Posted on 05/19/2004 6:22:07 AM PDT by billorites
SPRINGFIELD -- Horse slaughter opponents applied star power Tuesday when they brought in a Hollywood movie star to lobby their cause. Actress Bo Derek, national spokeswoman for the National Horse Protection Coalition, visited Springfield to present complaints from animal-rights activists. Horses, she said, are companions not cuisine.
"They deserve better. It's not humane. We don't raise them for food. We raise them as pets or for sport," said Derek, famous for portraying the woman of Dudley Moore's dreams in the 1979 hit "10."
The House narrowly rejected banning horse slaughtering in March, but supporters in the Senate have resurrected the campaign to close a controversial horse slaughterhouse in DeKalb.
Opponents of the ban say horse slaughtering should be a choice. Currently, horse owners can sell their horses for slaughter to Cavel International in DeKalb or pay to get rid of them when they die.
In addition, supporters say the Belgium-based company helps DeKalb's economy.
Cavel, which is scheduled to open sometime this week after rebuilding from a fire two years ago, will employ 40 people, add $90,000 in property taxes for local government and pour more than $1 million into the economy, said state Rep. Bob Pritchard, R-Hinckley.
"It will allow them to support and care for their children. It will allow them to be active members of society," said Pritchard, who represents DeKalb. "I feel that as this state is losing jobs by the thousands, ... that we need this source of revenue."
Pritchard didn't think Derek's movie-star status would help efforts to end the practice of slaughtering horses.
"I know a lot of people in the drama and movie industry have tried to impose their values on other people, but I think people across Illinois will make that decision based on the respect for choice," he said.
State Sen. Todd Sieben, R-Geneseo, wasn't star-struck. Derek pulled him aside for a five-minute debate after her press conference.
"I'm still a 'no' vote," Sieben said.
Cavel is one of only three horse slaughterhouses in the country. The company sends the meat to Europe for human consumption.
"I'm not going to judge another culture and what they choose to eat, but I don't know why they have to eat our American horses," Derek said.
If the state institutes the ban, Jim Tucker, a Cavel manager, has said he could challenge the law in court because federal law allows the slaughter of horses for human consumption. Also, he said he could file for an injunction, meaning the law wouldn't apply to his company.
Congress also is considering banning horse slaughter for human consumption. The so-called American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act has 180 co-sponsors while only 218 votes are needed to pass the U.S. House.
House Bill 649 is currently pending in the Illinois Senate and could be called for a vote sometime this week.
You are right that they can't be transported in double decker cattle trucks anymore.
I've seen a bunch of crazy horses, and it doesn't matter what made them that way.
If you're working from a remuda of quarter horses, you take 'em as you get 'em.
Most horses who whip their head around as you climb in the saddle aren't intent on biting you. They might nip at your pants leg to let you know they're not interested in going for a ride right now.
There are some who will chomp down on that leg like they want to eat it!
Sometimes a good lick between the eyes with a lead headed quirt will stop that, but sometimes more drastic measures are required.
At the Boy's Ranch we had a palomino who loved to rare up like Trigger.
The chest strap did no good at all.
One day he went over backward and fell on the boy, breaking his back.
We put that horse down with a .30 caliber through the head.
The proud cut gelding tore the top of a boy's head off when he purposely ran under a mesquite limb.
We found him in the pasture, and got him to the hospital.
He's still wearing a steel plate in his head today if he's alive.
My son's eye was torn out when he was riding a stallion he thought he could handle.
They put the eye back in, but the scar down his face is still there.
There are some crazy horses, and anyone who thinks there's not are as crazy as the horses.
There! That's my two cents!
Flame away! I'm gone!
No flame from me. Behavior problems one thing. Crazy another.
There has never been a documented case of anyone getting parasites from sashimi prepared by a trained chef. The only cases have been from someone attempting to make it at home and using bad fish which a trained chef can spot a mile away.
With all due respect, I know that there are horses, that like some people, aren't right in the head. Some horses are harder than others, and some have been soured... much as people can become soured by lousy treatment at work.
By your own admission, some of the horses you have had have acquired bad behavior in your care. You bought a $5000 cutting horse that developed bad behavior and you sold him at a loss. Had many that just seemed to get worse and worse? - I've never had a horse that I didn't make more valuable under me, and I have started with sour-pusses and I have started from scratch.
So I have my own opinion of how to keep good tools good, whether you make pets of them or not.
sushi is to rice as salad is to lettuce. Any salad bar has ham, bacon bits, boiled eggs etc. Sushi means rice in japanese, sashimi means just raw fish.
Never tried horse, don't really want to - especially if they are pets.
Because it's bait.
