STOP INHUMANE SLAUGHTERING OF OUR HORSES TO FEED ELITE EUROPEANS

This is my second published letter.

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/frontpage/35619.php

Published: 12.14.2006

Guest Opinion: Stop inhumane slaughtering of our horses to feed elite Europeans

SHARON CRUMB
Tucson Citizen

Every year, 90,000 American horses are sold at auctions to people disguising themselves as loving people who will give these horses good homes.

They have told this lie to the people who are forced to sell their horses at auction. These people, who love their horses but can not afford to give them adequate care any more, learn later that their horse went to slaughter instead.

There are children who had their horse stolen who received a phone call that their stolen horse was recovered. Instead of joy, they have had to go to the slaughterhouse to identify the hide.

Microchips are cut out at the slaughterhouse and thrown in the trash.

But microchips are not the only thing being cut out and thrown in the trash. Testimony from workers at the slaughterhouses reveal that they cut the foal out of the horse and throw it in the trash, sometimes seeing it cry or its heart beating.

The horse is shot in the head with a captive bolt to render the it unconscious. Facts reveal that this does not always happen. Therefore, the horse is very much alive and shot several times in the head prior to being hoisted up by the rear leg and having its throat slit to bleed out.

These horses are very alive, aware and frightened while they breathe their last breath.

Every four minutes, a beautiful young, healthy horse is slaughtered in America.

This is not being done to feed our starving nation. It is being done to please the appetite of foreigners at a price of $40 per pound.

The horse sells at slaughter for up to $400 and in turn three foreign-owned slaughterhouses reap the profits.

Why? you may ask.

In Belgium, it is illegal to kill a horse for human consumption. Two of the three American slaughterhouses are Belgian-owned, the other one is European-owned.

The European Union has a long list describing inhumane treatment of horses going to slaughter, along with a long list of drugs that horses being slaughtered should never have taken.

The fact is, all our horses have these drugs in them at time of slaughter.

Some of these drugs cause cancer to those who ingest them. Some of the people test positive for steroids they didn't eat but which were in their systems anyway.

Doctors in Europe are telling their heart patients to eat horse meat because it is low in fat. These doctors are, in effect, killing their patients.

Why are we sticking our necks out to feed the elite people of other countries?

As Americans, we are outraged. Our representatives, who took an oath of office, pledging to be our voices, are not listening to their constituents who call on a daily basis asking them to get S1915 - the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act - on the floor for a vote.

United States senators are dragging their heels on a vote for S1915, and they are clearly not listening to the American people.

There is simply no justification for slaughtering American horses.

It is not economical to the United States. It is not a meat offered in the United States to feed starving people. It is not right all around.

I am hopeful you will add your voice to the American people's will and support S1915.

The bill passed the House of Representatives on Sept. 7 by a vote of 263-146. It is up to the 109th Senate to finalize this bill by a vote.

Without that vote, 90,000-plus horses will have to endure the most horrific, brutal experience of their life to end their lives. This cannot, and will never be, acceptable to us.

Sharon Crumb lives in Phillipsburg, N.J.
For more information: www.equineadvocates.com and www.kaufmanzoning.net/horsemeat.