Written by PETA
Although technically spring has not yet sprung, we seem to be doing a kind of early spring cleaning here at the Files, with updates on some issues that we haven't discussed in a while. First, it was ONPRC and now, horse slaughter.
"Horse slaughter." Ugh. Just the phrase alone turns your stomach, doesn't it? Well, it's time to turn that nausea into action by supporting H.R. 503, The Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act of 2009, which is currently making its way through Congress.
Some background: In recent years, animal advocates have succeeded in ending horse slaughter in the U.S., but now, greedy folks determined to profit from their horses even in death have begun sending horses to Mexico and Canada, where slaughter is still legal. Horses suffer tremendously on the long trip to shoddy foreign slaughterhouses, often arriving with all kinds of injuries and illnesses, only to be shot or stabbed repeatedly in the neck and spine. Paralyzed but still conscious, they're shackled and hoisted up by one leg so that their throats can be cut. Then they hang there, bleeding to death.
That's where H.R. 503 comes in. If it becomes law, this legislation would prohibit the slaughter and/or export of horses for human consumption. It's a huge step in the right direction and could greatly reduce the number—and therefore the suffering—of the estimated 100,000 horses who are exported for slaughter every year.
Please contact your U.S. representative and politely ask him or her to cosponsor and vote for H.R. 503.
If you want to do even more to protect horses, additional measures are needed, including specifically making horse abandonment a crime (as Oregon is currently considering) with stiff penalties on a state-by-state level; requiring people who can no longer provide for their horses to find new homes for them or have them euthanized by injection; and funding enforcement to prevent the smuggling of horses across our nation's borders under false pretenses. To learn how to become a citizen lobbyist for horses and other animals, check this out.
Written by Jeff Mackey
Drew- I understand your point, however, I think you might not have all the information. Not all the horses that are sent are lame or injured. Furthermore do you realize how they are actually transported outside the U.S. and then killed when shipped to outside the U.S.? They are shipped in very cramped conditions often without water or food for hours on end and many times in awful heat or bitter frostbite cold temperatures. They are not killed in a a humane manner at all. One method is they are put in small wooden pens with high walls and they cannot move. They are then repeatedly stabbed in the back with a large knife till they are weak. I'm sure you can imagine this is very painful. They are unable to defend themselves and are then hoisted up and their throats slit and left to bleed to death. Is this what you are okay with? I can't imagine that this sounds good to you and you are okay with horeses going to slaughter houses outside the U.S. to be killed like this. The big thing for bill H.R. 503 is to stop Horses from being shipped outside the U.S. where there are no regulations on how the horses are put to death. Yes, many also believe that horses should not be consumed or put to death at all. But one step at a time. If we can keep the horses in the U.S. we have more control over how they are treated, put to death (if they are lame or inured etc), and cared for. So this bill is a very good thing.
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