Archive for May 25, 2012

CBS Lays Egg on Horse Slaughter Report

Posted: May 25, 2012 by R.T. Fitch in Horse News, Horse Slaughter, Wild Burros, Wild Horses/Mustangs
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OpEd by R.T. Fitch ~ President of the Wild Horse Freedom Federation

Network Highlights Embattled Butcher and Misses Outstanding Infractions

“CBS This Morning” highlighted the alleged “plight” of a rural New Mexico slaughterhouse owner who wants to capitalize on butchering companion horses while ignoring and sweeping under the carpet outstanding the USDA suspension of inspectors for cruelty violations.

Click (HERE) to download USDA document

Rick de los Santos speaks to CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker who never asks about his current inhumane and abuse allegations from the USDA

In a televised broadcast, this day, CBS centered a three minute clip on one Ricardo De Los Santos, owner of Valley Meats in Roswell, NM and his alleged “struggle” to bring “outsourced” slaughtering of American horses back to the U.S. and to save his business from total collapse.

Click (HERE) to read text of broadcast

As is the way with most mainstream media CBS failed to include the fact that Santo’s slaughter plant was shut down in February, by the USDA, due to the inhumane manner in which he and his staff handled animals intended for slaughter.  Likewise CBS used inaccurate and leading statements such as:

“Over a hundred thousand of these animals are already rounded up every year and slaughtered across the border…barely making a dent in the U.S. horse overpopulation problem. Domesticated horses are abandoned and wild horses simply left to breed unchecked.”

Such statements are unsubstantiated and false to the core.  There is no noted overpopulation problem with the exception of the major breeding conglomerates such as the AQHA, APA, the racing industry and the BLM has all but eradicated the few remaining wild horses and burros from their rightful land in ten western states.  To make such broad sweeping comments while showing a known and documented animal abuser somberly walking amongst his kill pen, hooks and chains (not to mention kissing his wife) is unconscionable.

CBS owes a direct and immediate apology to the 80% of the American public who denounce and object to the concept of horse slaughter being brought back to the United States while the network reassess it’s practice of propagating pity about a documented abuser who deserves nothing less than scorn and shame for the atrocities that he has already committed.

Uptick: the show’s hosts were appalled at the prospect of horse slaughter.

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NJ Assembly Approves Dancer’s Bill Banning Slaugther of Horses for Human Consumption

Posted: May 25, 2012 by R.T. Fitch in Horse News, Horse Slaughter
Tags: , , ,
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Press Release from the NJ Assembly Republicans

BILL WOULD PROHIBIT SLAUGHTER OR SALE OF HORSE MEAT IN NEW JERSEY MONTHS AFTER FEDERAL BAN LIFTED

Sending a strong message that New Jersey does not eat horse meat, the General Assembly approved bipartisan legislation that would ban the slaughter or sale of horses for human consumption.

Assemblyman Ronald S. Dancer, R-Ocean, Burlington , Middlesex and Mercer, introduced the measure, A-2023, after a federal ban was lifted last fall that reverses a 2006 decision by Congress to withdraw funding to inspect plants that butchered horses – effectively banning horse consumption.

“New Jersey does not eat horse meat and our horses will not be taken from the stable to a table,” Dancer said. “The horse is New Jersey’s state animal and we appreciate these magnificent animals for their grace and beauty. We do not want them butchered or sold to slaughterhouses in our communities for human consumption.”

The bill would prohibit anyone from knowingly slaughtering or selling a horse for human consumption. Violators would be guilty of a disorderly persons offense with penalties up to $100 and 30 days imprisonment plus civil fines between $500 and $1,000 for each horse slaughtered or each carcass or meat product sold. The penalties and fines are consistent with the current state law in effect that bans the slaughter of man’s best friend, the dog, for human consumption of dog meat.

Although there is strong bipartisan support in Congress to resume the federal ban through the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, Dancer pointed to New Mexico where a slaughterhouse is trying to open and has an application pending before the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“New Jersey is taking the lead on this issue to make sure horses aren’t taken from the pasture to the plate,” Dancer said. “There are several organizations that provide adoption homes for horses, rather than sending them to slaughterhouses for their meat.”

It has bipartisan support from Assemblymen Gilbert “Whip” Wilson and Nelson Albano.

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