading >>

[NON-HORSE] RELATED READING

– Rat meat passed off as lamb by Chinese >>

US Rep Meehan to make anti-horse slaughter pitch in Philly

Cross-posted from the Philadelphia Inquirer at Philly.com

WRITTEN BY AMY WORDEN

U.S. Representative Patrick Meehan (R, PA). Flickriver image.

With signs suggesting that the federal government will give the green light to the opening of the nation’s first horse slaughter plant since 2007, U.S. Rep. Patrick Meehan (R., PA) is heading to Philadelphia to urge fellow lawmakers to pass his bill banning the killing of horses for human consumption.

Meehan is expected to join representatives from animal welfare organizations Friday afternoon at the headquarters of the newly-revived Philadelphia Police Department’s Mounted Unit

The slaughter plant, slated to open in Roswell, New Mexico pending approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The owners of plant, Valley Meat Products, have sued the USDA, saying the agency is dragging its heels on permits.

This is the company, by the way, that employed a man who shot a horse while on camera as a warning to animal rights activists. The man, Tim Sappington, was fired but was not charged with animal cruelty. (Graphic video posted here on Huffington Post.)

Meehan led a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers from both the House and the Senate last month to introduce H.R. 1094, the SAFE Act, which bans horse slaughter for human consumption and prohibits the transportation of horses for purposes of consumption. Currently thousands of U.S. horses are shipped to plants in Mexico and Canada every month to be slaughtered for meat sold in Japan and Europe.

The Philadelphia Police Department’s Mounted Unit has partnered with Last Chance Ranch to rescue horses from potential slaughter. Horses threatened by slaughter are adopted by the mounted unit and receive training and veterinary care during their service with the police department, Meehan said in a press release. Read more >>

TAKE ACTION

Support the SAFE Act and send a message directly to Congress >>