series by Vicki Tobin of the Equine Welfare Alliance
Countering Wyoming Rep. Sue Wallis Anti-Horse Disinformation
Wallis statement | “In contrast to good animal welfare, animal rights is a fanatic quasi religion that proposes to give all animals the same rights and equal footing with humans. Animal rights zealotry is dangerous, unhealthy, and wrong. Barely 2% of the population are truly vegetarian, with another maybe 5% that think they ought to be…7% who choose of their own free will to espouse a weird, incredibly difficult to stay healthy, and unnatural way of being.”
This is probably one of the best demonstrations of an illogical argument. She is stating that at best, 7% of the population is vegetarian. How is it then that everyone against horse slaughter is a vegetarian? The comment on welfare advocates being a fanatic quasi religion is really quite humorous. The overwhelming majority of horse owners are against slaughter. Exactly how does taking accountability for one’s actions translate to be a fanatic and unnatural? Isn’t that the healthy and natural way of being a productive member of society?
I have repeatedly asked what “animal rights” groups are fighting horse slaughter. I only know of one “animal rights” group and they are not involved in the efforts to end horse slaughter. By calling us animal rights, she somehow thinks that will discredit us, dismiss the facts and our accomplishments.
Animals will never have rights other than to be treated humanely. We are equine welfare advocates, advocating for equines. That is not animals, plural, that is animal, singular. We are not radical, tree hugging vegans. We are not out to ban livestock slaughter. We are not out to bring down animal agriculture. There is no hidden agenda.
We are individuals and organizations with one common goal; to end the slaughter of American horses. Period. There is nothing unnatural about our lifestyle. We are everyday people that own horses, work in many diverse industries including the horse industry, raise families, run businesses, are struggling in the economy and most importantly, appreciate equines for what they are and the role they play in today’s society. And that, Ms. Wallis, is not a food animal.
Ending horse slaughter will not prohibit “some” people from slaughtering their own horse and eating it.
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Categories: Horse News, Horse Slaughter, The Force of the Horse
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Well said, Vicki. No matter what she says or writes, the line of argument is never clear or supportable with truth. I don’t believe the average person in the US wants or condones slaughterhouses for horses, and they never will. She makes a lot of noise, but we just have to counter with an equal amount of truth and compassion. For the horses!
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Well said Vicki! I’ve never understood how being or not being a vegetarian distinguishes folks’ stance on horse slaughter. That’s just thrown in to cloud the real issues and facts. My take on the issue is there are no unwanted horses– only people with neither sound judgment nor good sense.
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I want to say up front I am not a vegetarian or a vegan, but I WAS a vegetarian for 5 years, and NEVER felt it was detrimental to my health and well-being. NEITHER DID MY DOCTORS. In fact, I had more energy and focus than at any other time in my life. I also used natural juice fasts Spring and Fall to flush toxins from my body and still do.
The reason I went back to eating meat had more to do with the amount of time I had to devote to preparing balanced and nutricious meals than anything else. Now I have two men to feed, and both are “meat and potatoes” guys when they can get away with it. We don’t eat a lot of meat, and I’m more careful to investigate its sources and processing. Many of the meals I prepare for my family are stir-frys and stews. I make it, they eat it (with the occasional grumble), and we all feel better for it.
Another reason I cut back on meat came from an informal study conducted by a friend who was a prision administrator. He somehow convinced his superiors to drastically cut back on meat, especially red meat, and processed (white) sugar in meals. They increased the veggies, including products from a garden voluntarily planted and maintained by prisoners. The result was a substantial decrease in violence.
When I was a vegetarian, I used a lot of soy products. Soy has recently been questioned as a possible cause of hormonal shifts due to phytoestrogens, especially during pre-pubesence and puberty. Want your kids to mature at a later, more natural age? Limit their soy intake. Some doctors suggest using soy to mitigate post menupausal symptoms because of that same phytoestrogen content. Worked for me.
Both soy and high-fructose corn-syrup are in many commercial food products Soy boosts protein content, but it’s also used as a cheap filler. High-fructose corn syrup has little or no nutritional value or bioavailablity, so it passes directly to the liver. The result? Toxic overload. Want your family to lose weight and lessen the chance of developing diabetes? Eliminate white, highly processed carbs. Don’t serve foods containing high-fructose corn syrup, but those with natural sugars (in moderation).
The upshot of this is we all have the right to make choices in the foods we eat, and, while others may not agree with those choices, they should be respected.
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P.S. – Horsemeat was not “what’s for dinner” in the prison.
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Wallis makes these general statements as part of her main ‘talking points’ .
Her main fear tactic to dupe the beef industry voters- is to always use HSUS/Peta in the same sentence and say ‘animal rights’ veggie-nutcases- people want all slaughter stopped.
Meanwhile, as people debate/defend against Slaughterhouse Sues assinine lies. She buys the old rail stockyards, tests Temple Gs shute system on blm mustangs (fallon feedlot) , accepts ‘donations’ from Frank Wallis ranch (listed on her website)and moves on with her plan for a 501c horse-rescue-slaughterhouse by rail.
