The Government Accountability Office has issued its report, GAO 11-228, on action needed to address unintended consequences of the 2007 closing of domestic slaughter facilities. A principal recommendation: “Congress may wish to consider instituting an explicit ban on the domestic slaughter of horses and export of U.S. horses intended for slaughter in foreign countries.”
(HOUSTON) – SFTHH – The long awaited report from the federal Government Accountability Office was released on June 22, 2011. Allegedly leaked and discussed during the controversial, failed horse slaughter festival, held in Las Vegas in early January, equine advocates were bracing for a compromised accounting and they were not far off the mark. Without any baseline of comparable markets the report acknowledges the fall in prices of equine sales since the closer of foreigner owned horse slaughter plants in the U.S. since 2007 but fails to recognize the parallel fiscal crisis the global economy entered into at during the same time frame. There is no reference or comparison to the dive in livestock prices nor an indication of essential industries, such as housing and auto, that had tanked and have yet to recover.
Chicago (EWA) – A long overdue Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on the effect of closing the US horse slaughter plants is scheduled for release on Wednesday, June 22. Although the report’s contents are to be kept confidential until released, slaughter supporters have been indicating for months that they were leaked the report and have now orchestrated an “Unwanted Horse” teleconference late in the day of the release presumably to promote the report’s findings.
We reported that a GAO spokesperson had confirmed that the report had been leaked, allegedly to former Texas Rep. Charles Stenholm, now a lobbyist for the meat packing industry. The report is allegedly titled The State of Horse Welfare in the United States Since the Cessation of Horse Slaughter in 2007, according to a document sent to Horseback by Senior Public Information Specialist Laura Kopelson. We quoted the document, describing the methodology for the story and named our source.
HOUSTON, (Horseback) – Horseback Magazine has confirmed that a long awaited report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has been leaked. The report, titled The State of Horse Welfare in the United States Since the Cessation of Horse Slaughter in 2007, was quoted at the Summit of the Horse held in Las Vegas in early January.
It is no secret that BLM’s program for the wild horses and burros is to round them up, remove them from the range and warehouse them in holding facilities. What is a mystery is why taxpayers would foot the bill for managing wild animals in this way.
Wyoming state Rep. Sue Wallis, is the self-styled leader of an effort to legalize commercial horse slaughter for human consumption. It’s not often that you see someone making animal cruelty their life’s work, their raison d’etre.
In the past few years, on government web sites and in newspaper op-eds, a large portion of the failure for the Wild Horse and Burro Program was laid on the overwhelming populations of wild equines on the ranges and in holding, then at the feet of the Public, for lackluster performances in adopting thousands of animals removed in the face of a poor economy. Yet, according to information published by the Bureau of Land Management, the Public has participated, to the best of it’s ability, even in the leanest years, 2007 – 2009.
As Director of the Bureau of Land Management, which manages America’s public lands for multiple uses, I am committed to meeting with diverse stakeholders who have an interest in public land management issues. I have therefore tentatively accepted an invitation to speak at an event called “Summit of the Horse,” sponsored by the United Horsemen organization, which will be held Jan. 3-6, 2011, in Las Vegas. A description of the event has been posted by the organization at http://www.horsewelfare.ca/events/202-united-horsemens-first-summit-of-the-horse-event
HOUSTON, (Horseback) – The director of the federal Bureau of Land Management has endorsed a pro-slaughter rally by “tentatively” accepting an invitation to speak at the “Summit of the Horse.” The Las Vegas event is sponsored by the radical pro-horse-slaughter group United Horsemen, a Cheyenne, Wyoming organization headed by GOP State Rep. Sue Wallis.
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