“We will investigate each and every new facility…where these misguided attempts to kill American horses have been made.”
LARKSPUR, COLORADO – Front Range Equine Rescue (FRER) has received copies of four previously undiscovered applications for new horse slaughter plants – in Tennessee, Missouri, Oklahoma and Iowa – bringing the number of pending applications to six. Two of the applications are over nine months old, despite longstanding official denials about any more new applications. The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), which inspects animals and meat in American slaughterhouses under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has stated that the American beef supply is safe from adulteration with horse meat only because horses are not slaughtered in America. If horse slaughter does begin again in America, the entire American meat supply is threatened with contamination. The proposed plants are in Tennessee, Oklahoma, Iowa, and Missouri.
These applications demonstrate that profiteers ignore all warning signs in the quest for financial gain, even when their efforts endanger consumers, necessitate horrific cruelty, and register gross disrespect for this iconic species so well loved by most Americans. FRER has already established in formal legal filings that horse meat from American horses is a toxic stew, that there is no humane way for a horse to be slaughtered for consumption, and that the environmental effects of a horse slaughter plant can be devastating to local communities and citizens. FRER has proven that there is no way to safely produce horse meat, and highlighted the tragedy of companion, race, and wild horses ending their lives on a meat hook in detailed legal filings with USDA, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Bureau of Land Management.
FRER is dedicated to stopping the reinstitution of horse slaughter, and eighty percent of the American public agrees that horse slaughter should be banned. According to FRER’s President Hilary Wood, “FRER will carry out its public campaigns and legal work for as long as it takes to eliminate the possibility of horse slaughter in America. We will investigate each and every new facility, and will come to the aid of horse-loving citizens in towns like Gallatin, Missouri (Rains Natural Meats), Woodbury, Tennessee (Trail South Meat Processing), Washington, Oklahoma (Oklahoma Meat Co.), and Sigourney, Iowa (Responsible Transportation), where these misguided attempts to kill American horses have been made.”
Despite the financial woes of the federal government, and despite the undeniable truth about the suffering and adulteration of horse meat inherent in horse slaughter, FSIS and the USDA seem to be favorable to this unseemly business endeavor. While FSIS has the power to deny or delay the review of these applications, its recent conduct suggests it is shirking its public responsibility in preference to these unwanted operations, which serve only those who make money on the brutal death of American horses.
Ms. Wood added, “The slaughterers have misled the public and public servants into thinking horse slaughter is necessary and humane, when it is anything but. All American horses can be supported by public programs imposing limits on overbreeding, as well as those by FRER and similar groups that subsidize sterilizations, necessary euthanasia, and offer re-homing guidance. We encourage Americans who love horses to step up to protect the animals they love, rather than letting them endure a prolonged trip to a brutal and horrible end to be served on a foreign dinner plate.”
Click (HERE) to read about FRER in the New York Times
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Categories: Equine Rescue, Horse News, Horse Slaughter
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
This is so outrageous and sad. Who would even work for these horrible people. Thank you for being there and bringing this to our attention. this makes me so sick.
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If history repeats itself, they will employ junkies and illegals. The crime rates will soar. Spousal and child abuse will rise. The environment will suffer as will the Towns surrounding these plants. Foreign owners don’t give a care about the things they destroy. They just pack up and leave them with the filth and the destruction. The need to ban horse slaughter has been there for a long time but America hasn’t opened it’s eyes. Time to take action. Make it happen!
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Exactly why the citizens of the small town of Hermiston, Oregon soundly rejected the proposal by resident slaughter proponent David Duquette.
Federal action is required to keep us safe from having these unscrupulous people come in and defile our communities. Either the The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act and/or SAFE must pass. My two federal senators from Oregon, Wyden & Merkley are on-board. My local rep – Greg Walden – only works for $ interests, not people or animals. Do you know how your elected representatives would vote on these bills? Contact their offices and find out. You have power if you have the will to exercise it.
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You hit the nail right on the head, Terri, because it’s been proven, case in point, Kaufman, Texas, when Paula Bacon was Mayor. A real nightmare for the city and the only winners were the foreign business owners. We simply cannot afford to have this happen again.
