Source: BY NANCY PERRY as it appears in NewsOK.com
“Horse slaughter is inhumane, no matter how or where it’s done…”
Nancy Perry ~ photo by Terry Fitch of the Wild Horse Freedom Federation
The appalling discovery that horse meat has been passed off as beef in frozen food products distributed across Europe has consumed the media in recent weeks. If the shock of learning that Europeans have been unknowingly eating horses wasn’t enough, the human health concerns associated with the consumption of toxic horse meat justifies the public outrage.
As this story unfolds in the national media, two bills making their way through the Legislature would overturn Oklahoma’s long-standing ban on the sale of horse meat for human consumption and open the door for a horse slaughter plant to set up shop in the state.
Horse slaughter is inhumane, no matter how or where it’s done. Legislators argue that horses are currently being transported to Mexico, where they are savagely put to death when their spinal cords are cut. Horse slaughter in Oklahoma would be just as savage and inherently cruel, as horses are biologically unsuited for commercial slaughter, making them difficult to stun prior to dismemberment. U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors have discovered rampant violations and cruelty in domestic horse slaughter plants.
The USDA also notes that more than 92 percent of American horses sent to slaughter are in good condition — healthy horses that could go on to lead productive lives in loving homes. It’s a myth that only old, sick or injured horses are slaughtered. This effort is about making money while these horses suffer. A 2012 poll commissioned by the ASPCA revealed 80 percent of American voters are opposed to the slaughtering of American horses for human consumption.
Horse meat is unsafe for human consumption because horses aren’t raised for food. Dewormers, fly treatments and painkillers full of chemicals banned for human consumption are given daily to horses on the track, in the show ring and on the ranch. Oklahoma would be serving up toxic products and damaging its reputation for all other types of producers.
Passage of these bills would invite foreign-owned companies to establish slaughter plants in Oklahoma, with no regard for the local communities, which would be victim to the severe environmental and economic factors associated with slaughterhouses. Prior to being shut down in 2007, horse slaughter plants that operated in the U.S. were notorious for polluting local waterways, decreasing property values and permeating the air with a foul stench. If the past is any indicator, establishing horse slaughter plants will degrade communities and impose economic burdens on local citizens…(CONTINUED)
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Categories: Horse News, Horse Slaughter
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
We need to stop the slaughtering of American Horses. We need no Horse Slaughterhouses opened ! They talk about the tainted meat overseas, who is to say that the tainted me is not here in the States also ? There have been many horses stolen from good homes and sent to be slaughtered and the families had no idea what had happened till it was to late or they never found out. The wild horses have been sent to be slaughtered and they did nothing wrong to any one, they were just in the wrong places that greedy people wanted. We need to have a Bill passed that protects the land that was given to the Wild Horses ! The cattle or other livestock that is stealing it away from them needs to be stopped ! All the Wild Horses need to be returned to the wild where they were to begin with and not sent to places that they die at or get taken to be slaughtered. We do not need to interfere with the mares or their babies. Let them live in peace as they have for many years…
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Hell, it’d not like they breed like rabbits. The mares only conceive every two years, studs don’t get pregnant, geldings and pzped mares don’t get pregnant..leave em be.
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Last night I was horrified to see Dos Santos showing off his new Slaughter House to CNN on TV. Horrified is not even the word. The worst part was that CNN gave very little time to advocates and more time to beefing up the campaign to re-open. Sickened.
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OMG!!! We all need to demand equal time here. Sorry to say we all know who owns CNN. What a shame..I guess that’s why I don’t watch CNN. Thanks for letting us know about this If they are going to show the plant then perhaps they need to run the actual of slaughter of many horses including a mare with a full term foal. God, if you can stand that without throwing up and being totally disturbed you are a TOTAL DEMON! Again, there is NOTHING HUMANE about equine slaughter. Its terrible that we now are allowing foreign companies to come in and take over our communities. It MUSTstop! They are taking all our resources and the horses we love so much. I hope all the greedy Bastards fry in hell for each dollar that they have invested in this fight for our horses survival.
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I hope they drums the meaty inspections again and that bastard hours belly up. I hate him.
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DeLos Santos is a liar, crook, abuser, and probably paid off the news media. He is the devil reincarnate.
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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/12/thousands-of-spains-horses-head-for-the-slaughterhouse-as-economic-crisis-results-in-abandonment/
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Defund inspectors of horse meat and get a ban federally on slaughtering horses and transporting them to slaughter. That’s it in a nutshell. Boycott meat until they get some sense.
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contact memers of the senate appropriations comittee this week- as well as your own senators asking for them to remove language from the senate version of the budget bill..which appropriates funds for USDA inspectors at horse slaughter plants…Its that simple, otherwise there will be some other backasswards place we will have to fight it..stop it Right Here and Right Now…and if you don’t..quit bitchin about it..do it now before the budget is voted on and it is too late
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Complain about Erin Burnett’s piece on Valley Meats to the Executive Producer, Wilson Surratt, | LinkedIn
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/wilson-surratt/4/6b4/9bb
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I am glad to read this and pray for the best outcome for my state of Oklahoma. Meaning NO on HB1999 and NO on SB375.
NOTE: There are 3 EU regulated plants in Mexico and they ALL use the captive bolt system. They do not use the puntilla knife to stab the spinal cord and paralyze the horse to be butchered alive. The local abattoirs use the knife. EU plants do not.
Some idiotic anti horse pro slaughter are using the puntilla knife story to persuade others to vote for horse slaughter in the US.
Captive bolt has never worked properly for horses and never will. Footage from the plants in Canada, Mexico and in the US when plants were open here prove it.
Come on Washington! Get it RIGHT all the way this time and let’s ban slaughter and transport to slaughter.
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I did send a comment to Erin Burnett at CNN – got a generic reply, of course. Wonder if anyone actually reads comments made. For what its worth, suggested she look into the other side of the issue as opposed to interviewing some chef! Mentioned Paula Bacon & Vickery. Would be really nice (& unlikely) if someone there actually did look into it. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has sent a comment there.
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I was always proud to live in Oklahoma but to be ok to slaughter horses, you all who passed this law are sickos,: you are sick, sick, sick,sick, and sick. I will gather with all those who will, to change this law back to NO purchase of horses for slaughter. You are wrong and the good Lord agrees you are wrong.
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