Straight from the Horse's Heart

Guest OpEd by Vicki Tobin ~ VP of the Equine Welfare Alliance

…if the voices of horse owners and advocates are heard

As expected, Wallis has issued another of her manifestos. Of note is her wise decision to go with a cartoon as a logo because her ramblings get more and more comical with each new email. As usual, the issue of drug residue traceability in horses is completely ignored.

As with all of Wallis’ incoherent emails, you must read between the lines. So let’s dissect the nonsensical paragraphs…

The amendment accepted by the House Appropriations Committee isn’t much of a surprise, it’s just a bump in the road to reestablishing humane, government-regulated equine processing in the United States. The Senate has wisely refused to include such language in its Ag spending bill, or the Farm Bill, so we’ll do what we did a year ago: remove the short-sighted language in conference committee should it come to that. Bottom Line – We are confident wiser heads will ultimately prevail.

What she is saying is that she knows her efforts will never succeed. So to make certain she gets her way, she will have it done behind closed doors where no one can debate the issue and where horse owners and horse advocates cannot have their voices heard.

This is akin to what they do with the Horse Slaughter Prevention legislation. They know they will lose if the bills go to the floor for a vote so they stall, block and place secret holds on the legislation.

The Moran amendment does NOT deal with the real issues of starving horses, or the demise of the horse as a valued domestic animal as indicated by the more than 70% drop in numbers of horses available for pleasure, sport, and work, nor does it deal with all of the problems that have happened to the horse world as a direct result of HSUS action since 2007.

This is perhaps one of the most irrational things Wallis has ever penned. She appears to be saying that we do not have enough horses left because we have not killed enough of them. This statement makes no sense on either side of the looking glass. Horse slaughter does not deal with the real issues of starving horses because they are not the horses going to slaughter—not to mention that they were not raised as food animals and therefore, should not go to slaughter.

The Moran amendment would, in fact, increase and exacerbate these problems by rendering literally worthless hundreds of thousands of valuable horses as completely unmarketable…undoubtedly increasing the burden on local agencies and taxpayers to deal with them…a loss and a cost, including thousands of equine jobs, that would far exceed the potential revenue to every level of government generated by normal commerce and a free market.

This makes no sense. Why would she want to kill hundreds of thousands of valuable horses? Why should local taxpayers have to deal with them? Isn’t that the owner’s responsibility? What a great lesson to teach your children on the responsibilities of owning an animal.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t equine services (other than renderers) need live horses to work with. I’ve never heard of farriers working on dead horses or feed and tack providers selling to dead horses. Perhaps Wallis is planning on hiring farriers to trim hooves before they’re butchered. Or maybe she is planning a “last supper” for all of them and then buying new trailers to haul them to the plant.

It is sad that opponents of equine processing contend it’s okay to euthanize an unwanted horse, but it’s not okay to use exactly the same methods to do so under a USDA-regulated, modern and humane system that allows the horse to provide economic value to the farmer/owner and high grade protein to the ultimate purchaser of horse meat, whether here or abroad.

An entire paragraph that is one sentence! What is sad is that anyone would believe this horse manure. Sue, there is a difference between having regulations and enforcing them. Is this going to be the same type of modern plant like the Grandin plant in Canada that was shut down by the government or the same type of plant that had to bolt a horse 11 times? Perhaps it will be like the plant that shoots both eyes out and still must shoot a third time to drop the horse. Yes, we all know the type of regulated plants she will open. We had them here in the US and both states shut them down (not HSUS as she claims). We have the FOIAs and GAO report from the US plants that were USDA regulated. It is shame she continues to ignore the facts and keeps repeating her mantra; humane and regulated. There is no evidence there is such a thing as humane and regulated from any horse slaughter plant that has slaughtered US horses.

Also note, there is no mention of where she is going to get millions to fix the non-existent transport program, inspections, start a national passport system, pay for wastewater clean-up, litigation to get the plants to pay their fines, law enforcement, etc. It’s okay to shove that down the throats of taxpayers so she can kill horses but perish the thought of using taxpayer dollars for a program that would actually help horses.

Would you like a side of Clenbuterol with your bute burger to go along with all that protein? Perhaps a dash of Ivermectin?

Jim Moran of Virginia is an “inside the beltway congressman” doing the bidding of the largest, most aggressive political animal rights organization-yet another Washington D.C. special interest group raising money by vilifying the hard-working, honest, taxpaying agricultural people of America. While it is clear that Jim Moran, HSUS, and a few urban members do not understand the welfare of horses or the economics of rural America, we are confident that the Senate will stand firm for horse owners.

Jim Moran does not do “bidding” for anyone. How dare she, a state representative that does the bidding for a foreign meat industry [not the horse industry] make such an absurd, false statement about a highly respected member of Congress, He does what he does because it is the right thing to do. Whether you are for or against horse slaughter, human food safety should be a top priority with everyone. Our meat industry can ill afford another black eye and that is exactly the unintended consequence of horse slaughter. The callous disregard for food safety in horses and trying to find any possible way to get around food safety laws has everyone questioning the safety of our own food supply. The budget for inspectors was slashed and she wants to add to the workload that will take away from our own food inspections. Please take note that not one legislator that supports horse slaughter addresses this issue or the safety of horse meat. Sue has them trained well.

Already there are plans in 18 states and 12 tribal nations to build modern processing plants; USDA has already received applications for slaughter certification and more are in the pipeline.

Archive this statement! When it doesn’t happen, you can rest assured, she’ll say she was misquoted. Case in point, Mountain Grove, MO. She was run out on a rail and then, instead of admitting defeat, she states she had already ruled out that location. If you did, Sue, then please tell everyone why you would schedule a meeting to try to sell the plant that nobody wanted only to be shot down, yet again, AFTER you had ruled out the location?

Is that like losing the amendment vote and then telling everyone what a great job they did? Or lying to your supporters by telling them the calls were three to one against the amendment when know it was the exact opposite? Sooner or later, your minions will wake up and start questioning you. And we all look forward to what you will tell them.

And be sure to share that drug paper one of your supporters is working on. It is sure to be masterpiece when they still don’t know the difference between race day drug testing and food safety testing. Before the document is released, you might to advise them to read the recent EU report and the white paper from Ireland that you keep ignoring instead of the 2008 report you keep quoting that references protocols, not results.

Oh, and BTW, a voice vote carries as much weight as a roll call.

 

 

Related articles

• Moran Amendment to Ban Horse Slaughter Passes Appropriations Committee (rtfitchauthor.com)
• Update: California Equipment Rental Company Bought Oregon Land for Horse Slaughter Plant (rtfitchauthor.com)
• Moran Calls for Ban on Horse Slaughter (rtfitchauthor.com)
• Breaking News: FRER Discovers Documented Efforts to Begin Horse Slaughter in Missouri (rtfitchauthor.com)
• Spread the Word: Members Push for Passage of American Horse Slaughter Act (rtfitchauthor.com)
• Media Update: Horse Slaughter Debate Comes to PBS/NPR Radio on Friday (rtfitchauthor.com)