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.
On a working ranch everything has a purpose.
If it ceases to fulfill it's purpose, you get rid of it.
You might not eat it, but it will be gone.
You can't stay in business with a bunch of pets.
This whole thread has missed the real point.
Bo Derec is a beauty, even at her age.
Some women (Bo, Sofia Loren) are timeless.
And Derek is a slut.
If I ever get another dog I'm not going to name it.
Just "dog", like John Wayne called his.
The reality of the situation is much dirtier than just the choice of whether the animal should be butchered. There are many acts of cruelty involved before the shot that ended the animal's life. I would consider that there are options, improvements that might make the process more humane. I think those are worthwhile fights also short of outright banning. But I also must admit that I have no trouble banning export of horses for meat.
Just because a man has a work of art, it doesn't mean he can't admire other works of art.
IMO it isn't right to keep an animal suffering that has no chance of recovery. I don't have a problem with putting them down. If they are still useful to man afterwards I don't have a problem with selling them for meat either though. It would seem a waste not to. What does concern me is what you have posted about the way they are treated during the process. I had not heard of this before. The only slaughter I have ever been around was a pig and some chickens and it was instant and they didn't suffer. My husband was very emphatic about this. He stessed to my sons to do it right or not at all. I would like to know more about these conditions if you have links though because in the short period of time I have been around horses I notice they do communicate and feed off each others fear :'(
True, but beauty is more than pleasing features and a well shaped body.
She is a slut, and therefore unattractive to me.
I'm not a bleeding heart but I hope he kicked you good when he got up and bit your hand:') (just kidding, kind of)
gesundheit.
Oh tell me! Tell me! I'll take the flames. :^}
Are you a real cowboy? I mean, do you have belt buckle and everything?
I have ~seen~ links before that went to sites that showed what happens in sales and in the transport of the horses to slaughter. I have been to sales where these horses take the first step, and I have been to a 'ranch' where they go in between. (the guy also sold riding horses he could salvage from the sale).
I don't want to look now for proofs to show you because I try to protect myself from that. In truth, my ability to prevent any of it is limited, and I would rather not see it than have the sights haunt me. I know that is wimpy, but it is how I stay happy in a crappy world.
But the process is long, from sale to slaughter, and the distance to travel is sometimes long. With the acknowledgement that the horses are sometimes there because of the injury, know that they endured that injury for the many days and miles that it took to get them to the end.
There is another set of horses that end up in slaughter, and those are the premarin foals. I know only a little about the process of Premarin, a hormone replacement drug for women... but it stands for Pregnant Mare Urine. Mares are bred and kept in stalled conditions where urine can be collected and turned into this drug. Their foals are a side-effect not unlike the calves that are born at dairies... They just simply overflood the market where few want to take a foal that is newborn and must be nursed and raised by hand. The easy answer for Premarin is that there are synthetics already available that will be far easier and economical to make in the lab than it is to keep and feed a barn full of pregnant mares. That one will, I think, solve itself.
What a big man you are.... Not.
LOL!
I'm not a cruel person. I've never intentionally mistreated an animal.
There was a reason I had to correct the attitudes of these horses.
Horses are very intelligent, and, being so, they'll hurt you if they want to.
They HAVE to know who is the master!
And you are an idiot to judge without knowing the reasons.
I think most cowboys realize that it is silly and counterproductive to abuse and break their tools if they aren't working right. There is training... And then there is the trantrums of small men.
But this is not being multiculural.....We must accept others not our point of view. Multicultural theory, is we (Americans), don't matter, everyone else comes first.
mmmmmm, gari. Please stop it. :)
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