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Bravo for the expose’! I’ve been a soldier in this battle since the latter 70’s and give thanks for each and every one of my comrades in arms! I am blessed to be care giver to 21 magnificent, magical equine souls each day. They were the impetus for my recovery from a heart attack and double bypass operation two years ago. NEVER in my life has any experience or relationship compared to my interactions with equines. My eternal prayer is to be of service to them now and for eternity…
~”But seldom have I had what I would call true friendship—except with another species of creature. I am a lover of horses. When I am with a horse, I feel happy. A horse does not seek my acquaintance for the sake of my appearance or my accomplishments; a horse does not expect a great deal of me a horse accepts me as I am.” – from ”Split Infinity” by Piers Anthony~
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Bravo!
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The USDA can’t even guarantee the safety and quality of traditional meat animals in America; inspectors are woefully under-staffed and inspections into humane handling or processing of food animals is almost non-existent.
There are states that are authoring legislation to make it a criminal endeavor to video inhumane practices in the meat and dairy industries. Animal husbandry – the science and practice of breeding and caring for farm animals – is disappearing, replaced by the horror of factory farming.
The USDA needs to take care of the business at hand before trailing off into other industries it will have no control over. Not simply from the standpoint of the brutality and crudity of horse slaughter, but for the utter lack of ability in ensuring standard food processes are safe.
Too much glad-handing and Kissing of the Corporate Booty. Horse slaughter is NOT in the greater interest of the American Public.
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What is worse (but barely) that the thought that is low-belly business coming back to our country is the fact that science is clearly being ignored. We live in a dangerous world and we are feeding our environment, ourselves, and our animals dangerous, life altering, and life ending chemicals but calling it sustainability or environmentally friendly. Calling ethanol a sustainable, renewable fuel is inherently dishonest when one considered the energy required to produce it. This is nothing but fraud.
The truth is that this is an anti-horse administration. This administration wants to eradicate our wild horses. That is why they ordered the EPA to label PZP and Gonacon as Pesticides, and why they are trying to remove our wild NATIVE horses, and maybe we’ll find out that Obama Care affects horses as well as cats and dogs. They may also want to eliminate domestic horses because horses need 1-2 acres of land.
If this President were morally and ethically opposed to slaughtering horses, he should have issued an Executive Order before he reserved 2 milllion acres for the spotted owl.
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The USDA is going to take 63 young Yellowstone buffalo and put them into a Gonacon study. There are only 4000 of these pure DNA buffalo in this herd. Surely they are an endangered species. Taking whom ever they please and killing 400 cows this spring all indicates another strategy for extinction.
Science is not respected altho I feel it could be if Obama only saw our country from our view point, just once. We see the value and ethics of solid research and applications of science based management. We know what is going on because of political prejudice and the ever present ‘old boys’ ways. America gets stuck in images and trends and old dying cultural preferences. When it comes to life and death in the wild- science is what belongs there not some greedy cowman’s pay off to have his way and kill kill kill.
We need to realize how much we need to grow and contact our wild ones and know them.
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The wild horses and burros, the wolves and the bison. All on the road to extinction because our government is run by the special interest groups and the citizens are ignored. Very discouraging and beyond belief that this once great country is allowing this to happen. I could go on and on about all the atrocities that are occurring to these animals, but we have all heard it before. I will keep fighting though – maybe someone will eventually listen! Thanks to all that keep up the good fight, we’ll get there.
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Oh, Lord. How the haters lie with a straight face. RED states are the ones placing AG GAG laws in place, making whistleblowers ‘terrorists’ and criminals.. RED states are the only states pushing THROUGH new horse slaughter plants against the citizens of their states wishes! Blame the President? YOU are an idiot. And we don’t NEED idiots spouting insanity on our side, it makes everything you say SUSPECT.
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I am just getting so discouraged, i feel like we will never win in our fight to save our horses from this horrible fate! I sign petition after petition and make tons of phone calls to our officials, write letters, send emails, etc and no one has yet had the decency to send me a reply, not even a form letter! Its like im not being acknowledged at all! I wonder what else we can do with these idiots that just dont listen or care about the suffering of these poor animals but only the $$ their flesh represents! Its so sick that there are those in this country that are so uncivilized as to want to continue to take part in this barbaric practice of horse slaughter!! This country should be ashamed to even consider allowing it and i hope they get sued big time by other countries for exporting poisoned meat for human consumption!! I guess thats what it will take to get this slaughter stopped!
