by Frank Buchman of the Kansas Rural Messenger
“Americans don’t eat horse meat…”
“The ‘bleeding hearts’ got reprieve again.”
Eye to the Soul by Terry Fitch of Wild Horse Freedom Federation
It sounds terribly rude, and crude, but that’s exactly the way one lifelong horse breeder, champion-horse exhibitor, internationally-recognized horse merchandizer, and true horse lover evaluated announcement that a horse slaughter facility to be open in Missouri at this time is not operating due to intrusion from politically-instigated opposition.
The plant at Rockville, Mo., population 166, was set to be in business by summer’s end, employing four dozen people.
Residents there had embraced turning a defunct beef processing plant into the nation’s first horse slaughtering facility since 2006.
“The whole town is for it,” proclaimed Mayor David Moore in June.
Now it looks like horse meat won’t be the town’s salvation, at least not anytime soon.
It could take months for a judge to resolve all the questions surrounding the plant’s ownership.
And, that seems to be the least of the problems facing the horse slaughtering industry in Missouri, and nationwide.
Slaughtering of horses for human consumption could be legislatively abolished, before it has the chance to revive itself.
Congress in effect banned the practice in 2006 by cutting funding for United States Department of Agriculture inspections of horse meat. Then late last year, funding was restored, making horse slaughtering legal again.
Rep. Sue Wallis, R-Wyo., the nation’s most visible horse slaughtering proponent, announced plans for the Rockville plant in June.
It was her second attempt in less than a year to bring a
slaughtering house to Missouri. But, Wallis hadn’t yet purchased the plant.
When Cynthia MacPherson, a Mountain Grove, Mo., lawyer , heard about Wallis’ plans, she looked into the plant and found a series of shell corporations and unusual transfers of the property.
MacPherson tracked down one of the plant’s creditors and sued on his behalf, asking a judge to block any sale of the plant until her client was repaid.
Plans by Wallis earlier this year to open a slaughtering house near Mountain Grove were thwarted by MacPherson, who rallied opposition through webpages and fervent pleas to the City Council.
Wallis eventually abandoned the Mountain Grove proposal, and then a few weeks later revealed plans for the plant at Rockville, about 90 miles south of Kansas City, because of its location.
“If you draw a 500-mile circle around southwest Missouri, you enclose more than 30 percent of the horses in the United States,” she said.
Now, Wallis and her business partner, lawyer Dan Erdel of Mexico, Mo., have announced strategies for a facility in eastern Oklahoma, even though state law there prohibits horses from being slaughtered for human consumption.
However, in June, Rep. Jim Moran, R-Va., moved to strip USDA of money to perform the inspections. “Americans don’t eat horse meat, and taxpayers shouldn’t have to subsidize foreign palates,” Moran rationalized.
“When more than 80 percent of the American population opposes this practice, it’s high time we put an end, once and for all, to industrial horse slaughter,” Moran said of the provision that is part of an agricultural appropriations bill pending before Congress…continued
Click (HERE) to read the “rest of the story” and to comment
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Categories: Horse News, Horse Slaughter
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
For me this whole entire disgusting mess is nothing but disgusting, we are referring to the most Magnificent animal ever to grace this Planet, the horses are ecologically perfect for the environment and their services are beyond great I dont need to mention them we all know exactly what they are,too numerous to say take up to much room !!!!!! My My what darn part of they have families , and and are genetically perfect they are Natures most illustrious BALANCE !!!!! Instead of trying to line their pockets with GREEN, they should be figuring out how to enhance them and protect them !!!!! And worry more how to get rid of all the ugliness and greed surrounding them because they cannot protect themselves here, !!!! Concentrate on ridding the US of Deceases and the rats, then there doing something !!!!! I could not ever eat any of my AWESOME Loving Friends or even think about it !!!!!Under any circumstances !!!!!! The horses enhance all of our lives directly or indirectly with Beauty and services and learning !!!! Get a grip Greedy people !!!!!!
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Well said.
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I read the “read the rest of the story” and comments. Burksbound: Thank you for your great comment. And lawyer MacPherson: Thank you for your great work. All great works for the horses (which is the same thing as for my soul). We’ve all seen the slaughter plants and what goes on there. We’ve all seen the stuffed transport trucks. We’ve all heard about the “disposable” nature of the racing industry. We’ve all seen the consequences of irresponsible ownership. And, we all know how the money machine works. There is no good argument for needlessly slaughtering horses. It stinks and permeates our existence like a slithering demon snake and it will remain until a humane and holly reverence for horses is adopted by all concerned.
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If Rockville citizens are so hell bent on slaughtering animals, it’s still legal to slaughter cows (and we know where there are 7+ million excess!).
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They have to get someone to invest first and they planned to get it open for cattle again until they can legally slaughter horses.
I can’t see if they get the cattle part open again why slaughter horses? Greedy jerks.
But so far no opening here. McPhearson (sp) is the only one who can keep track on them getting the mess cleaned up *title* and then getting the go to open.
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LOL—Yes, we do. I bet we could even find a few thousand people who would pitch in to haul those cattle from where they are all the way to the grocery market shelves.
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If you want to stop Horse Slaughter , this is a must you get your State in the US to Ban horse slaughter and also include a ban on Slaughter trucks or any vehicle with horses on board going to slaughter to cros sall said State Boarders…..No entry to the State also\, PROBLEM SOLVED…..I am working on OHIO NOW everyone get busy and do this one thing !!!!!!
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