Female

Although my spiritual Ancestors, the Sarmatians, ate horse meat, as do many of their cultural descendants, this does not equate to the horror of "civilized" slaughtering. They lived with their horses, in nearly wild herds, they knew their dependence on them, that their survival was totally wrapped up with the survival of the horses. They didn't hide the killing from "polite" eyes while running the terrified animals through shoots smelling of the blood of their fallen comrades. I doubt highly that they rendered them while still alive and screaming.

Americans do not eat horse meat. It is wrong that OUR horses are being slaughtered for a wealthy foreign market, neatly hidden from most people's eyes. Nor is the slaughter of horses done in a remotely humane manner. It is done primarily to make a buck and/or to get rid of "inconvenient" animals. Is there money in it? There is a total relationship between the legality of horse slaughter in our country and the rate of horse theft because MOST STOLEN HORSES ARE STOLEN TO TURN A QUICK BUCK AND SLAUGHTER IS THE WAY TO DO THAT. When California outlawed horse slaughter the horse theft rate dropped.

There is a persistent myth being spread that if we stop all horse slaughter in the US we'll be overrun by unwanted horses which will then face greater abuse. John Holland's "Study of the Relationship Between Horse Slaughter and Reported Cases of Abuse and Neglect" www.stophorseslaughter.com/The_...r.pdf soundly refutes this, and is also the source of the above comment regarding California. There are also two responses to the article being primarily cited to "prove" that Kentucky will be destroyed by the end of horse slaughter. www.stophorseslaughter.com/kyarticle.htm

There has been progress recently. Texas finally had a federal court uphold the law against horse slaughter in the state. They are the home of two of the three foreign owned slaughter houses that slaughter horses in our country. More recently, a federal court established that the USDA could not allow their inspectors to take money to inspect these three plants, something that was started after the ruling that federal funds could not be used to have these plants inspected. So all horse slaughter, at the last reports I heard, has stopped in the US.

This is good news. But it's not the end. Horses are still being transported from here to Canada and Mexico for slaughter. Please sign this petition www.thepetitionsite.com/takeac...1181096 and write your Senators to get S.311.IS through the Senate ! H.R.503.IH, the House version of the bill to protect horses has gone through! This will not only strengthen the measures already in place to stop horse slaughter here, but also end the TRANSPORTATION of horses for slaughter.

Stop Horse Slaughter!!! www.stophorseslaughter.com/

"Whenever people say 'We mustn't be sentimental,' you can take it they are about to do something cruel. And if they add, 'We must be realistic,' they mean they are going to make money out of it." Bridget Brophy (quoted from "Dark Horses and Black Beauties")