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The truth comes to the light while the lites continue in the dark. Better move fast on this two bills out we will lose our horses for sure.
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I have contacted my Senators and asked them to deny any and all contracts for horse and burro Slaughter Plants and also the removal of the American Wild Horses. It is a shame when greedy people think of the gain they get from money and not the cruel treatment to the horses and burros ! The horses and burros are caught by cruel methods and then transported in a cruel way to where ever they are sent then the families are torn apart by adoption or taken to be slaughtered. We are not people that want to eat horse meat, so the horses and burros should not be captured !
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Resp. Transportation,Sigourney Foods..affiliated with Louis Rich? http://oaspub.epa.gov/enviro/fii_query_dtl.disp_program_facility?p_registry_id=110036292026
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The Devil is well and alive here. We need to investigate who is behind the opening of these slaughterhouses. I would not doubt it if the same company is responsible for sponsoring all the slaughterhouses trying to open. They are such immoral and low life people. These foreign companies will go to all extremes to get this horrific business back in our country. We CANNOT ever let it happen. I wonder if the citizens of the states are informed about the tragic consequences that they will suffer should a slaughterhouse ever open in their state. As a citizen of Illinois, I know first hand about these effects. My only hope is that WE as ADVOCATES can fast track the new bills submitted by those courageous Legislators. I don’t always agree with Lindsay Graham on many issues, but this is one I give him kudos. We must all fight to the finish like we had to do in Illinois. the low life company in Illinois tried to take our issue to the Supreme Court. However they rejected the issue. These companies really have the Kahunas to use our own laws against us. If Blagovich did one thing right, it was to sign legislation in our state preventing horse slaughter. One thing I think we failed to do was to also include language regarding the transportation of our horses out of the state of Illinois. The news media will never show the suffering of the poor animals in these house of horrors. There has been many incidents at some of the other livestock slaughterhouse showing total disregard for the animals giving their lives, So please tell me how in the hell they will control the abuse in these slaughterhouses. It will always happen and there will always be suffering.
I only hope there is not legislation passed against those humane investigators that literally put their lives on the line to uncover such abuses. When you peel back the layers of all the scum, you see that they are all the same. The mighty $$$ takes presidence over moral and legal issues. We cannot get discouraged because thats what these low lives expect. Getting rid of Cavel, Intl in Illinois was at times so discouraging. However, it finally happened because we had a wonderful legislator named Robert Molaro. What is absolutely sickening is that you have trainers in all the breed associations promoting this. Thank God for you RT because your favorite person’s name appeared during one of our committee meetings at the Arabian Horse Associations convention a year or so ago. You informed me and I was ready when this person who heads the Horsemens Distress Fund brought up her name. I was able to come back with a response regarding her credability.Bottom line, get ready for the ride of your life because these low lifes will do everything they can to get this dirty, flithy and immoral business back into our country. It certainly will be more than 8 second ride.
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The media is prohibited from showing how our “food” is “processed” through suffering and cruelty by AG GAGs instituted state by state from laws promoted by ALEC – a legislative lobby funded by large corporations, including food processors, to protect their interests from the public knowing how or what they are doing on their “private property.” They fund state representative’s campaigns to buy this loyalty and legislation. And we mistakenly believe our legislators are working for us. Look at their voting records.
You can make a statement 3 times a day by refusing to eat processed meat. These are the corporations who will make a profit from “processing” yet another species – the horse. In Oklahoma they have deluded many to think their “agriculture” is under assault from outside “animal (horse) rights” groups who want to tell them what they can and what they cannot butcher. Bet they want to sell their products outside the state, however. Plus they don’t mind taking travel $ from “outsiders” either. If OK rescinds the ban on horse slaughter I suggest you also avoid that state and any products that come from it.
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I am working with the Senators in Louisiana to try and stop the slaughtering, capturing and selling of Wild horses and burros. They can only give their vote on the Bill. I am not sure what else they are able to do. It is a shame when greedy people put money over the lives of animals welfare !
