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Join Willie Nelson and Friends to Stop Horse Slaughter
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Tell Congress it’s Time to Stand up for America’s Horses
Washington, DC (January 24, 2008) – When my friend, Willie Nelson, asked me to join him, his family, and the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) in the fight against the slaughter of American horses for human consumption overseas, I said “Absolutely, count me in.” Truth be known, my sister and I had already been doing what we could to protect horses from slaughter for quite some time; one more case of great minds thinking alike.
My family shares our 160-acre ranch in Oklahoma with many horses. I also have a 280-acre racehorse training facility nearby that is equipped with a 7/8 mile track with barns, paddocks, walkers, etc. My sister, Tonni, and I keep as many as 200 horses at any given time. A lot of them are retired and brought up here to live out their lives.
If we get too many, we sell some at auction. However, when we do sell horses, we put a $3,000 reserve on them so that they are too expensive to purchase for slaughter. If we bring one home that doesn’t sell, my sis will work until she finds that horse a home, no exceptions. Sometimes we’re faced with the tough decision to have our vet come out to put a suffering horse down. The idea has never occurred to me to send my horse to slaughter as a form of euthanasia, because slaughter isn’t euthanasia.
My heroes have always been horses. The reason we take such good care of our horses is because we respect them tremendously. Historically, the horse has earned this respect by accepting the two-legged rider onto his back, fighting in our battles, and helping to settle the frontier. As Winston Churchill once said, “There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man.”
We owe a great deal of thanks to horses, and now is the time for us to express that gratitude, because they need our help more than ever. More than 100,000 American horses were slaughtered in the U.S. last year and served up in fancy European restaurants. Texas and Illinois have outlawed the practice, closing down the only three foreign-owned horse slaughterhouses on U.S. soil.
This is great news, but our fight is far from finished. These companies are taking American horses on trucks several hundred miles without food or water across U.S. borders to slaughterhouses in Mexico and Canada where the slaughter is especially brutal.
The federal American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (S. 311/H.R. 503) would close this route by banning the transport of American horses across U.S. borders for the purpose of slaughter. It will also stop the slaughter industry from simply choosing another state to set up shop.
It’s time for Congress to pass the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act into law.
Join me, Willie, Bo Derek, John Corbett, the Animal Welfare Institute and over 75% of Americans in our effort to protect America’s horses.
Call your elected representatives in Washington, D.C. today and ask them to co-sponsor the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (S. 311/H.R. 503).
For more information on horse slaughter and how you can help make a difference for our horses visit
To find your elected representatives, visit
http://www.compassionindex.org/.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Chris Heyde – 703-836-4300
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January 28th, 2008 at 11:00 am
Please , stop all killing. Non-human and human.
January 29th, 2008 at 6:10 am
For God’s sake! This is AMERICA??? HOW is congress getting away with sitting on, passing HALF measures,ignoring,shifting around, and basically doing little to nothing of any real importance on these bills other than making the entire situation worse?? Same crap last year!! Shutting down the slaughter plants and their evils in America was 1/2 of the task, goal and the battle and congress KNOWS this!! As is the case with ANY half measure,the situation grows worse!!! If anything is worth doing, then it’s worth doing RIGHT!! America, make your voices heard in government TODAY AND EVERY DAY untill America gets what the majority of her citizens demand!!! It’s time they end this purely evil, greed generated and operated industry once and for all!! Every day congress juggles,hesitates,fails to educate themselves in the TRUTH and fails to act on it, hundreds more of our American icons are on the roads being trucked to their doom!! Enduring horrific suffering and unthinkable, evil acts of cruelty before they are finally and mercifully dead!! Those who make the laws work for the people in America! Not just for the special interest groups and big money organizations which are standing in the way of these laws!! They include but are not limited too, the AVMA (some fancy members only) and the huge money making Quarter horse organization, AQHA, (stand to loose some of their overpriced profits) and the wealthy cattlemen’s organizations who like their government grazing lands and things the way they are.. The endless lies and half truths being spun out there is so shameful, it makes me cringe and more so, because people actually believe it without checking out the facts themselves!
January 29th, 2008 at 6:31 am
Corporate America is VAST and it’s GREED is DESTROYING American’s trust, along with everything good and Godly that this country was founded upon!! It’s America’s PEOPLE not the corporations that deviously spit,polish and shine the shoes of our government, that once again NEED to be heard!!The PEOPLE put the politicians in office!! The PEOPLE work everyday to pay the bills and make things work in this country!! Why are our voices NOT being heard and taken seriously?? The overwhelming majority of Americans want horse slaughter and export to slaughter STOPPED!!! There is so much more evil stalking among us than only the matter of horses!! Wake up America and force your government to listen to you!!
January 31st, 2008 at 4:09 pm
I have worked in the Natural Valley Farms slaughter plant in Neudorf Saskatchewan Canada since it has began, not only have i saw some cruel and twisted stuff happened to the animals .. but in 2006 when they switched from killing the cows to horses i was appalled because horses aren’t a form of cattle they are our friends basically how could of anyone done many things before their were cars, with out a horse. although i only worked on sanitation which is the cleaning part i always refused to do any killing i told my bosses it was just not morally inhuman, to kill a horse for reason unknown the horses that i would watch in the barn would always know not to go near the big gate which lead to the knock box, I was really impressed with this.. i was always told by management that the horses were wild or sick but really their are some horses in good shape their… i always wanted to say so if a person go sick he should be shot.. well no so why the hell do horses have to be killed in a manner such as this.. if u have questions for me i will be willing to support bills and other appeals against animal rights as far as horses and such.. im living proof of the unjust ways of horse slaughter, i watched horses get stabbed and shocked just to make them move. this isn’t right, me and 5 other members of the plant are willing to stand up for our arguments but need a little support on how to go about doing this.
April 11th, 2008 at 7:56 am
STOP HORSE SLAUGHTER NOW! I REPEAT, STOP HORSE SLAUGHTER NOW!