“A saying from my work culture simply goes something like this, ‘If you see it, you own it’ and with that being said, I cannot in good conscious pass idly by and ignore a letter to an editor published on a Big AG website, recently.
‘Mobile Slaughter Units answer to wild horse problem’ (posted below)
Two simple issues are immediately brought to light when reading that headline (of course there are many but to keep it short and sweet)
- What sort of demented and twisted soul would write about a concept that is both illegal and cruel?
- What sort of editorial staff would consider publishing such trash?
Well, to shed some light on the first question the writer of this article hails from Hermiston, OR which bears the blackeye of being home to Dave Duquette, remember him, lap dog to the now dead Sue Wallis known better as “Slaughterhouse” Sue? Ole Dave has been trying to legally kill and eat horses for years and the folks in Hermiston have blocked his drivel about attempting to open up such a sick operation in their rural town. Perhaps this author is the singular friend that Duquette has in town…she talks just like him.
The second question is more difficult to answer, was it for it’s shock value as the rest of the articles are boring and mundane? Don’t know, but it is not surprising that a horse hating letter would pop up in such publication that in part caters to the welfare rancher and their sympathizers.
None the less, take a second and read the article, if you have the stomach for it,then pass by the page where it is posted and comment directly to the letter at their website. (Posting comments to the author here will not go to the site) Mobile slaughter units answer to wild horse problem
I am certain that the poor demented darling who penned this note is all excited about having something published, first time for everything, and that she has told her family and friends how wonderful she is…but for the sake of the wild horses and burros, let’s prove otherwise.” ~ R.T.
Mobile slaughter units answer to wild horse problem
This is the latest tourist attraction for our Public Lands? A horse organ dump ~ actual photo of dump outside of Canadian Horse Slaughter Plant
The Capital Press and the East Oregonian during the past year have had articles on mobile slaughter trailers. As I read these articles I thought this might be the answer to the surplus wild (feral) horse problem faced by the BLM. They are presently holding 47,000 horses in corrals and feeding them at a cost to taxpayers of $50 million per year. I have advocated that these surplus animals be slaughtered and fed to the poor.
After visiting Iceland and rediscovering how savory horse meat can be and learning how nutritional it is, I propose it be marketed as a health food. These horses exist because of the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971. The BLM is charged with maintaining an Appropriate Management Level which presently is 26,715 animals.
Currently it is estimated there are over 67,000 roaming the land, and they are increasing at 15 to 20 percent per year. These numbers are damaging the range, waterways, grouse habitat and are fouling remote wildlife water holes.
Those animals found to be exceeding the AML should be removed, but holding them in corrals would seemingly be violating the spirit of the Wild Free-Roaming Act. Slaughter is the only logical solution and these mobile units might be the answer.
In as much as the BLM is spending over $1,000 per horse per year it would seem they would see the value of spending the $70,000 per unit mentioned in the East Oregonian article. I could see the BLM leasing these units to enterprising individuals. I can see Oregon Food Bank utilizing one or more of these units since they are always short of meat. Doing the math, it is obvious that it will take a number of these units.
Since these animals do not receive medications they would be an excellent source of an organic health food. In a recent survey 64 percent of respondents say would not eat horse meat but this would indicate that 36 percent might. Winners would be the local fabricators who would build the units and the butcher-operators who would gain steady employment. People who would like to obtain a tasty source of a nutritionally superior meat free of additives could do so.
Those who might oppose a slaughter house in their back yard might favor horse slaughter if it was removed from their neighborhood. These units might also give the wimps in the BLM and Congress the courage to do the right thing.
Carlisle Harrison
Hermiston, Ore.
Please post comments at: http://www.capitalpress.com/Opinion/Letters/20160630/mobile-slaughter-units-answer-to-wild-horse-problem
Categories: Horse News, Horse Slaughter, Wild Burros, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
My Comment:
R.T. Fitch • 38 minutes ago
Carlisle, I assume that coming from Hermiston, OR., home of failed horse slaughter promoter Dave Duquette, is no coincidence? Vermin tend to congregate in packs.
Your entire letter is based on bad math (go figure), junk science, (duhhh) and ridicules supposition. I have always found it amazing that the likes or yourself, and the BLM, can make up numbers, simply pull them out of the air, and call them fact. You are so very, very wrong.
Have you been out on the range in your state, have you visited the HMAs where now only a few wild horses remain and if so, have you noted the high numbers of welfare cattle that are out there versus the handful of horses? It is staggering and devastating…the federally subsidized cows are the problem and instead of idiots waving signs saying that the horses, and all 20 burros, are causing the problem we should start retiring welfare grazing permits. That is where the trouble is, not with the wildlife, but the welfare cattle permittees who are suckling at the teat of the federal government, the welfare ranchers that I am supporting involuntarily through my taxes…and I say enough.
Retire grazing permits, give the public land back to the wildlife and the American people; take the “entitlement” away from the lazy and illiterate.
LikeLiked by 2 people
You have got to be joking. These horses in holding pens need placed back on their land. Remove all cattle. Cattle are what’s causing all the damage to the land. Yes in the 1970s this land was put into law to be for the wild horses and burros. Please put them back and PLEASE stop the round-ups. I beg of you. These beautiful horse’s and burros are the American public’s not the BLMs. Thank you.
