Wild Horsemeat...

[Mutley Hyde]

Wild Horses Rounded Up in West First to Be Slaughtered Under New Law

RENO, Nev. (AP) - Six wild horses rounded up on federal land in the West and sold to a private owner have been slaughtered - four months after Congress did away with protection for wild mustangs, a government official said Thursday.
"This is something we regret and are very disappointed" about, said Celia Boddington, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in Washington, D.C. "We make every possible effort when the horses are sold to make sure the animals are placed in good homes for long-term care."

In December, Congress replaced a 34-year-old ban on slaughtering any mustang with a law that allows the sale of older and unwanted horses. But the Bureau of Land Management says it is trying to prevent sales of horses for their meat.

The animals up for sale are captured during periodic government roundups aimed at reducing the wild population. About 37,000 wild horses and burros roam the Western range, about 9,000 more than the BLM has said the natural forage can sustain.

BLM has sold and delivered nearly 1,000 horses since the new law passed. Some 950 more have been sold and are awaiting delivery.

"This is the first time we're aware" any have been sold for slaughter, Boddington said.

Wild horse advocates had feared the new law would mean animals would end up as horse meat for human consumption overseas, or as dog food.

"The BLM says they prescreen the buyers but obviously that isn't working," said Nancy Perry, the Humane Society's vice president for government affairs.

The BLM is investigating this month's sale of six wild horses to an Oklahoma man and their subsequent slaughter at a commercial packing plant in Illinois, Boddington said.

Now I'm no animal rights activist, by a long shot, but damn, that's just fuckin' wrong.

And the claim is that the land can't support that many animals? If so, then how was it able to sustain them enough to get to these numbers? Looks like it's supporting them just fine.

[NORML54601]

Originally Posted by Mutley Hyde

Now I'm no animal rights activist, by a long shot, but damn, that's just fuckin' wrong.

And the claim is that the land can't support that many animals? If so, then how was it able to sustain them enough to get to these numbers? Looks like it's supporting them just fine.

Eventually the numbers grow so large that there are no natuaral resources left to support them. See Oil, crude. This seems to be a better soloution than large numbers of horses starving to death.

[Mutley Hyde]

That's the thing - are they starving? Where are the figures of emaciated wild horses? I must admit, this is the first I've looked at this, but it's interesting that the article mentions nothing about such figures.

If the horses are in fact suffering, then I can see how the new law was well intentioned.

[Mutley Hyde]

35 More Wild Horses Killed as Interior and Ford Team to Save 52

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Interior Department abruptly halted delivery of mustangs to buyers while it investigates the slaughter of 41 wild horses in the West this month.

By enlisting last-minute financial help Monday from Ford Motor Co. - makers of the Mustang sports car - the agency saved the lives of 52 other mustangs.

The latest horses killed came from a broker who obtained them from the Rosebud Sioux Tribe of South Dakota. The tribe traded 87 of the 105 aging horses it bought from the government for younger ones. Interior officials said they would review whether a federal contract had been violated. Tribal officials were unavailable for comment.

"I don't think it's fair to say they violated the agreement," Kathleen Clarke, director of Interior's Bureau of Land Management, told The Associated Press. "They were not traded to the animal processing facility. They were trading to a private individual."

The Sioux tribe had to sign an agreement with BLM that it would "provide humane care" to each of the animals, documents show. Clarke said Interior's top lawyer was investigating that arrangement and an earlier sale of six wild horses to an Oklahoma man.

The department also is investigating this month's sale of six wild horses to an Oklahoma man and their slaughter at the Cavel plant.

Just last week, six were slaughtered that had been sold to a private owner.

Both incidents occurred at the Cavel International Inc. commercial packing plant in DeKalb, Ill.

"It's incredibly disappointing," Clarke said. "It is not our intent to have these animals killed. That's why we acted very aggressively."

Congress in December replaced the 34-year-old ban on slaughtering mustangs with a law permitting older and unwanted horses to be sold. Wild horse advocates warned that will allow the animals to be killed and sold for horse meat, as dog food or for people to eat overseas.

Two Democrats and two Republicans in the House planned to draw attention Tuesday to legislation that would reverse the change in law that Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., had sponsored.

