My apologies to Trigger.
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.
I have no feelings about butchering horses one way or the other but I think there are laws about how long animals can be transported before they must be unloaded & watered.
Horses are not intelligent they are super stupid. They are frightned when transported because they are out of their familiar zone, not because they have any knowledge about what is going to happen to them.
I think she is a conservative, IIRC.
But, she obviously does not agree with horses being used for meat.
Neither do I. Disgusting.
Her attachment to horses is probably why.
It is a cultural thing, and I have no problem banning some things if the culture believes we should not be slaughtering the animals, such as dogs.
If it goes too far though, I would be concerned we would start to encroach on the right to hunt....
You are a sick man.
Animal mutilation is a precursor to killing people, btw.
My apologies to Trigger.
You just couldn't see that one coming, could you.
The proud cut gelding tore the top of a boy's head off when he purposely ran under a mesquite limb.
"Purposely" huh? You can read a horses mind? If you can, then why do you have so much trouble?
My son's eye was torn out when he was riding a stallion he thought he could handle.
Apparently he couldn't handle that horse, Paw. Seems to me that you have a lot of problems that a little observation and careful thought could avoid.
Heh. I'm rarely at the beer hall without the girlfriend, who loves beer and raw horse meat more than I do. And this is only when we are in Japan anyway; oddly, I don't even go to beer halls in the US.
Well said.
OPut here in Cali they ryun these stupid "Happy cow" dairy ads, showing the dairy cows frolicking in lush green fields.
The truth is, most of them are penned rather tightly, shot up with hormones and anti-biotics, and there is no green grass for them to frolick in.
It's not anti-conservative to try to be a bit concerned about what we do. "Screw all but humans and human needs" is not the way to go.
Why would you say that?
I'll tell you something the Marine Corps used to do during basic, I don't know if they still do. They would give you a living, breathing bunny rabbit and make you take it with you everywhere you went. They warned you that if you let anything happen to that bunny, it would be your a**. You were to keep it alive at all cost. After a few days, you were ordered to snap its neck and skin it. We live in a brutal world. Nick Berg and Daniel Pearl found out just how brutal.
The guy who ends up with a troubled mind is the one who enjoys the killing.
Impossible. Morality is the custom of behavior made traditional by religion; that is a "Higher Power". Humans once hunted horses for food only. That's fine. The horse knew we were predators and ran away. Natural balance. Then man learned to capture young horses and the domestication of equines began. This changed the moral balance. Humans MADE the horse trust them and then rely upon them. The natural balance was changed, so were the obligations of the domestication. You are morally responsible for what you tame, man or beast.
The relationship of horse and man is unparalleled in history. If one traces the relationship, you will find that you and I would still be eating bugs (or Sushi) in the old country, because we would not have had ships for our ancestors to immigrate, because it takes horse to haul the timbers from the mountains that make the tall mast of sailing ships. If not for horses we would not have made it to the moon. There would be no computers. Whether you like it or not, there is a debt we owe to these animals, the least of which is to treat them appropriately.
I agree with you about veal. My dad wouldn't eat veal, either, and he raised Polled Herefords.
No it's not. We have exploited the strength and intellect of the horse to be more than an "other animal". Orwell's phrase applies in this case, "some animals are more equal then others". As I remember, the horse "Boxer" did the heavy lifting at our bidding. For that, the "Boxers" of this world deserve better than the Boxer in Animal Farm. Lest we become so cold and soulless that we become totalitarian.
If humans had left horses alone in the wild, I would accept your position. But we didn't. We are responsible for what we tame.
Hear, hear!
I knew of a man, once called Leonard Slye and he rode a horse that was once named "Golden Cloud", who would disagree with you. The duo made millions. He credits the horses intelligence with his success.
I do not think that YOU are entirely competent in every human endeavor. Should I consider you, "super stupid" because you don't know everything. Or should I consider you merely stupid because you only pretend to be.
If you had the money Trigger made for Roy Rogers, you could live in Switzerland.
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