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 correct, we don't breed and raise horses for food. We breed and raise cattle for that purpose. Americans, OTOH, breed and raise horses for utility, sport or enjoyment. If the French and the Japanese want to eat horse meat, LET THEM RAISE AND SLAUGHTER HORSES IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY, and not encourage excess breeding in the US by providing a market for surplus horses.
As for the town needing the 40 jobs that being horse killers will provide, let them learn to make saddles and tack to put on horses that they don't slaughter.
Isn't that Japanese for last place finisher?
Good post.
Then this should be "circular", also
Isn't that circular reasoning? We mustn't slaughter humans for food because we don't slaughter humans for food?
Therefore, if we began to slaughter humans for food, that would permit the slaughter of humans for food.
Your argument fails the logic and morality smell test. There is an inherent immorality to the slaughter and consumption of animals that have been domesticated beyond the point of being "livestock".
I agree. If anything, there should be a $1,000 bounty on the killers, the drivers and the buyers. $10,000 on the sellers.
Isn't that circular reasoning? We mustn't slaughter humans for food because we don't slaughter humans for food?
Yes, that is also circular. The morality of cannibalism is not influenced by our acceptance or rejection of it.
Your argument fails the logic and morality smell test. There is an inherent immorality to the slaughter and consumption of animals that have been domesticated beyond the point of being "livestock".
I would say the burden of proof is on you to prove that. I believe in an objective morality unchanged by human custom.
Should be humanely "put down" (euthanized) and either buried or disposed of to a rendering plant. Slaughter for ambulatory, domesticated horses, that have known the saddle or the harness is immoral and inhumane.
I agree with the thought above and your entire post. Those who would cavalierly dispose of an animal, esp. a horse that had served them well, has no soul. Loyalty, even to an animal, is a sign of morality. Moral is "conservative".
I agree. Been watching you work your way through the thread! - there is more to come and you are saying much of it more succinctly than I did.
Your tractor never got you out of a late spring snow storm in the High Sierras, like my horse, "Barney" did when I was 16.
Therefore, the dietary restrictions on swine in the Bible are not commands, but are suggestions? Do you eat pork?
Good for you...........;^)
I've worked around hundreds of thoroughbred racehorses, 2 year olds, intact stallions, high on grain , vitamins, and only get out of their stalls for an hour a day to train on the track. Amazingly, the majority are docile and kind.
Of course there are some that are mean. I can only think of 3 , (out of all the ones I saw) ) that would fit the description of mean.(" Well one of the 3 might actually be called evil-he didn't just bite, he'd try to savage. He'd try to slam you into the wall. He'd not only rear up, he'd rear up and aim at you and try to come down on your head, or rear up and spin at the same time trying to drop you. The trainer had him gelded. It didn't make one bit of differece. He was just as mean after-LOL." ) But all in all alot of the bad behavior is really just the horse feeling good. That doesn't mean put up with it though.
I saw grooms come in to work with the machismo attitude. They'd do the "beat the crap out of em" routine. More often than not , all that happened (especially with the stallions) is that a war would ensue where the horse would go after the groom every chance he got, and the groom would take the worst of it- bruises, bites, kicks, stepped on toes. (to be fair, I had all these things too, -bruises, bites ,kicks and stepped on toes, but it was once in a while. With the macho guys, it happened to them just about everyday.
The main problem was that the groom was afraid, and the horse knew it. As it was explained to me by an old timer at the track "Horses can smell fear on you. They can hear you breathing. They can hear your heart beating in your chest (they have sense of smell and hearing similar to a dog's). You have to stay calm around them. But never, for a second, lose respect for the fact that they can kill you.
I just believe that you can't use all stick and no carrot with horses. You have to use common sense.
Yes. And it is pretty tasty.
Raw horse meat is one of my favorite snacks in the beer hall.
Once you have a horse, there is no way you could ever do ANYTHING detrimental to it.
I grew up with horses, and I have two now.
Horses become like your children. Would you let your kid be killed and eaten?
"Here are these exquisite, immensely powerful creatures, who willingly give us their labor in return for our stewardship. They have attended us throughout history, bearing us across frontiers and into battle, pulling our plows, thrilling us in sport, warming us with their beauty. We owe them more than we can ever repay. To send these trusting creatures to slaughter is beneath their dignity and ours."
- Laura Hillenbrand, author of Seabiscuit
It was only a movie with dialog written by some screenwriter from New York City and who had never been on a horse in his life.
I have worked on cattle ranches, and good horses, that have worked well are retired, not sold to the killers. They are rarely, if ever, sold by a well run outfit. That fact, in itself, should tell you something. The old horse teaches the next generation to ride and is usually shot by its owner at the end of its days and the carcass buried on the ranch or in the mountains.
Your a single guy, right?
Your' re rather proud of that, aren't you, big man. I'd like to see you do the same thing to me. And this ain't' "flame", I'm callin' your bluff.
I hope he did too. And I'm not kidding. Any man who calls himself a horseman that has had to resort to such means of starting a horse, as this Texican has admitted to, has no business around horses.
(BTW, I think he got it all from books that he read)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.