Thursday, September 18, 2008
Horse slaughter bill concerns some veterinarians Some regional veterinarians are concerned that a bill banning horse owners from knowingly sending the animals to slaughter would increase abuse and neglect. “It’s doing a terrible, terrible disservice to the horses that slaughter isn’t available anymore in the U.S.,” said Kathy Thornton, a quarter-horse breeder at the Vale Creek Ranch south of Billings. “They are going down to places like Mexico where there aren’t any rules.” Doug Corey, an Oregon horse veterinarian and a former president of the American Association of Equine Practitioners, says the legislation will do more harm than good. “We’re definitely not pro-slaughter. We’re pro-horse,” he said. “We’d love to see every horse taken care of.” But, he said, making slaughter a crime would force some people to turn their domestic horses loose to face death on the roads or starvation. Corey said increased hay costs and lower horse resale prices are making it harder to care for the animals....
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Many OTHER veterinarians, including Veterinarians For Equine Welfare, strongly oppose horse slaughter. Dr. Nick Dodman, animal behaviorist at Tufts School of Veterinary Medicine, has spoken out against the horrors of horse slaughter. He notes, "...the slaughtering of horses is a brutal and predatory business that promotes cruelty and neglect." (VEW web site, http://vetsforequinewelfare.org/white_paper.php)
Veterinarians who support horse slaughter are capitulating to pressure by groups such as those mentioned in this article. They are standing up for horses as they should be. Horse slaughter is egregious, and should never never be equated with euthanasia. The National Black Farmers Association, with 94,000 members, has agreed to take in any horses at risk of slaughter, when the slaughter is banned. (http://www.awionline.org/news/2008/awi_nbfa_wanted_horses.htm) Even if each member takes only one horse, that solves any potential problem of unwanted horses. Bust we all really know that horse slaughter does not exist because there are unwanted horses. It exists because people make money selling horses for horsemeat, due to the demand for horsemeat as a delicacy in Europe and Asia. It is an economically-driven industry, not a solution to an overpopulation problem. All this hoopla about unwanted horses is a propaganda ploy by agribusiness. It has no basis in truth, and your article is a perfect example of this. Horse slaughter is cruel, unethical, a betrayal to horses. Anyone who speaks otherwise about it is either making money in the business by selling horses to dealers, or in denial about the truth. In this article above, there is a whole lot of denial going on.
Many OTHER veterinarians, including Veterinarians For Equine Welfare, strongly oppose horse slaughter. Dr. Nick Dodman, animal behaviorist at Tufts School of Veterinary Medicine, has spoken out against the horrors of horse slaughter. He notes, "...the slaughtering of horses is a brutal and predatory business that promotes cruelty and neglect." (VEW web site, http://vetsforequinewelfare.org/white_paper.php)
Veterinarians who support horse slaughter are capitulating to pressure by groups such as those mentioned in this article. They are NOT standing up for horses as they should be. Horse slaughter is egregious, and should never never be equated with euthanasia. The National Black Farmers Association, with 94,000 members, has agreed to take in any horses at risk of slaughter, when the slaughter is banned. (http://www.awionline.org/news/2008/awi_nbfa_wanted_horses.htm) Even if each member takes only one horse, that solves any potential problem of unwanted horses. Yet we all really know that horse slaughter does not exist because there are unwanted horses. It exists because people make money selling horses for horsemeat, due to the demand for horsemeat as a delicacy in Europe and Asia. It is an economically-driven industry, not a solution to an overpopulation problem. All this hoopla about unwanted horses is a propaganda ploy by agribusiness. It has no basis in truth, and your article is a perfect example of this. Horse slaughter is cruel, unethical, a betrayal to horses. Anyone who speaks otherwise about it is either making money in the business by selling horses to dealers, or in denial about the truth. In this article above, there is a whole lot of denial going on.
Has the government taken any stop to stop horse slaughter?
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