"Horses that were free for 20 years are now being captured in a completely strange situation and subject to being killed," Trina Bellak, president of the advocacy group American Horse Defense Fund, said Monday.

BLM officials, tipped off by Agriculture Department inspectors, on Monday persuaded the plant managers to stop. That saved the lives of 16 mustangs about to be killed.

The plant agreed to give the horses food and water until BLM officials can pick them up. BLM officials also intervened to save 36 mustangs in Nebraska that were on their way to the Cavel plant. Those horses are to be picked up separately Tuesday and kept in the Midwest.

BLM, which captures the animals during government roundups aimed at reducing the wild population, has sold and delivered nearly 1,000 horses since the new law passed. BLM says 37,000 wild horses and burros forage its lands, 9,000 more than Western ranges can sustain.

Clarke said she ordered an immediate halt to the delivery of some 950 more that have been sold. "We will not be making any more deliveries until we can check on the situation," she said. "We just want to reassess our program."

Clarke said she'd already been talking with Ford about such a partnership even before she called the company for help Monday. "We do not have any clear authority to buy private animals," Clarke said. She persuaded Ford to pledge $19,000 to ship and care for the mustangs.

---

On the Net:

BLM: http://www.blm.gov

[DVD Polizei]

It's too bad people can't be shot for being in areas which can't sustain forage.

[kvrdave]

This is my new favorite repeal of a law. What exactly is wrong with killing horses for their meat if there are people (or likely dogs) that will eat it? We do it with cows, chickens, salmon, etc. Horses suck.

[DVD Polizei]

I can't argue with that. My point is, I simply want to have a little human meat here and there.

[Mutley Hyde]

You bastards.

"And the 2005 'Best Relevant Use of a Smiley' award goes to (tears into envelope)... kvrdave!!"

And I do like your idea, Polizei.

[Rockmjd23]

Originally Posted by DVD Polizei

I can't argue with that. My point is, I simply want to have a little human meat here and there.

Who's up for some longpig?

[kvrdave]

Here's a bump from 2006
http://www.hsus.org/pets/pets_relate...e_victory.html

In a key victory for protecting American horses from slaughter, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 503, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, by a vote of 263 to 146 on Sept. 7.


Passage of the bill marks a historic moment in a groundswell effort to ban the slaughter of American horses for human consumption abroad. More than 20,000 individuals told The HSUS that they called their representatives in the days leading up to the vote, urging their support of the bill. The callers added their voices to more than 500 organizations and editorial boards across the nation that have been calling for an end to the practice.

The legislation, which enjoyed more than 200 cosponsors and bipartisan support, was designed to stop the slaughter of nearly 100,000 American horses annually in three foreign-owned slaughter plants in the United States. Their meat is shipped overseas, primarily to France, Belgium and Japan, where it is considered a delicacy.

"What we are exposing today is a brutal, shadowy, shameful practice," said Rep. John Sweeney (R-NY), who introduced the bill along with Reps. Ed Whitfield (R-KY), John Spratt (D-SC) and Nick Rahall (D-WV).

In the days leading up to the vote, the opposition stepped up efforts to defend the slaughter industry, but two amendments that would have gutted the bill were defeated in votes (Goodlatte Amendment | King Amendment), and the day went to horses, lauded as an icon and symbol of American heritage.

"The horse is tied to the spirit of the American frontier," Rep. Whitfield told the house in debate. "Most importantly, the horse is a companion."

With the majority of Americans and the U.S. House of Representatives on the record supporting a permanent ban on horse slaughter, the Senate will now take up the bill for consideration.

“Horse slaughter is simply indefensible, and polls show that the vast majority of Americans agree,” HSUS President and CEO Wayne Pacelle said. “As we build on today’s successful vote and take the debate to the Senate, we urge humane-minded citizens to call and write their senators and get this legislation passed once and for all.”

So it was passed in 2006 that slaughtering of horses was illegal.

Here are a few quick facts in case you didn't know....

Horse meat was used largely in pet food in America. In other parts of the world it is used for human consumption and is very common in France. Other parts of the horse were used as well, obviously, such as for glue, etc.

So, what are the unintended consequences of this fantastic ban?

I live in the wild west and not far from the Yakama Indian Reservation. The Yakama's have a lot of wild horses. They use to have a slaughter house for horses and make money with it. Okay, so Indians are out of a job, but so are Hookah bar owners in WA, so who cares.

