mayor hopes Congress can close horse slaughter plant

[Judi Lynn]

Sept. 3, 2006, 1:43PM
mayor hopes Congress can close horse slaughter plant

By PAUL J. WEBER
Associated Press

KAUFMAN -- A mile from one of only three horse slaughter plants in the United States, the stale smell of offal and blood wafts under Mayor Paula Bacon's nose.
(snip)

That happens, says Bacon and others, on hot afternoons when a southerly wind carries the smell far beyond the Dallas Crown slaughter mill and the nearby Boggy Bottoms neighborhood. Families say the odor keeps them indoors and Bacon says the plant's "stigma" stifles development and job growth in this rural exurb of 7,000 about 30 miles southeast of Dallas.

Dallas Crown and its Belgium owners have survived a number of attempts in recent years to close the plant — Kaufman's most visible landmark to passing motorists. But the U.S. House could signal its fate with a vote expected Thursday.
(snip)

The bill before Congress, known as The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, aims to shutter Dallas Crown and other horse processing operations in Fort Worth and DeKalb, Ill. Horse meat is not marketed as table fare in the United States, but the slaughter plants process hundreds of horses each week and ship the meat overseas, where horse flesh is considered a delicacy in Europe, Japan and other places.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/4160397.html

[astonamous]

1. Not to mention how the horses or treated before and during

transport to these slaughter houses. Wild horses are being slaughtered to...cattlemen just don't want to share public land with those pesky wild horses.

http://www.saplonline.org/horses.htm

Trudy
www.pryorsplanet.com

[acmejack]

4. Stolen horses too.

Further more, more than 50,000 horses are stolen each year as compared to about 20,000 cattle. About 60 percent of the stolen horses end up in slaughter plants, where they are processed and sold as meat for human consumption in Europe and Japan. There owners grieve terribly not knowing what ever happened to their pet horse. If we can ban slaughter many fewer horses will be stolen for slaughter as evidenced in California when they banned slaughter in 1998 and theft of horses dropped 34%.

http://www.luckythreeranch.com/slaughter/slaughter.asp

[MasonJar]

2. I thought that we had stopped this slaughter already. How many

times do we have to fight this madness. Call your Senators...again, please.

[aaronbees]

3. I hope this passes ...eom

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

5. thanks for posting this -

I love horses too.

Used to keep horses, had one "pet" horse for about 20 years.
He got to retire on a nice big farm of about 1,000 acres.

I used to buy horses that people weren't feeding well,
and get them fattened up and healthy.
Then I would train them and sell them once they were gentle.

However, I have seen how easily a horse can end up in the wrong
hands and be mistreated or starved.

I oppose the slaughter of horses - for all sorts of reasons,
but note that the animals are treated very cruelly before being
slaughtered.

They are jammed onto trucks without any concern for preventing injury
or keeping them comfortable.

Horses are smart and beautiful, almost spiritual.