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The funding prohibition was originally enacted in 2005 as part of the FY2006 Agriculture Appropriations Act.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.
Tuesday's Horse 
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.
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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. .
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It is time to request a comment from the U.S. Public Health Service and the Surgeon General on the safety of horse meat for human consumption. Perhaps someone in the administration would listen to these experts??????????
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I was sent some information yesterday from Americans Against Horse Slaughter AAHG about the non- inspections of horse slaughter plants. being removed from the AG Appropriations Bill When the non-inspections section was removed. It was not allocated any new money to pay for horse meat inspections, which could cost tax payers $5 million or more dollars a year. The US Department of Agriculture would have to find the money in its existing budget, which is expected to see more cuts as Congress and the White House aim to trim federal spending. The USDA will have to take food safety and animal welfare inspections away from our own food supply and oversight. In my opinion they won’t do this because of the recalls and deaths that happened this year an other years. AAHG is a organization I am a member of. This may be what stops states from trying to build horse slaughter plants again. And also the Appropriations Bill is a spending bill that encompasses spending in all areas of our government. Each year Congress must pass 13 appropriations bill to fund the various federal agencies. For several years Congress has been unable to pass individual bills so they have been passing package bills in order to keep the government afloat. These bills pass in some form every year it was never a “horse slaughter bill”. There was actually no reference to horse slaughter in the entire bill. I am quoting from the email I was sent. You can Email them at aahsus@gmail.com
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The USDA said if the slaughterhouses reopen, meat inspectors will be assigned to them even tho no money is appropriated. It seems like slaughterhouses will reopen, as one pro-slaughter advocate said, “I’ve got investors lined up with 100,000. each to open new slaughterhouses.” There is money in slaughtering horses and the money is the driving force.
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I have a question? Well more of a statement/Question really but please hear me out.
Isn’t is better to have the horses be slaughtered up here, in the States, where we can keep a close eye on it then go to, lets say, Mexico. (Not saying Canada because the last I heard they were doing a complete plant revamp and actually used vet approved practices for the rendering*. Yah I keep an eye on EVERYTHING to do with the subject. Its weird I know but moving on!)
Isn’t is better for the horses not to travel the hundreds of miles in a double decker trailer, where they can’t stand properly, where they more often than not break legs, get severe lacerations only to end up in a Mexican slaughter house where their idea of a proper rendering is stabbing the horse in the neck till it falls paralyzed on the ground? Where the horses are still breathing, still blinking, still have a heartbeat! (Not the caught on tape, agonal respiration [agonal respirations may persist for several minutes after cessation of heartbeat.] Or the involuntary muscle contractions where the body’s muscles contract in examples such as blinking, leg movements, tail swishing and any other movements occurring after the cessation of the horse’s heartbeat.)
Having the horses slaughtered up here will save them the horrendous trip, the horrible death of being cut up alive (Many Mexican plants do not bleed the horses out, nor do they allow for the appropriate time frame for the bleeding out, to ensure the death of the animal.) It will save the horses from suffering this horrible and terrible death, south of the border. Isn’t it better to do it up here, than to stand by up here saying “Good Job!” And ignoring the painful suffering going on down there? Slaughter isn’t gone, its just not where we can see it.
And I,for one, would rather have my horse slaughtered in the States where I can see the process instead of a dirty concrete slaughter house of horrors in Mexico. (Not saying I would send my horse to slaughter becuase I love the big oaf but you get the idea.)
Then there is the issues of the thousands of horses being abandoned, neglected, and left starving because of the lack of options (Euthanasia+rendering/burial/cremation=more money than people can afford. Rescues and shelters turn away horses because they are over full.) Limited options means a poor decision for the owner to make. Horses are starving, feed costs too much and having a plant would help ease the months and months it takes for starvation to finally kill the horse.
Also, I talked to my vet (well all the vets in my area and they all said the captive bolt, which extends 3-4 in into the brain cavity, renders the horse brain dead (or, you know, just dead.) instantaneously. The total time for bodily functions to cease entirely (digestion, lungs everything the brain told to do things) 5-30 seconds, depending on the location of the organ and the amount of electric simulation (electrolytes) it has stored up. If that’s not humane, I have no freaking clue what is.
*rendering- The rendering of a horse, brain dead and/or unconscious
PS Pigs are still alive and breathing when butchered. Not to mention they have a larger brain, so a higher mental capacity for emotions and the ability to process thoughts. Translation? Pigs know they are going to die, they know what is happening to their pen mates, and they have the capacity to know what is going on. They scream because of it and yet we still eat them.