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So much for transparency in government. Applications that are months old despite official denial. Sounds to me as if they purposely misled the American public so that they wouldn’t have to deal with citizens participating in their government.
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Thanks for this Hilary Wood! I don’t think these all have a chance and I am thinking the NM plant in Roswell will be fought hard. If it were not such a hard core town for cattle I would say folks need to go there and canvas and have meetings in the community to be sure the local populace knows what it is getting into. No one will want it once it starts. So why start at all?
OK is still the possible one and the Governor was continuing to take count of the yeas and neighs from calls to her office!!!!!
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Horse slaugtering and roundups needs to stop, There are more humane ways to keep our wild horses safe and thriving. How dirty is our government for not protecting the land that rightfully belongs to our wild horses. Why should these wild horses be removed from their famileis and homeland. They are historic icons that helped settle this land Our wild horses should be respected and valued, not put in a holding pen or on a dinner plate.
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Trying to keep up with all the things horse this week is overwhelming! I was in Reno trying to help the legislature understand the need to pass that anti horse tripping bill.
I heard folks whining about how this is their lives and culture. Disgusting is about the nicest thing I can say.
Now more people are lining up to slaughter horses? Am I surprised? Not really. If there is a buck to be made everyone will jump on the bandwagon to be first out the gate. What’s really sad is no one is thinking in terms of the health risks to humans. They only care about the almighty dollar.
What will the slaughter houses (assuming for the moment they get their way and are allowed up and running)say when innocent folks keel over from ingesting toxic meat? You can bet that some enterprising lawyer is going to sue the dickens out of this country for selling known poisonous toxic horse meat. Horsemeat that we didn’t test for or that we should’ve been aware might be toxic since we have no passport system in place.
We’ll get a blacker eye than China ever did with their poisonous dog food. We sent meat into the food chain that we knew or had very strong suspicions of that it might well be toxic. We aren’t contaminating the pet food–we’re contaminating the HUMAN food chain.
I’ve been watching what has happened in Europe these past weeks. I don’t see to many happy horse eating people on the news. I see horrified folks that were duped innocently into eating something they never would’ve touched. I see people of different faiths being duped into eating pork and horse–that is not only a cultural thing but they have religious reasons for not partaking of horse and pork.
There are no words to describe the rudeness and the offensiveness this is to me. I think many of us were duped into believing that it was only the richy rich that were eating our horses. But apparently we were mislead. It’s the actual slaughterhouses and processing plants that were buying the horsemeat. They did the old bait and switch.
Could it happen here? You bet. We bring horse slaughter back to this country and it’ll find its way onto our supermarket shelves. I wouldn’t be surprised if it already has.
As far as I can tell so far its the processed meats. Frozen tv dinners and frozen bite size meat balls. Lean Cuisine, Digornio’s Pizza and Hot Pockets are three of the frozen foods that I use to buy. Last week I found on a quick trip to the grocery store that all three are distributed in this country by Nestle’s. I leave it to you to decide from there what you want to do.
For me pizza isn’t a huge deal. Costco is another exit down the freeway from me. I can get a cheese pizza there that’s freshly made. It costs a couple dollars more but I have the piece of mind of knowing I’m not buy something from Nestle’s.
Most of us need to step away from the drug and shipping violations. Those arguments are going round and round in circles. People are not listening to that. Talk about lack of passport system. Talk about the toxic stench and how the quality of life is affected in towns where they did have slaughter. Talk about how horses are deemed companion animals not by the USDA but the FDA. There the ones who decide about what drugs can or can’t be administered to a food source animal.
Finally if New Mexico passes those slaughter inspections (just asking a question here)and a week later the Feds ban horse slaughter PERMANENTLY not to be undone. No arguments allowed. No stays. We know it will go to the Supreme Court but in the meantime no horse is to be slaughtered and or sent over the border to be slaughtered–who will have jurisdiction? The state? The Feds? And what happen post July when the European market for horse goes away anyway cause our horses don’t have passports?
I’m sorry if this sounds harsh but I’m not even sorry for de los Santo’s the guy in New Mexico. He’s trying to convert his slaughterhouse from cattle to horse when he knows perfectly well what the regs are and have been.
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