Austin, TX (May 9, 2003) – An opinion poll conducted this week reveals that an overwhelming majority of Texas voters (72%) are opposed to the slaughtering of horses for human consumption. Texas is home to the two remaining horse slaughter houses in the United States.  Both are foreign owned, and the meat is shipped to Europe and Asia where it is considered a delicacy.

The survey was conducted May 4-6, 2003 by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research for the Animal Welfare Institute, Blue Horse Charities, a corporation organized by Fasig-Tipton Co., Inc., the country’s oldest Thoroughbred auction house, which conducts several sales each year at Lone Star Park and the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, the largest equine rescue in the country.  The survey was commissioned to determine public sentiment on the issue, in light of pending legislation to overturn existing Texas law which outlaws the slaughter of horses for human consumption.  Earlier this year a Texas State Representative introduced a measure to decriminalize this activity – so long as the horsemeat is consumed elsewhere.

In response to the question, “Do you favor or oppose changing state law to legalize the slaughter of horses and foreign export of horsemeat for human consumption?” 77% of those polled said they opposed.  “The horse holds a unique place in the lives of Americans, so we weren’t surprised to learn that 77% of Texans oppose the legislation pending in the state legislature,” said John Hettinger, a major shareholder of Fasig-Tipton Co., Inc.

The survey also revealed that horse slaughter is an unknown industry to most Texans, with 89% of those questioned stating they were previously unaware of the practice.  Even fewer realize the cruelty involved throughout the entire process, from livestock auction to slaughter.  Because horses are not raised for human consumption in the US, slaughterhouses and their middlemen known as “killer buyers” have to travel throughout the entire US from auction to auction to fill their quotas, often buying from owners who are unaware that their animals will be killed and their flesh served in European restaurants.

Diana Pikulski, Executive Director of the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation says “There are ample, quality sanctuaries across the United States that can take in horses in need of homes.  We have 4 major farms at correctional facilities where inmates and juvenile offenders derive emotional as well as educational benefits while helping care for the horses.  Additionally we have 7 other satellite farms around the country.”

Not all legislation on this issue is bad.  A federal bill, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (HR 857), was recently introduced by Representative John Sweeney (R-NY).  This humane bill will not only ban the slaughter of horses for human consumption, but also the export of live horses for slaughter abroad.

This poll was conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, Inc. of Washington, D.C. from May 4 through May 6, 2003 for the Animal Welfare Institute, Blue Horse Charities and the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation.  This survey or any of the information contained herein may not be used without the express written permission of the Animal Welfare Institute.

Deseret Morning News editorial

Published: Monday, Sept. 18, 2006 8:55 p.m. MDT

A horse is a horse, of course. Unless you plan to cook it up for dinner. Then it’s a sacred cow.That was the message from the U.S. House of Representatives, anyway, when it voted 263 to 146 to approve the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act. The bill will keep horses from being slaughtered and sold as dinner steaks.

Utah’s congressional contingent voted against the bill, feeling it was pointless and ill-timed.

We feel the timing was right. And the point was this: The amount of respect a nation shows its domestic animals is a barometer of its humanity. Think of the wholesale “dog slaughter” in China this summer that triggered consternation around the globe.

Since America was founded, the horse has been an emblem of nobility, grace and power here. Some argue that horses — not dogs — should actually wear the monicker “man’s best friend.”

Congress was simply saying Americans shouldn’t eat their friends.

The U.S. Humane Society was first out of the gate to push for “house slaughter” legislation, and it has ridden the issue hard. The society’s Web site is awash with comments bubbling with indignation. Opening with a comment from oilman T. Boone Pickens that horse slaughter for meat is “America’s dirty little secret,” the Humane Society tugs that secret out into the daylight.

To wit: Last year, not only U.S. horses were slaughtered for meat here, but 7.5 percent of those horses were imported from Canada for the express purpose of butchering.

One slaughterhouse in Texas made $12 million in revenue by slaughtering horses for meat but paid only $5 in taxes.

In 2002, Ferdinand — the winner of the 1986 Kentucky Derby — was slaughtered, packaged as meat and sent to Japan where he was served for dinner.

None of the slaughterhouses in the United States are owned by U.S. citizens. Yet each year, those “abattoirs” butcher 100,000 American horses and sell the meat to France, Belgium and Japan.

In slaughterhouses, horses are killed with a “captive bolt gun” that drives a metal spike into their heads. Sometimes the horses are only stunned, so are hoisted by a rear leg to unceremoniously have their throats slit.

Such details should not only make horse lovers cringe but make everyone balk before ever saying again they are hungry enough to “eat a horse.”

Source: The Desert News website (http://deseretnews.com)

Sacred Horses

Congress has decided the French and Germans should stop eating American horses. Why? Because the American horse is a sacred cow in Washington, DC.

Of course, being professional politicians they never mentioned Frenchmen or Germans or sacred cows. They just changed the language of federal meat inspection laws in a way to prohibit horse slaughter in the United States for human consumption.

Out here on the prairie we don’t eat our horses, although some of our ancestors found it necessary to do so at times, up to and including during World War II.

Generally, we don’t eat bugs, bird nests, kangaroos and snails either, but we don’t care if others do.

Our horses were a sacred cow in only one regard. You could be hanged for stealing one.

Congress has no idea what sacred means. The buffalo are sacred to the Indians, but they eat them. Many things in nature were sacred to the natives of America. That meant they had proper respect for those things. It was not a prohibition on using them.

Congress seems to have taken the Hindu view of sacred cows and applied it to the horse. They can’t eat one, but they can dump the carcass in the nearest river when it dies.

Do you think that doesn’t happen in India? Do you think something like it won’t happen here? Do you think every owner of an old sick horse will pay $200 to euthanize it? If so, you might qualify for Congress.

One of the original supporters of this measure reversed his position when he found out that it will not help horses, may move the slaughter to Canada or Mexico, or may cause thousands of old horses to suffer slow and agonizing deaths from disease. Slaughter is more humane.

But, a good set of facts has never deterred Congress from doing the politically correct thing, once it determines what that is.

I heard about an old dog like that. He got “brain lock” about every six months and would just take off. You could see it coming in his face. His eyes would glaze over and his brows would knot up. No bribe and no threat could dissuade him from his course while that look was there.

Congress has brain lock on this issue. There is no talking to them about better, wiser, more efficient, more humane alternatives. They are going to make their run.

When its over, they will find this: the federal government owns about 56,500 wild horses and burros. The herd doubles every five years. About 24,000 of those are in holding facilities and cost us $20 million a year. That can’t continue forever.

Don’t worry. Brain lock doesn’t last forever. Sooner or later the dog catcher shows up.

Source: South Dakota Office of the Secretary of The Department of Agriculture’s website (http://www.state.sd.us/doa)