(In Scientific lists, Pigs rate number seven, just under African Grey Parrots, for thought process, memory and the ability to learn. Not to mention Pigs have long been considered to be smarter than dogs. Ironically, it is also one of the cleanest animals around. A pig will refuse to defecate anywhere near the area where he lives and eats when he is given a choice. You can train a pig just like a dog or cat, but what makes their intelligence remarkable is the complex social lives that behaviorists once believed to be the purview of primates. Mother pigs have been found to sing to their piglets while they are nursing. They excel at video games that would be hard for a young child, and sometimes better than the primates.
Also like primates and other smart animals, they learn from watching one another, often working to outsmart each other. One will often follow another pig to food before grabbing it away from him, and the pig who was tricked will change behaviors to reduce how many times it is tricked.)
Fancy that, pretty intelligent bacon you have there. I don’t eat pork for that reason. I cannot raise pigs for slaughter and I cannot be near pigs when they are being slaughtered. It is just too hard on me, I cannot mentally or physically take it. It makes me cry knowing that such an intelligent animal is going to end up on a plate of an unappreciative person’s breakfast plate while they whine about horse slaughter.
And FYI Horses don’t even rank. They are not on any smart animal lists or any lists really. They rank below squirrels and certain species of spiders (which aren’t animals at all but horses rank lower than them anyway.)
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Horse slaughter is not humane, regardless of whether it takes place in the US or Canada. You need to do some reading and perhaps watch some of the videos that will show you exactly how humane this process is. I could go on for pages but that is all I am going to say
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I have. Yes there was mistreatment, I’m not denying that but perhaps if they reopen up here they will allow for mor epublic scrutiny to eliminate the abuse going on. My question was, isn’t it better they be slaughtered up here where they have the inspectors and the vets and all that instead of the cruel and torturous way they do it in Mexico?
That was my question, and something aobut that gets me. When you shoot a horse in teh head to put it down becuase of a severe injury or broken bone, that is humane right? But you do that in a slaughter plant as you would in the feild and then its not humane? I don’t understand it…
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The captive bolt only renders a horse unconscious for 30 seconds; the horse is not dead and regains conscious within 30 seconds. And that is only if the operator is skilled. It is well known that more often than not the stun blow is not delivered to the proper location in the horse’s skull to achieve the required. Many times numerous blows are dealt to the terrified and now injured horse often without success yet the horse is transferred to the butchering line where the bleed-out and removal of limbs occurs while they are still alive. Moreover, to date there is not a “humane” slaughter facility (an oxymoron if there ever was) for horses (or any animals for that matter – it is all ugly and cruel, especially with the advent of factory farming’). Even the one (for horses) designed by Temple Grandin currently in operation at Les Viandes de la Petite-Nation, Inc., in St. Andre-Avellin, Quebec, Canada has recently surfaced in the news. And it is not pretty….here is a link to recent surveillance at that so-called “humane” processing facility.. http://www.defendhorsescanada.org/lpn.html
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That’s old, I’ve watched it. As I said I like keeping up on it. Temple Grandin has approved of the use of a captive bolt, calling it humane and anything she backs up for animal welfare so do I. As we well know, she is the leading world person for humane animal husbandry. If the plants are organized in the way that she says they should be then there will be no problem. Also and over half of the slaughter facilities for cattle are made using Temple’s designs so the process is humane with minimal stress to the animal.
In the video however, they are not using her system properly. The guy using the stun gun is clearly not trained properly and they have no respect for the animals they are processing. As it is my goal to become an slaughter plant inspector, I have studied the animal’s body language so I know when it is stressed or scared. But obviously the man in the video had no clue what he was doing and you could clearly see he was aiming to far up on the horse’s head to do a proper stun. If you hit the horse in the right spot you will destroy the cerebral cortex, rendering the horse unconscious and unable to feel pain. Believe me I’ve studied this far and beyond what the normal person would because of my goals.
Also factory farming is a term coined by animal rights activists, the term means anyone that houses over 1,000 animal units. Even though 95% of the US farms are family owned and operate, close to 87% have over 1,000 animal units making them a factory farm. It isn’t fair to say that these are all abusive. http://www.precisionnutrition.com/cattle-feedlot-visit
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It’s not old, it just was released this weekend.
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That’s what I meant. Actually was released in November. It was old news for me. I moved from that to this and in all honesty it should have been released as soon as they got to footage in July. Instead of waiting 5 months to release it to the public. I mean really, the plants could very well have fixed the problems in that amount of time. Its just ridiculous, just like dogs you have to correct the behaviour when it happens, not severral minutes later or in this case months.
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Fixed???? Wow, are you naive. That’s all I am going to say on this matter.
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Amen, help a horse!
