Op-Ed by R.T. Fitch – author of “Straight from the Horse’s Heart“
In My Humble Opinion
He drives me NUTS!
It’s like the movie “Groundhog’s Day” on steroids, the nightmare just won’t go away. You heard it once, you heard it a dozen times and the words buzz around your head like an old melody that you just can’t get rid of. It leaves a bad after taste in our mouth, a tension in your chest and a royal pain in your backside. What/Whom are we speaking of? Why Montana’s father of horse slaughter, Rep. “Red” Ed Butcher, of course.
Last week we reported that “Red’ Ed had decided not to run for re-election and the world gave off a collective sigh of relief, but just when you thought it was safe to let the kids play outside and to release your horses out of the barn ole “Red” Ed shares his “plans for the future”. It just goes from dumber to dumbest.
In a recent interview with James Adams of the Great Falls Tribune ole “Red” Ed outlined several of his plans for the future.
“Identifying foreign horse meat markets and promoting the processing plants are my first priorities,” Butcher said. “The real issue is the horse industry is going to die in the United States if we don’t get some processing plants. We really need to focus this next year to see if we can get a market online and some place to go with these excess horses.”
Okay, maybe it’s me but I thought that I had paid attention during the class of “Business 101”. If you want to start a viable business should you not first:
- Have a viable market?
- Ensure that the business is legal?
- Have a means in which to ship your product?
- Ensure that your product would not harm the consumer?
- Blah, blah, blah, blah?
I don’t know, maybe I am looking at things backwards and ole “Red” Ed knows something that I don’t know. Perhaps he has an inside scoop on how to get someone (Communist China) to invest millions in building a plant to kill the mythical unwanted horse that is against federal law to ship across state lines to a shrinking market that is being shut down due concerns of drug contamination. Am I missing something here? (Sure glad this guy isn’t managing my retirement plan)
Point is “Red” Ed refuses to simply go off quietly into the night now that he has made a mockery of himself and become an embarrassment to the great state of Montana. He is a lame duck legislator and impotent to the max as he will no longer be able to sponsor any additional destructive and damming legislation. Now the only way that he can feed his ego is to bark nonsense into the megaphone of the local press. Maybe the best way to stop the stupidity is simply not to give him an audience.
So with that said, we bid farewell to the mouthpiece of predatory horse slaughter and hope that his alter-ego and traveling companion, Wyoming Rep. “Slaughterhouse” Sue Wallis soon follows suit and becomes nothing more than a dim memory of a very bad and distasteful nightmare.
The day has just become a little brighter for the horses.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://i0.wp.com/img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png)
Categories: Horse News, Horse Slaughter, The Force of the Horse
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Does he think he has to live up to his name??? LOL….butcher! Is he from a family, generations of butchers?? Just fade away into the slimy dark place you came from! Leave our horses alone!! They are not for food! They are our friends, our joy! Butcher, get a brain transplant, and a heart too.
Mr Fitch, I love your mind!!! : )
LikeLike
You bring to mind a motto that we use out here in Texas – “We don’t eat our Friends”
Good words to live by!
LikeLike
I whole heartedly agree R.T., no more audience for these two dimwits!
LikeLike
Perhaps we need also to be finding ways to save the horses in holding that all these greedy people are eyeing. Sometimes I think the whole fuss Butcher and Slaughter Sue are making is because they see all those captive horses we have not been able to move from holding. More horses will leave the West and be put out to pasture and we have not seen or counted them. We need to talk about them more and find all the places they are held and share these locations so local advocates can begin to visit and demand time for public viewing. This is possible and it must be done.
More advocate friends are talking about spending time this summer seeing the wild ones and finding a holding facility or long term pasture to visit and make a demand that the horses be seen. If you do not try what will change? The wild ones are disappearing and the holding numbers grow. We need to be a presence at every place the wild ones live; on their ranges or in captivity. They are the the horses and burros of this nation and our National Treasure.
The work we have all been doing and plan to continue needs to be focused towards the animals themselves as well as in courts. There are only so many of us who can file lawsuits, but the more of them, the better, too. This country has wild horses from California to North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Many in the East have protection that is an example we would follow in the West. Many here in the West are not on your lists but they are on lists in the USFS and other agencies that have them rounded up by none other than BLM contractors. Until we have stopped this madness of removing wild horses and burros they all remain threatened.
