Letters to the Editor: Horse slaughter editorials way off the mark

(Responses to Anti-slaughter laws would be deadly for horse industry and Closing slaughterhouses will hurt horses, not save them

Folks (October 15, 2007):

Thanks for the recent article on horse slaughter. Unfortunately, your articles fail to recognize a few simple truths.

First, people have been abandoning horses since they were first domesticated.

Second, horses are expensive to keep if cared for properly - always have been and always will be.

Third, while a majority of horse owners are responsible a significant minority are not.

These are the people responsible for the surplus horse situation. There are hundreds of backyard breeders throughout the country who allow their horses to breed freely.

Most of the time these are average quality horses for which there is no market. The slaughter industry enabled these people to think of themselves as breeders since they were able to sell virtually any horse for a few hundred dollars. Those who believe they "make" money by doing so are kidding themselves. The prices paid for "loose" horses at auction or by sale directly to killer buyers do not cover the costs of feeding a horse adequately, giving it proper vet care and minimal farrier work.

Ending slaughter in the U.S. has made breeding for slaughter even less profitable than it was before. The passage of the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act will force the slaughter breeders to act responsibly. Humane laws are on the books in every state that provide penalties for abuse and abandonment. The only thing needed is a firm resolve on the part of state, local and federal officals to enforce existing laws.

Steve Rei, Esq.
President
National Equine Rescue Coalition, Inc.
www.nerconline.org

Dear Editor (October 14, 2007)

I am writing to inform you of my extreme disgust with the article this young woman (Kristen Encheff) recently published on the "Hard News Cafe" web site.

While I realize this was just her opinion and, since we are all entitled to one, I will not debate the merits of her arguments, although I will tell you that I am anti-slaughter and will not be swayed by her arguments or any others for that matter.

But I must state that this was probably the most tasteless missive on this subject that I have yet read. Her entire tone is one of dismissing the horse and it's contributions to our society as well as the attachment many feel to their horses.

Please, if she has the nerve, I would like you to have her to email me and tell me how the brutal slaughter of a horse could ever constitute a "meaningful death"? I will be more than glad to share her insight into the "beauty" of slaughter as a means of death with my colleagues in the anti-slaughter community.

Apparently she sees something in this that we don't.

Joyce Jacobson
218 Pierce St.
Kingston, PA

Dear Editor (October 14, 2007)

There have been a few letters that support horse slaughter and they promote there same ole sad story that banning horse slaughter will harm Horses.

The most recently by Kristen I have notice most of her post she seems to run on about anything and everything. We have been in relationships with horses all our lives.

There would be nothing else in this world we rather do. Climbing Kilimanjaro in Africa or vacationing in Hawaii for months. Horses are a flight or fight animal and when these sellouts at the auction say these are crazy wild horse then they don't know a thing about horses. the mustang has a great wild spirit with great indurance. The deal is that Universities have and are still using and discarding horses for there studies with no responsiblity to the horses future.

The pro horse slaughter folks are AQHA and APHA that make high profits off overbreeders that want to make profits when they cant sell there foals they discard them as the Universities do or the producing PMU horses in Canada. Which Wyeth has taken very little action to stop the production of Estogens from pregant mares. The foals are sunt to feedlots then slaughter very young. These drugs have been proven to cause cancer so they lower there doses to continue profits and and our FDA has allowed them to do so. Our Own goverment cant be trusted. USDA would love to market horses for profits they cant even keep American Beef safe without hearing a recall and a out break of Ecolic.

The Fact is that these are foreign plants that make Millions and not subject to Income Tax nor Tariff Tax as most American Business. They promote Illegals jobs while our President sends more border patrols to keep them out compliments of us Tax Payers.

They ignore our enviorment laws and lie to the public that its humane to hit a horse in the head 3 or 4 times in the head to knock it out. If its so humane why dont we use it on the sellouts Parents instead of pulling the plug of life on them. We all know no the horses are going to Mexico where they are going thru a far more worse death and the Organizations that took an Oath to protect the horse are twidling there thumbs and saying see we told you not to ban horse slaughter in the US.

So far 29,000 horses have pass thru Mexico inhumane treatment thru double deckers to slaughter and the AAEP and the AVMA have done nothing but run there mouths. We Americans for years have paid USDA and Vets to inspect horse slaughter secretly and in my years of speaking for the horses I have witness no USDA inspectors and packs of Illegal Aliens laying in the front yard on there smoke breaks. How convient for them to kill our American Heritage and milk our Social Service Goodys as Rush Limback once said.

Our Borders arent safe and our American Jobs are at risk to illegals just that Big Business can profit having cheap labor.These are not old or sick horses. If someone abuse or neglects a horse then punish them its the law. Look how Jeffery Dalmer started out. For more info visit http://SaveDaHorses.com see the facts and what is being done to help horse rescues.

Sincerely,

Thomas Lee Trevino

Dear Editor (October 13, 2007)

I'm writing in response to the opinions on horse slaughter by Kristen Encheff and Cindy Schnitzler. While both are stating their opinions, they are fraught with inaccuracies and the same tired pro slaughter propaganda that has been proven wrong over and over again. Both appeared in google alerts so I'm assuming you are entertaining comments from the public.

In particular, "People who can't afford these expenses will have few options left if the anti-slaughter legislation is passed. What will happen to a good number of these animals, unfortunately, will be abandonment and neglect." This is so not true. People that abuse their animals, did so when slaughter was an option. They didn't send their horses to slaughter, they abused them. There is no correlation between abuse/neglect and slaughter. In fact, the opposite occurred when Cavel was closed and also in California when the ban was passed in the state ­ to site two examples. Here is an excellent piece by John Holland supporting this.

One has to wonder why someone would own a horse and not provide for a peaceful, dignified death for under $500. They site irresponsible owners which is part of the problem but what I don't understand is why their answer to that is a horrific death for the horse. They site all the unwanted horses but one has to ask, if they are unwanted, why do the kill houses have to pay for them? They're still in business outside the U.S. so why aren't they rounding up all these abandoned horses? Perhaps because they don't exist. Cindy made a statement, "The only other options, outside of spending extravagant amounts of money to care for an animal that cannot be used in any way, are euthanasia, abandonment, or neglect." that is about as compassionate as I've seen. How about all the years of service or companionship from the horse? How about a decent retirement when they can't be used in any way? I sincerely hope she doesn't own any animals. It is opinions like that that prove that some people don't deserve to own animals.

No doubt, she hasn't watched any of the videos on horse slaughter. There is nothing humane from the moment they enter the kill buyers hands. Kristen contradicts herself by singing the wonders of horses and then calling slaughter a meaningful death. My jaw dropped when she stated their death should serve a purpose. Serve a purpose? What purpose, greed? Instead of promoting slaughter, why aren't they using their energy and keyboards to target the issues? How about starting with AQHA? Their foal counts for last year were 144,000 compared to 23,000 Thoroughbreds. The majority of horses going to slaughter are Quarter Horses. Why not target these breeders that have no regard for the horses? They complain they can't afford the horses and keep breeding, hoping for the perfect horse to sell.

I am working with several rescues, industry people and legislators on the anti slaughter bills pending in Congress. Horses are not food animals. They are not livestock. Horse meat cannot be sold or bought in the US. Why on earth do we need slaughter houses? All three kill houses were foreign owned. None of them paid federal tax and their profits went overseas. They profited from the blood of our horses. That should be the subject of their opinions. How about opinions on the evils of horse slaughter; how it promotes theft and greed. If this industry was needed and wanted, there would have been U.S.-owned kill houses. There is a reason they were all foreign owned. . . .

Thank you for your time.

Vicki Tobin