When I learned our fine president signed a bill to allow horse slaughter in the U. S. again, after all the work it took to get it stopped, I was devastated, then outraged. I wrote my feelings about it under the picture below and posted it on my tumblr site and the equine Facebook pages I'm connected to. As of today I had almost four hundred likes on one Facebook page alone. Many supportive comments and shares have also been made. This is a horse loving country and we don't want to eat them, nor do we want other countries to eat our horses. The only sound reason for allowing it would be to keep them from being shipped to Mexico and Canada where the conditions are deplorable. Maybe there is some altruistic belief that here the sites would be monitored better and the horses wouldn't have to be hauled so far (without food or water) in cattle trucks (which are outlawed for horse hauling). But the reason there was such a fight to shut our slaughterhouses down was because they weren't being monitored and the standards were so low horses suffered grievously. Reports even revealed when there is difficulty killing a horse, because they do fight to avoid it, they are strung up by their hind legs alive, gutted and bled out.
If the world ever become truly civilized and advanced to a new evolutionary stage, then eating living things may finally stop. But until then many suffer more than the general populations knows.
Following my endearment I am posting a few other pictures I received on Facebook and reposted on tumblr and Facebook. They aren't so nice. Rescue organizations have worked hard to save horses neither old nor crippled, probably slow on the track, stolen, even pregnant and some babies, from the slaughterhouse. Their job will be doubly hard now. Oklahoma has already approved the re-opening of their slaughterhouses, and there is a restaurant in Philadelphia putting horse meat on the menu. To me that's just gross, and I hope they lose patrons because of it. All the eastern states are thick with horse lovers, having pony clubs, hunt clubs, point-to-point steeplechases, training stables, race tracks and breeding farms. I've seen how close together training stables are in South Carolina. It's much the same in the other states.
And I don't know about the rest of you, but I have no doubt that other slaughter animals go through similar circumstances. An Inspector is not supposed to allow a bleeding animals to be rendered for human consumption. There are good reasons for that, the most obvious is contamination, possibly infection. I've been to a cattle auction and a steer with a broken and bleeding horn cannot go for slaughter. But who knows what really happens. To see what these horses go through is enough to want to stop eating any animal I haven't witnessed killed in a thoughtful, respective, humane manner. The only thing is that often involves drugs which makes it inedible. I have seen a deer hit in the heart with a high powered bullet turn and run until it falls. It never knew what happened until it's heart stopped. This is as good as nature's way of falling to a predator. Man should be above doing it any other way.
I will now have to edit the part out of Book II of Where the Horses Run, because the slaughterhouses are again open. What I replace it with will not be nice.
When I look into the eyes of a horse I don't see just a horse. I see a friend, a confidant, a partner, a free spirit, a indepentant thinker who gives in to my requests, even when they don't make sense to him. I know his spirit and I share mine. Whether we accomplish a little or a lot, we are a team. He has given me more than any person is able and more than I can ever give back - courage, stamina, self-confidence, belief in myself and what I am capable of and more - so I care for his every need willingly. Because of him I am not afraid of the big obstacles, the deep and wide trenches or threats from those bigger and stronger than I am. I learn gentleness is wiser than harshness and one kind word of encouragement will gain more than all the loud, angry words combined. No animal opens its heart to a human so willingly, giving all its trust when everything about the life we provide for them is contrary to their nature. They should always live free, graze most of the day, wander where they wish and come to us only as a friend of their own free will. No will to be free is stronger than that of a horse, yet we confine them and they accept it. To treat them cruelly or without the consideration we expect in return is uncivilized, barbaric, selfish egocentric arrogance. The noble horse, the throne of kings, deserves his titles, and so much more. They deserve our love and respect. They will always have mine. jvd
Now for the some references from my Facebook connection - EquineRescueNetwork :
This was taken at the Kaufman, Texas horse rendering plant before it was closed, less than a decade ago.
Now for the not so nice - read the captions:
I do not know what happened to this post, why it vanished, so I'll try again. This photo was taken inside the last legal U.S. slaughterhouse, Beltex here in Texas, in 2005. The mare in the picture shipped from Arizona to Texas and probably originated in SoCal. Note her racing plates, or sort of; on her LH, the shoe is barely hanging on. Meaning that she obviously raced and went straight onto the meat wagon. Photo taken by a US DOT investigator INSIDE THE BELTEX SLAUGHTER FACILITY. This mare was NOT part of the US DOT investigation, and I don't know why the US DOT investigator took hundreds of pictures inside Beltex itself. Perhaps s/he thought the situation was horrible and knew that it's easy for the public to dismiss photos produced by "animal rights activists"? Dunno. Do know that while the US DOT rep was taking these pictures, USDA inspectors were present. They saw nothing amiss. Nobody paid for this mare's suffering. She was thrown onto a truck, shipped across the country, terrified, and slaughtered... too slow, I guess. Posted on Facebook by Linda Broussard
I can't bring myself to post the graphic pictures, but refer you to the listed site for them. This site also documents the conditions of slaughter. Horses are rendered unconscious, and bled out with a still pumping heart. Sometimes, with the rush to meet quotes, a killer won't take the time to do it correctly...as I stated about. http://www.horsefund.org/horse-slaughter-images.php
You won't be able to eat after seeing these, and certainly never a horse. You'll never look at a horse the same way knowing what they go through.
The following were taken at the Kaufman, Texas plant before it was closed.
Do these horses look disabled and ready to die? That's what they're waiting in line for.
This is an obvious violation. Read the caption.
From Jan. 1 – Nov. 17, 2005, USDA inspectors at Dallas Crown photographed violations committed under the Commercial Transport of Equines Slaughter Act, but didn’t act on them, according to a 906-page USDA document for that period obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
The document showed extensive, injuries, some intentionally inflicted by kill buyers and transporters, like eyes gouged out to keep horses from fighting on the trailers, especially since stallions were packed in next to geldings and mares. Both mares and geldings were also subjected to intentional blinding.
And this is an obviously dead horse being lifted for delivery to the rendering site. It may have been one of the lucky ones. It was probably trampled in the crowded trailer, since outlawed for horse delivery.
I can't post the picture that goes with the caption below. It's too graphic. To describe it is enough: a young horse, probably a yearling, laying on its side after, hopefully, being killed. It's left hind leg from the hock down is missing all but a piece of the bone hanging from skin.That's how the poor little girl arrived, as do many like her. Other captions say that heads and limbs and hides were left out in bins, then transported through town dripping blood.
Horses suffering from severed legs, compound fractures, head and other serious injuries, still births and death by trampling in double-decker trailers were some of the many photographs captured in the 906-page USDA document.
No licenses were revoked and no penalties were assessed until 2008, when one buyer, Leroy Baker of Ohio, was ordered to pay $162,800—but refused, calling the charges “bogus.” In May, 2011, following public pressure, the US District Court for the Northern District of Ohio ordered garnishment of Baker’s bank accounts to collect the outstanding monies. http://galleries.forbes.com/gallery/Life_in_a_Slaughter_Town%3A_Kaufman,_Texas#image=0fqG2eg24m2Dq&view=filmstrip
There are many other sites. Do a Google search for pictures horse slaughter. And make a donation, petition and write letters. If it doesn't stop it at least monitoring and enforcing might follow...for a while.
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