You have now got experience you never counted on from what happened at Calico and is ongoing at the Fallon facility. That will continue. Find a horse herd near you even if you live out East. Make a pilgrimage this year. See your wild ones and promise them freedom. They need our dedication more than ever. This Spring I am looking forward to seeing wild foals. I hope you will get to see some, too.. mar
LikeLike
Mar, I have been thinking along those same lines..Our friends in the midwest need to be checking on our horses…Out of Sight out of mind is what they are counting on…soon they will be emptying the palamino facility for new gathers..and those horses will disappear too
LikeLike
First.. Horse meat can be shipped out of Montana by way of Canada… Horse slaughter will be brought back to the U S and we here in Montana are praying that we will be the fist of many states to have a horse slaughter plant. And yes there is many UNWANTED horses.. when someone does not want old bay any longer then he is unwanted.. until he is bought by someone.. if that someone does not want old bay no more.. he is UNWANTED again.. when the KB gets a horse.. he does not want that horse.. so it is sold.. now the Slaughter House does not want that horse ALIVE.. so until that horse becomes dead… he is still unwanted…you all have got to stop with the lies and crap… we all have your number… and we will defeat you…. as WE ARE MANY…
LikeLike
Bentley, do you by any chance work at Fallon?
LikeLike
You have no idea about numbers or what your stupid ideas amount to. Probably linked to the BLM.
LikeLike
I have three things to say:
If slaughter is the answer WHY do we still have so-called “unwanted horses”? Why have they not already been sent off to Mexico or Canada. We are now shipping more horses to Canada than ever. So, why are “all” these “unwanted” horses still walking around. There has always been neglect and abuse, and there always will be. Statistics PROVE that neglect and abuse INCREASE with the availability of slaughter plants – not to even MENTION horse theft. I lived through that nightmare in Texas, and I will NOT see it happen again.
The new European Regulations about the safety – or lack thereof – of American horse meat. I don’t know what you people think you’re going to do about this BIG roadblock to your schemes, but two things are certain – American horses are NOT fit for human consumption and you CANNOT afford to ignore this, unless you want your butts sued off.
And, bentley, WE are many too, and we are far stronger than you can even imagine. It is WE who have YOUR number, you lying, cruel, greedy SOB.
LikeLike
You are not many, you just delude yourself into thinking so.
And please remind me again about the shortage of beef, pork and chicken in our country. I am assuming there is a horrible shortage for you to be needing to slaughter horses for the hotplate in your trailer. You best stock up on tv dinners, bud, cuz horse slaughter is never returning to these United States.
And your ideals and values are certainly UNWANTED.
LikeLike
bentley-when you say “we here in MT” you must mean you and Butcher. Must be lonely just the two of you……
LikeLike
bentley, whoever is giving you information is misguided. You cannot ship or sell horsemeat for human consumption anywhere in the US. Why would you be shipping horse meat to Canada? The market is overseas, not Canada.
So you want to build a slaughter plant? What horses are you planning on slaughtering? Surely you are aware that US horses cannot comply with EU regulations. Are you planning on falsifying documents so the horses meet the certification? So if your market won’t accept the meat, what are you going to do with it? Are you aware that one of the major markets for horse meat is looking at banning horse slaughter and the sale of horse meat? Great business decision to spend millions of dollars on a plant to slaughter one dozen horses. Gotta love it!
The horses are not unwanted, they are excess. http://www.horsetalk.co.nz/features/theunwantedhorse-179.shtml.
The majority are not old and are the result of irresponsible breeders not knowing the basics of supply and demand. There were not 100,000 owners with one horse that went to slaughter but you would know that if you bothered to do any research.
Unfortunately for you, the overwhelming majority of American horse owners as well as Congress are against horse slaughter. We do not slaughter non-food animals in our country, they are humanely euthanized. So unless you are planning on all horse owners having pasture ornaments like cows, they are being raised for other purposes like racing, performing, working, for service such a law enforcement and therapy and for sport. That makes them a non-food animal. Surely you aren’t planning on shutting down all the horse venues such as racing or having owners withhold necessary medication and health maintenance drugs so you can fill your plant with horses are you?
How about addressing the cause of excess horses or is that too logical for you?