LikeLike
OMG HOW INSANE ARE THESE PEOPLE. MONEY $$$$$$$$. THAT IS ALL THEY THINK ABOUT. DAMN SLAUGHTER CREEPS. STOP THE MADNESS. CRUELITY CONTINUES IN THE SICK AND RUTHLESS MINDS. STOP THE INSANITY. STOP THE BLM ROUNDUPS, STOP TRANSPORT OF WILD HORSES. WE WILL FIGHT THIS CRAP. NO WAY YOU BASTARDS ARE GOING TO GET AWAY WITH THAT CRAP.
LikeLike
I am so tired of heartless people with nothing more then greed in their thoughts. BLM needs to stop their greed tactics. It does not matter HOW much money is being spent. It IS the taxpayers money and if they want to spend it on taking care of our wild horses it is coming out of their pockets not yours…unless of course you would benefit by land gabbing, use of land that belongs to the tax payers and not you or….you are involved in slaughter itself. Grow a heart.
LikeLike
Stupid Idiot…
LikeLiked by 1 person
I read an article similar to this, awhile back and the comments were all pro slaughter (because of too many wild horsed)—now I have never been on the “range” but I choose to believe what the folks on hear, who actually go out there and drive around (like GG just this last week ) and cannot find a horse for miles of driving. I read way to many sites about too many cows and the damage they do, from environment sites (they don’t even mention horses most of the time) for the life of me I cannot figure out why these people hate equines so much of what they are afraid of the horse for , if we slaughtered all the wild horses, wouldn’t feed a city one day. Read an article about a WWll vet who trained brumbys even back then they had a hard time finding them.Just blows my mind trying to figure it out.
http://www.armytimes.com/story/military/2016/07/11/wwii-veteran-looks-back-breaking-wild-horses-army/86870426
LikeLike
Not to even mention the small financial detail that all these sacrificial horses being fed to the “poor” would still have to be rounded up and run live into the mobile slaughter vans, which someone would be paid to fabricate, operate, and inspect. Then there’s another small problem of offal, bones, hides and hooves, and how to keep such a perishable product from spoiling if you are off in the distant deserts where the horses are. And you’d have to process and package foal meat separately, right?
As to demand – I was in Iceland, too, and though they sell horse meat there all I asked vehemently denied they ate it as it was against their church doctrine. Most indicated this was an archaic practice related to survival and no longer welcome in a modern society. They seemed much to prefer American junk food by the number of such restaurants I noticed.
LikeLike
I posted … let’s see if the horse-eating writer approves my comment.
Fiscal Costs of Federal Public Lands Livestock Grazing
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has reported the federal government spends at least $144 million each year managing private livestock grazing on federal public lands, but collects only $21 million in grazing fees—for a net loss of at least $123 million per year.
Click to access factsheet_Grazing_Fiscal_Costs(3).pdf
“What can be done to address the problems associated with public lands livestock grazing? There is a simple answer: end it. Get the cows and sheep off, let the wild creatures reclaim their native habitat, and send the ranchers a bill for the cost of restoration.”
http://www.publiclandsranching.org/book.htm
If ranch owners & managers cannot manage their own private land and livestock sufficiently enough to provide the lifestyle they want, then that is proof that they are bad ranch owners/manager and they deserve the results of their bad management but I certainly do not want to pay for their welfare ranching lifestyle.
Wild horse and burro removals can cost-effectively be avoided by accommodating the current wild horse population levels through modest or complete downward adjustments to livestock grazing pursuant to 43 CFR 4710.5, which states, “If necessary to provide habitat for wild horses or burros, to implement herd management actions, or to protect wild horses or burros, to implement herd management actions, or to protect wild horses or burros from disease, harassment or injury, the authorized officer may close appropriate areas of the public lands to grazing use by all or a particular kind of livestock….Closure may be temporary or permanent.” It’s the LAW.
America’s public lands belong to all Americans and must be managed for the broader interests of the American people and not for the narrow interests of a handful of local users who profit from grazing livestock on those lands, thanks to tax-funded subsidies. I am absolutely appalled that my land is being managed as if it were a private feedlot rather than the common heritage of all Americans.
LikeLike
Wonderful comment, GrandmaGregg. I also posted on the AG page. It seems that the pro-slaughter group make up their own percentages and other numbers to suit their twisted, greedy ideas. Sure wish we had a say in how our tax dollars are spent. I’m tired of supporting wealthy welfare ranchers.
LikeLike
And I STILL do NOT see my comment posted on their BS article.
LikeLike
Youre right GG – your comment isn’t there but boy, there are a load of comments from people who agree with us!! And good ones. Only one pro-slaughter – the usual one who comments on most of these articles!
LikeLike
No killing
LikeLike
This is a horendous atrocity against any living being, let alone against a basically defenseless animal. This animal fill is disgusting, how those (B.LM.) whom are said to embody a soul, is unfathomable. It is costing the taxpayers $54 million a year to corral said horses. They are the only living part of the old west. You taken a lot of burros, horse’s, to be separated from the family. And never to be with them again, to run wild & free. I read another article about what wild horse’s, burros, that there 20,000 horses in ten western states, and there is 124 million acres for them to run on. The B.L.M must be stopped.
LikeLike
When you think about the *1.6 billion tons* of produce and other food we waste globally – articles like this promoting more slaughter of animals it is utterly ridiculous and offensive to the intelligence of the public everywhere. Especially when there are blatant ulterior motives. I wish ranching supporters would stop perpetuating these lies!!!!
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2016/03/global-food-waste-statistics/
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/half-of-all-us-food-produce-is-thrown-away-new-research-suggests/ar-BBuhLjv?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=UE07DHP
We should be eating less animal products, not more. Some of us won’t eat them at all due for the (lack of) ethical reasons.
LikeLike