I guess your sister was lucky that she didn't get an "F" in one of her classes. ;)
I actually posted that, and several other "responses" from "different people" on the CBS Sportsline.com horse racing board, and believe it or not, it recieved 100% positive responses!
Guess there's not ALWAYS one in every crowd.
Owl_Eagle
" WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
DIVERSITY IS STRENGTH"
My argument against horse slaughter is both emotional and logical, at least to my sensibilities. I am against it because I think we make a higher contract with horses when we halter them, bridle them, and say "trust me, work with me, and I won't hurt you." I think it is fundamentally unfair to send them to slaughter because they have been broken in our service. It's as reprehensible to me as selling my dog for meat when he becomes sick. My animals will never have that fate.
I cannot disagree with your statements. However, I feel there is a serious trap door to the idea that a horse is a "companion", as many animal activists want to declare them. If they are only a "Companion", I am afraid that they will next lobby and prosecute all of us horse owners because we "ride" them, "Race them", "Jump them", etc, etc,etc,. Beware of what we wish for, as there is often a trap door in the structure.
There is also the issue of being able to donate an injured horse for zoo meat or to places like the large raptor/carnivore rescue place in Los Angeles which needs lots of fresh meat every day for their rescue-rehab efforts. You cannot just try and talk to a lion or an eagle and talk it into eating Cheerios......
Very true, which is why I don't determine what's right or wrong based on what the extremes might want to do... They are just as wrong as the other extreme. The right answer is not necessarily the polar opposite of one wrong answer, and we usually find it somwhere in the middle.
Where in the hell did you get that idea?
The cutting horse was a biter from day one!
When I bought him I didn't ride him.
The owner rode some barrels with him, and showed me his cutting abilities. The reason he didn't bite the owner was because the owner had done exactly what I did later!
The first time my daughter tried to get on his back, he bit her leg so bad she had to stay home from school the next day.
When I rode him I knocked the crap out of him when his head came around.
Like I say, you take your opinions and wrap yourself up in your utopian world of fantasy.
I know horses better than you will if you live to be a thousand.
I'm finished with you.
Good day!
You misunderstand that I somehow think I alone am speaking for God. The biblical tradition I'm elucidating is part-and-parcel with Western practice of nearly 2000 years. Only in the last 30 or so years, with the rise of the animal rights movement--soaked as it is in pantheistic eastern philosophy--has there been confusion.
As I understand it, these horses are marked for destruction anyway, so they could be put down, and buried or wasted, or without cruelty, used to help people--both those who choose to eat horse-meat, and those who work at the plant. Someone like Bo Derek could probably afford--along with some of her fancy friends--to buy the plant if they wanted to, and find jobs for all the people closing it would cause. Instead, they go to law to try to push their mis-guided values on everyone else--the people involved be d*mned.
"Good" people may argue, as indeed they do, that any use of animals to help people is immoral....welcome to the wacky world of PETA. However, America is not controlled by people of a pagan non-sensical philosophy of Vegan ideals, rather by the mainstream longstanding idea, that stewardship demands care for, and decent treatment of animals--even ones bound for the meat-packing plants. To single out horses though as somehow beyond the rules applied to all other animals, is however sentimental and silly.
I for one have no desire to eat horse-meat--nor monkey, nor dog, nor caviar for that matter--however, I cannot push my personal tastes or squeamishness on others in the name of universal values.
That's why its valuable to have a source of universals, so I can tell the difference between right and wrong vs. my tastes and other's tastes--and that source is something many in America, even conservatives, have forgotten.
All you did was wreck your horses. You don't have a clue about how to train. You might get results with those methods, but you ruin the animals- especially by cutting the horses mouth up. That's the last thing you want to do. The horse gets scar tissue and then you have no control at all with the bit.
GO HERE
and learn about training a horse from a real cowboy/horseman.
I highly recommend this man's books too anyone interested. He has some interesting methods of training. Companies have even used his theories in managing employees too.
You have the ease of distance from this and a creed you can live with. Good for you. I do too... It's different from yours but we both affect the outcome of all this not at all. I have not the resources to actually affect the argument, like Bo Derek has.
My hope here is to help horse owners that read my posts to ~think~ about how they will dispose of their own when the time comes. Many don't give it any thought what happens to horses when they leave the sale yard.
Monty's OK.... I think there are a lot of valuable lessons from watching his round pen work. I was a little disappointed with some of his corrective lessons, because I only saw them performed on horses that were already pretty darned obedient, but he has a quiet confidence that I think goes a long way with horses.
I see, so the fact that it provides people with income makes it OK? By that same logic, we shouldn't try to end abortion, because the abortion clinics provide jobs that feed and clothe families.
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