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Thank you Vicki ! You, & the others are so right about horse slaughter having nothing to do with being a vegetarian, vegan, or not. I think this Sue person is just grasping at straws to try to get people to see her point of view. I guess she really thinks people are that stupid. She appears to be one of those people who “think they are always right”, no matter what, &, that she needs to have the last word!! I just watched the Rolex event on TV yesterday, at the Kentucky Horse Park, & when you see these awesome, powerful, beautiful, proud & majestic creatures “perform”, they are positively breathtaking!! The horses & riders are one together, in tune to eachother, they actually seem to enjoy what they’re doing, & the applause from the crowds, & the riders love their horses. You can not compare these animals to cattle or pigs, yes, I think they are cute, but in a different way. Horses are not food animals, they are companion animals & friends, we are in the 21st century, not in neandrathal or “cavemen” days. We as a society have choosen the horse, like our dogs & cats, to be our companions, how many cattle or pigs have you seen show-jumping or doing dressage, or just being ridden for pure enjoyment?? If a person can afford to own horses & afford their upkeep, they can afford humane euthanasia at the end of that animal’s quality of life, not send them to a horrid death by slaughter just because they aren’t useful anymore. My opinion only.
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Is Wallis a revered scientist specializing in nutrition? No.
Did she win the admiration of the medical community for groundbreaking studies? No.
She is just a regular person trying to make as much money as possible.
Enough said.
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Thank you for this. Sue Wallis is just silly, her tactic is to create hysteria among people by making such over the top and crazy accusations. Her statements make me wonder if it is time to turn her silly logic back around on her and play the same game she is playing with her over the top statements.
As much as she says those of us who oppose horse slaughter are all radical vegans who only have an agenda to end all agriculture, then by that logic, she and her kind must promote the eating of all animals.
One of her excuses for eating horse meat is that it is a delicacy in some countries and some people in North America come from cultures where they eat horses. Well, the same could be said about ANY animal, so by Sue Wallis’ logic, does she and her kind support the killing and eating of all animals including cats, dogs, guinea pigs and other companion animals? They are eaten in places like China. Could she and her pro-horse killing pals be working toward such a thing?
Probably not, but is as outlandish as her saying anyone who opposes horse slaughter for human consumption are out to end all agriculture, someone should ask her if that is her agenda.
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Wow. Is she ever ignorant.
Does she not realize that making all kinds of claims that are obviously incorrect, without ever actually researching what she’s saying…makes her look worse? (Intelligent people also usually link to credible sources where their “facts” can be verified but it’s hard to do that when those sources do not exist and those “facts” are more fiction that truth)
If you cannot even come up with real, logical and proven facts to make your argument…. then how much credibility do you deserve? None.
I mean, her comments are so wrong (30 sec + google search and her “nutrition” expert opinion on vegeterian diet & argument is crushed) on top of being irrelevant. (Red herring much?!)
Normally I can respect someone who has a different opinion if they present an intelligent, accurate argument. But otherwise it’s just propaganda. And Ignorance which is pathetic and gets no respect from me.
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I think we should check out how many horses she breeds, besides cattle. Something is very wrong with this women.
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Lin, On her 501c website, listed under “donors” was a ranch owned by “Frank Wallis”. google him, it’s a ranch that raises ‘organic meat’ such as beef and poultry. Horse is not mentioned as raised for meat.
However, on that ranches website IS mentioned they breed draft/halfie crosses. They even had a few pics of them up, no mention of any USE for this kind of horse-breeding. There is no mention of any reason why they breed “large meatie quiet horses” so we need to fill in the blanks. IMO sue and her family have been breeding horses for MEAT for a long time.
And now Sue’s new ‘charity’ accepts donations from the family meat farm? unreal how these horse-meat people get their talons into our companion animals. And increase meat profit using a CHARITY donations. For Gods sake SUE stick to beef!!!leave the horses alone!!
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reply to myself. wonder if that wallis family ranch has a railroad tracks running through it? Then that could fit into sues plans to move slaughter horses by rail and pick-up the ‘families’ meathorses at the same time her ‘charity’ is giving vouchers to poor people to turn over their pets for ‘humane slaughter’
jeezz this woman makes my imagination go overtime 😦
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Many people against Horse slaughter are meat eaters. I am, BUT…
I have never eaten snail, dog, cat, reptile, cornish game hen, pot-bellied pig, pheasant, primate, dolphin, seal, tiger, kangaroo, ostrich or emu, pronghorn, tarantula, et cetera & ad nauseum, and most especially I HAVE NEVER EATEN HORSE.
I’m a healthy, moderately chubby 50 year old woman, raised & sustained on the traditional American diet of Beef, Pork & Poultry, Fish and rarely, Venison, because this is what I and 90% of the Meat Eating American Public gnosh on.
Horse slaughter is such an offense to Nature, purveyors can’t even excercise a safe, secure, humane and CONSISTENTLY RELIABLE method of killing Horses. Because they AIN’T cattle.
And, sue??? If yer listenin’? I AIN’T EUROPEAN, EITHER. You wanna tout the benefits of killing and eating companion animals, secede from this nation and head North.
My apologies to my Canadian & European compadres.
Now, I also have a life outside my RESPECT for the Horse; I do not lie awake nights, feverishly running over the details on how best to save Horses from the ravages of their existence at the hands of an out-of-control government agency or a rabid representative of a Northwestern State, so my ‘fanaticism’ & ‘quasi-religious mania’ are fairly restrained and blend well with my other pursuits. But does sue take time to smell the coffee? Inhale the fresh outdoor air? Dust the cobwebs offa her desk every once in a while? Have a muffin? Legislate on something other than Horse Slaughter?
If ever the labels ‘fanaticism’, ‘mania’ or ‘zealotry’ could be applied, they would be most appropriately aimed at the representative mentioned in the article above.
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This woman has been far to quiet for about 6 weeks now. She must be wheeling and dealing for her charity-horseslaughter house. No press release or anything…something stinks!
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