There is now no market for old horses that use to go to slaughter so one of two things happen. They are put down by a vet (I've never heard of this, actually) or more often they are let loose on the reservation. My ranch friends have found about 10 horses on reservation land (and their own land from them wandering off) that are obviously domesticated horses that were let free. The horse shoes on them is the big clue.

But so what? They get to live free in the wild, right? Domesticated horses do not know how to survive in the wild. I have personally seen several dead on the side of the hwy. on the reservation side of the fence. Here is what happens. Domesticated horses are used to fences and when they need water, they typically will just follow fences until they find it. But there isn't any close to where most are let free, so they die of dehydration along the road. They are also not accustomed to finding grass in the snow, so they starve to death because no one throws out hay to them.

Just old horses? Nope, the cost of hay doubled in the last year and people haven't been able to even give horses away because of the cost associated with them. So those horses are also dropped off on the reservation. But it is part of the circle of life, right? Well, the coyotes are happy and fed. And now their numbers are growing too much. Beyond that, the pasture grass on the reservation is slowly going away. Actually, not so slowly. And horses don't graze like cows, they eat to the dirt and it is hard for the grass to come back, especially in arid E. Washington. So the horses come down from the mountains and see hay ground of other farmers. The farmers have the legal right to protect their crop, and the horses end up shot. One farmer I know has shot 60 horses this year to protect his hay crop. And now the coyote population grows more.

But you can still slaughter horses in Canada. So a number of ranchers are taking a few semis filled with horses up to Canada to have them slaughtered. The demand is way down, and the amount they make off the horses will just cover the expenses of the trip, but they are hopeful that it will be a step in controlling the population of carrion animals.

Great fucking deal. Horses still die, but now are shot like deer and left to rot. Dying painfully. Those that aren't lucky enough to get shot starve to death slowly or die of dehydration slowly.

Great job animal rights activists. What could possibly go wrong.

You all know I have no love for horses, but I also wouldn't want any animal to die like these are.

[classicman2]

Well a former Kentucky Derby winner was syndicated to a breeding farm in Japan.

He proved not to be a very good sire.

The syndicate sold him to a Japanese pet food company.

You can guess the rest.

The racing thoroughbred industry is really fighting this law that allows the slaughter of wild horses.

[kvrdave]

Reread.

[orangecrush]

Originally Posted by kvrdave

Reread.

Maybe classicman hates horses more than you do?

[classicman2]

Originally Posted by orangecrush18

Maybe classicman hates horses more than you do?

I agree with Bobby Frankel, Hall of Famer Trainer.

'I know of two things that God loves in this world - mommas & thoroughbred race horses.'

[kvrdave]

It has been banned since 2006. The fallout sucks.

[Ky-Fi]

As usual, the movies have already provided us with the method of dealing with evil, greedy businessmen who round up and shoot wild horses:

[kuroiinu]

Originally Posted by kvrdave

I also wouldn't want any animal to die like these are.

If you feel sorry for them, take a few home.

[Dr Mabuse]

Originally Posted by kvrdave

This is my new favorite repeal of a law. What exactly is wrong with killing horses for their meat if there are people (or likely dogs) that will eat it? We do it with cows, chickens, salmon, etc. Horses suck.

I hate horses so much I'm shaking right now.

[kvrdave]

Originally Posted by kuroiinu

If you feel sorry for them, take a few home.

My not wanting them to die a horrible death is barely strong enough for me to bump a thread. It doesn't extend to any further effort.

Hell, and even then I am really just more pissed at the stupid policy and trying to pull on the heartstrings of people who do care about animal suffering.

[starman9000]

North Dakota is considering adding a horse slaughtering plant for ya dave:

BISMARCK - The North Dakota House this afternoon passed a bill authorizing a state study of a horse slaughter plant in the state. House Bill 1496 passed on an 89-5 tally.

Supporters told of the thousands of unwanted, old, abandoned, unmanageable or injured horses for which there is no readily available humane disposal because other slaughter plants in the U.S. have closed.

The funds for the study would come from the state Agricultural Products Utilization Commission.

http://www.inforum.com/event/article...62/group/home/