LikeLike
Oh dear, another voice in the wilderness trying to justify an already defeated and illogical cause. Bentley just go away, You, Red Ed and Sue can find a nice little place to gather and pat each other on the backs and console each other. Just remember WE will prevail AS WE ARE MANY too and growing by the day, your numbers are depleting!
LikeLike
I don’t know Bently…cannabalism is sounding mighty good to me about now…people do it in other countries…right? I’ll bet you are just marinating in fat..I am getting hungry just thinking about it….Yummmmm
LikeLike
I don’t know about eating HIM, Sandra, he sounds like he might be on drugs. No telling WHAT he’s been eating!
LikeLike
You know, once you start eating your pets and companions…your family might be next..I am thinking Bently is really..The silence of the Lamb…maybe we should chip in and get him some braces…Sounds like suuieeee is blogging here
LikeLike
you all are so funny.. your life must suck… and i cant believe you kiss your kids with that mouth of yours… YES.. we will see… and i do think you aint going to like what you see one little bit.
LikeLike
I guess you’re just scared now that the overseas horse-eaters found out you were shipping poison horsemeat.
For generations your family was uneducated and just killed horses for a living. not my life that sucks..a lifetime of bently killing horses must really suck 🙂
you see bently this is 2010, among Americans we consider dogs and horses companion animals and we take care of our companion animals to the end.
Now your family is going to have to go to school and get an education so you can get a real job. your horse killing days are over.
LikeLike
I pray you don’t have children.
LikeLike
Not only are you brutal and stupid, you have absolutely NO manners. AND you haven’t answered my question. Why not?
LikeLike
Oooooh I am shaking in my boots LOL. I think that taited meat is definitely working on Bentley’s brain already. She is probably old S.Sue trying to be cute.
LikeLike
South Dakota’s Legislature Passes Strongly Worded Resolution Calling on Congress and the Federal Government to Reinstate USDA Inspection of Horse Meat
LikeLike
Bently – SO WHAT? That idiot in Illinois has been trying for three YEARS and has gotten absolutely nowhere.
Now, about my question…. None of you horse eaters have EVER given me an answer.
LikeLike
Yes Bently I am sure there are a few of you red states that would like to turn us into a 3rd world country..you had better hope your husband doesn’t decide you are worthless or its a Bently Burger on the menu…If I can afford to keep horses I can afford to have them euthanized when the time comes..I will even give them a funeral…choke on that
LikeLike
That’s right, Bent, you are getting your kicks posting on this blog, “standing up” to a majority of women. That’s probably right before you head out to the local school.
Hey, gotta to what you gotta do, otherwise you don’t feel like a real man.
LikeLike
Thinks he’s about 15? No. Younger?
LikeLike
I first meant that he might be preying on little kids to boost his ego, but hey, anything is possible.
LikeLike
you all are not to smart are you… 52 year old white female… and yes I AM PUSHING FOR SLAUGHTER TO COME BACK.. and it will… you kids need to find a new game.
LikeLike
What do you think about this bently..we hit you with a stun gun, then we hang you by your legs and slit your throat..does that appeal to you?, well it doesn’t appeal to the horse either..dream about that tonight
LikeLike
GOTCHA! Brnt, I’m a 65 year old white female, and NO slaughter is NOT coming back. YOU need to find a new game. I really hate to see a grown woman act so childishly and be so crude and rude.
You STILL haven’t offered an answer to my question. Instead, all you do is posture and make an idiot of yourself, kid. So, give me an answer or I’ll know what I’ve really known all along – You DON’T HAVE AN ANSWER.
LikeLike
Slue Wallis?
LikeLike
OK, Gang…I am pulling the plug on Bently/Barbie, or whoever she is as her latest comment degraded down into the typical four letter, name calling tirade that the unenlightened prefer to use when they have both met their match and are faced with the truth.
This is not the place for cussing or name-calling but, instead, it is an area where we can exchange ideas and search for solutions.
I have enjoyed watching this lively discussion but will not subject our readership to foul language and stupidity so bid Barbie a big Bye-Bye.
Now to the business at hand of saving our Wild Horses, unlike Barbie, we are putting our money where are mouth’s are and will be gathering in front of the White House in only a few hours.
Thanks to all that long to be here and thanks to those who could come.
Let’s get down to business.
Sent from R.T.’s iPhone
LikeLike