John Holland, Pres. of Equine Welfare Alliance
by Debbie Coffey, V.P. & Dir. of Wild Horse Affairs, Wild Horse Freedom Federation
BEEF magazine posted a commentary titled “Will reinstating horse slaughter in the U.S. improve horse welfare?“ written by Courtney L Daigle, an Assistant Professor of Animal Welfare at Texas A&M University. However, her commentary was filled with misinformation.
Daigle’s title alone is appalling to anyone has ever seen photos or video of horses being slaughtered. Horse slaughter is the polar opposite of anything remotely resembling “horse welfare.”
John Holland, Pres. of Equine Welfare Alliance (EWA), responded:
Dr. Daigle presents a picture of horse welfare that is dazzling in its inaccuracy. First she claims “Currently, there are 9 million unwanted horses in the U.S.” That is virtually the entire horse population of the US as estimated in a 2005 study by the American Horse Council! This could have been over looked as a typo if the remainder of the sentence (let alone the article) had not been of similar factual quality.
In fact, Dr. Daigle did not even finish that sentence before she had again misrepresented reality, saying “adoption rates are at a record low, and horse populations – without population control – will naturally double every four years.”
She has clearly confabulated BLM statements about the population of wild horses with the issue of domestic horses! If the domestic horse population doubled every four years, the population would have surpassed 72 million in 2017!Dr. Daigle sites France, Belgium and Italy as potential markets for our horse meat, but these countries are forbidden by the EU from importing US horse meat through Mexico (or the US), and are severely restricted in importing it from Canada because of the long standing issue of drug residues.
As to her claims that horse welfare has been negatively impacted by the closing of the slaughter plants in the US, the statistics indicate just the opposite. In five out of six states studied, the rate of abuse actually had the opposite response to the rate of slaughter, and the true major causative factor in abuse levels was found to be the cost of hay.”
“The History and Causes of Equine Abuse and Neglect: A Statistical Analysis.” Texas A&M has long been a proponent of horse slaughter, but they apparently neglected to warn Dr. Daigle that she might be fact checked. This article is an embarrassment!
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Categories: Horse News, Horse Slaughter, Uncategorized
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
I remember seeing this woman’s “opinion” on horses & slaughter before – couldnt find any articles that back me up but the name is familiar! And the pro-slaughter seems to be typical for Texas A&M!
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Applause for John Holland! Thank you.
How did anyone so lacking in knowledge, as Mr. Daigle obviously is, ever get a job as the an Assistant Professor of Animal Welfare?
Ms. Courtney L Daigle needs to go back to school and learn how to do research that includes factual data and I certainly hope any students in her class do NOT take what she says as being fact.
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According to the listing of research projects she is involved in – as to “benefit” the welfare of animals in order to make their progress to slaughter easier (which is what it sounds like). Was it Texas A&M that had some kind of dustup involved with transportation of animals to slaughter a year or so ago?
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Connecting the dot$
MERCK
Department of Animal Science introducing new judging team
Posted on December 20, 2017 by maggielberger
By: Dr. Courtney Daigle
This year’s undergraduate team placed 8th and was coached by graduate student, Rachel Park and advised by DR. COURTNEY DAIGLE, assistant professor of animal welfare. Team members included Caroline Campbell, Logan Roper, Xandra Meneses, and Amanda Wilgus.
The American Veterinary Medical Association and MERCK Animal Health partnered together
https://animalscience.tamu.edu/2017/12/20/department-animal-science-introducing-new-judging-team/
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Yes, Louie – welfare of animals that we eat, plus racing greyhounds! Teaching kids to “judge” animal welfare!
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PFIZER
Trace the history of Premarin with this revealing timeline
by Jane Allin
Pfizer Q4 2009 earnings from Biopharmaceutical were $14.6 billion, an increase of 30% compared with $11.2 billion in the year-ago quarter. Operationally, revenues increased $2.9 billion, or 26%, of which $2.5 billion, or 22%, was attributable to legacy Wyeth products, primarily Premarin® in the Primary Care unit.
https://tuesdayshorse.wordpress.com/2012/03/05/trace-the-history-of-the-premarin-family-of-drugs-with-this-revealing-timeline/
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..and NOW
MERCK and PFIZER
Pfizer, Merck, J&J well-positioned for M&A and Biogen and BioMarin are prime targets: report
by Arlene Weintraub |
Feb 20, 2019
https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/pfizer-merck-j-j-well-positioned-for-m-a-and-biogen-and-biomarin-are-prime-targets-report
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So glad to call you my friend, John!
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Thank you, John.
It seems our horses, both wild and domestic, are being attached everywhere in the media. Even PBS is reporting an over-population of wild horses.
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