Fwd: ACTION ALERT - letters needed to NYTimes re horse slaughter

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Please write a letter to the NYTimes in response to this article.  Letters must not be longer than 150 words, a guideline that is strictly enforced.   letters

 

Remember - you may not think you are a great writer and your letter may not be published - but it is CRUCIAL to write about this issue.  The more letters the paper gets, the more they are likely to publish.  So write .... please.

 

This is the article below.  Warning about photos if you to the Times site.  I know it is very difficult to see them  - but please know that it important to be aware of  what goes on behind closed doors. 

 

Thanks.  Elizabeth Forel / Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages - www.banhdc.org  

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/us/07horses.html

 

April 7, 2009

 

Surge in Abandoned Horses Renews Debate Over Slaughterhouses

 

By KATIE ZEZIMA

MURRAY, Ky. — Emaciated horses eating

bark off trees. Abandoned horses tied to telephone poles. Horses

subsisting on feces, walking among carcasses.

As the economy continues to falter, law enforcement officers in

Kentucky and throughout the country are seeing major increases in the

number of unwanted and neglected horses, some abandoned on public land,

others left to starve by their owners.

The situation has renewed the debate over whether reopening

slaughterhouses in the United States — the last ones closed in 2007 —

would help address the problem. Some states, Missouri, Montana and

North and South Dakota, for example, are looking at ways to bring

slaughterhouses back.

An estimated 100,000 horses a year are shipped to Canada and Mexico

for slaughter, prompting Congress to consider a bill that would ban the

sale and transport of horses for human consumption outside the country.

But Arkansas, Georgia and eight other states are against such a ban,

saying owners need affordable options for unwanted horses.

Last week in Montana, the Legislature approved a bill allowing the construction of horse-slaughter facilities. Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat who supports reinstating the slaughterhouse, vetoed a provision that would have limited appeals by opponents.

But Keith Dane, a spokesman for the Humane Society of the United States,

which opposes horse slaughter, said that the Montana bill was

unnecessary because horse slaughter was already legal in the state, and

that it would essentially quash the opposition’s right to try to stop

the opening of a slaughterhouse for environmental and other reasons.

“We think it’s unconstitutional and probably a handout to the horse slaughter industry,†Mr. Dane said.

Also unresolved in the overall debate is whether the closing of

slaughterhouses contributed to the growing numbers of unwanted horses,

driving down the price of the animals to as little as $50 each at

auction.

“Bottom line is you have to separate the animal from the pet,†said

State Representative Edward B. Butcher, a Republican who wrote the

Montana bill.

“No one has to send a horse to a processing plant,†he added. “It’s

just an option for horses that are unusable. And it’s much more humane

than leaving them there to starve t

o death.â€

According to the Humane Society, the United States sent 98,363

horses to Canada and Mexico for slaughter last year. As of March 28,

17,758 horses had been sent to those two countries for slaughter.

The rising abandonment of horses is straining law enforcement

officers, who, while facing tightened budgets, must learn about the

animal and the laws that govern them. Dealing with the legal aspect of

neglect can be even trickier. In Kentucky, where horses are a way of

life, cruelty laws are vague and jurisdiction is left to each of the

state’s 120 counties, many of which work with a humane society that

shelters seized animals.

Mark Arenson, an animal control officer here in Calloway County who

has spent his career investigating cruelty to dogs and cats, was among

15 animal-control agents, sheriffs and shelter directors who took a

three-day, hands-on class at Murray State University offered by the Kentucky Horse Council, a nonprofit organization.

On a bright March afternoon, Mr. Arenson learned to feel for

protruding ribs, a sign of starvation; to look at the hooves, which

should be short and trimmed or the horse will limp; and to be careful

when approaching from behind, because a startled horse might kick.

“I don9t know much about horses,†Mr. Arenson said. “A lot of this is new information for me.â€

Brandon Gallimore, a deputy sheriff in Calloway County, about 100

miles northwest of Nashville, found himself in a pasture filled with

horses, checking for distinct marks like brands and hair whorls to

identify the horses in court proceedings.

Later he stood inside a small stall, where he gingerly walked around

a horse with his hand on its flank as a warning before he lifted its

tail.

“You get a little skittish when you’re around a 1,200-pound horse,â€

Mr. Gallimore said. “But now I know what you can learn and what you can

get away with by watching their eyes.â€

There are no firm statistics on how many horses have been abandoned here or nationally, but the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

said it had been overwhelmed with reports of neglected horses and had

given rescue facilities its year’s worth of emergency hay in just two

months.

Where numbers are kept, they are startling. Officials in Nevada said

63 horses were abandoned on state land last year, compared with 11 in

2007. In Sweetwater County, Wyo., where abandoned horses were

previously unheard of, 20 were recovered last year. And in Texas, about

170 horses were rescued from a ranch in Hill County last month in what

the authorities called o

ne of largest livestock seizures in state

history.

The authorities there said they believed that the owner had bought

hundreds of horses cheaply and was planning on selling them when the

market turned. “They were putting the minimal amount of money in to

keep the horses alive,†said Clint Ward of the Hill County Sheriff’s

Office.

Many states are strengthening their animal cruelty statutes. The

Oregon Senate passed a bill in March making horse abandonment a crime,

and Arizona legislators are considering a public listing of equine

rescue facilities.

Lori Neagle, executive director of the Kentucky Equine Humane Center,

a nonprofit group based in Nicholasville that tries to find homes for

unwanted horses, said, “Every day, it’s phone calls saying, ‘I can’t

afford to keep them, I’m losing my farm.’ â€

Although horses were always a financial stretch for Andy and Rose

Cardinale of Swanville, Me., they found a way to make do until last

year, when they lost their business and their home.

The Cardinales took two of their five horses to the Last Chance Ranch,

an equine rescue facility in Troy, Me.; two others are being cared for

elsewhere, and the third, a stallion, they are struggling to keep. Mr.

Card

inale has taken on part-time work as a police dispatcher.

Another desperate owner forced to surrender a horse she can no

longer afford is Erin O’Brien, a 24-year-old student from Corinna, Me.

“It was either pay for my schooling and better myself or keep him,â€

Ms. O’Brien said of her horse, Amos. Ms. O’Brien stood on a frigid

Maine night in Amos’s stall, gently stroking his head and kissing him.

“I love you, baby,†she said.