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*eyeroll* That was a sarcastic statement. It was made to prove a point that they should leak the footage immediately to expose the behaviour before there is a chance to cover it up.
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Forgot to add. Horses know they are going to die too. And your comment about the spiders??????????????
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Horses actually do not have that capability as they do not have the same capabilities as a pig does when it comes to that. If they did they would be refusing to go into the chutes, jumping over the fences and fighting for freedom. They do not understand what is going on. They can understand that it might be bad but they aren’t aware of danger.
When horses think, they think in the simplest terms. Hay is good, wolves are bad, some humans are good and some are bad. Simple terms like that. With the slaughter house the horses see it as an unusual situation that they cannot grasp in its entirety like a pig or a dog can. Their brain, although developed, is not in the same category as the pigs and the dogs or even the cats. A horse is just a horse, it has no miraculous thought process that allows it to play video games or to memorize certain objects and patterns. We may think of them as these wonderful beings but they are just common with a lower level of intelligence. A horse, no matter how majestic they may be, is a just a horse in the terms of their cerebral cortex and thought process, however limited and simple it may be.
And for the spider comment. Don’t blame me, all of the lists I found had the spider number 8 or 9. I know its not an animal but apparently its smart enough to get a note in the lists so I thought I would point it out.
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I think we finally found a creature dumber than a horse……..
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Oh so eloquently put. Attack the messenger, so diplomatic as well. Sweetheart, I have worked with horses my entire life, while they are intelligent creatures, I am not denying that. Scientifically, they are nothing special. SCIENTIFICALLY a horse has a limited brain capacity and minimal thought process. Its not my opinion, that is scientific fact but go ahead and try and dispute it, I won’t stop you from making yourself into a fool.
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If you can’t debate this issue without a personal attack, then stay off the post.
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Elisabeth…are you saying the articles here are not factual?????
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NO, NO, NO.
I want to be able to print and reference the facts in the article, so if I say something to someone else I am being factual per the article.
All of the Articles on this site ARE factual and I have never questioned that.
I want to be able to repeat the statment in fact as written.
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Oh, OK, I see what you mean. Sorry for misinterpreting.
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I will definitely be following through with my protest to President Obama on this matter.
Just a note. Could you please remove the black background and use black ink. I would like to print some of these articles and cannot do it so that it can be read the way it is. It also eats up so much ink that it makes it very expensive to print even one page. It is also difficult to read for someone with astigmatism. It is glaring.
I do not use your published articles other than for reference when I write letters to my representatives and the president. I always want to make sure I have the facts correct.
I love your site and everything you do to help the horses and we all appreciate your efforts to get the information to us to help make a change to how our wild horses and domestic horses are treated.
Use a light tan, sand or just plain white would help.
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What is needed is a voting bloc of horse advocates. Politicians are more afraid of a voting bloc than their rich donors. They all want to be re-elected and votes is wht they need for that. A nationwide push at the politicians will changfe things. That is how the Wild Horse and Burro Act in 1971 was enascted. Politicians received almost as much mail for that as the Vietnam war and they acted. Every person against slaughter and transport to slaughter should contact their senators and their representative to let them know how they feel. They can’t ignore this if everyone does it.
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“Congress approved the Conference Committee report on spending bill H2112, giving funding to USDA for horse meat inspections. H2112 opened the door to slaughter b/c the verbiage about defunding USDA inspections of horse meat – was removed, behind closed doors, at the last minute by 2 Repubs, 1 Dem (names tel/fax #s listed below). These men have connections to the cattle ranchers and Premarin ranchers.
IMPORTANT: When he signed the bill, Obama did not know that these crucial words had been removed. The removal of the words caused Obama to unknowingly “go back” on a campaign promise from his ’08 presidential run.
If enough outrage is generated, Obama may bend to pressure and issue an executive order that reverses this slaughter situation (he wants to be re-elected), So, call/fax the White House and respectfully ask that Obama issue an Executive Order permanently banning horse slaughter. You may want to also ask/demand that transport of American equines to slaughter also be permanently banned.
Call/fax:
President Barack Obama
tel: 202-456-1111
fax: 202-456-2461
The White House has a Facebook page; it is read widely. Post there.
The men who removed the verbiage: Give ’em HECK!
Roy Blunt (R-MO)
tel: (202) 224-5721
fax: (202) 224-8149
Jack Kingston (R-GA)
tel: (202) 225-5831
fax: (202) 226-2269
Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI)
tel: (202) 224-5653
fax: (202) 224-9787
Social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube, Twitter, etc. are other venues for posting your opinions on this important topic.
For the person who asked: Internet free fax http://faxzero.com/ My fax went through, but phone line is busy. Will keep trying
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