American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act

SPECIAL INTERESTS SUCCEED ONCE AGAIN IN FOILING THE PASSAGE OF A NATIONAL HORSE SLAUGHTER BAN

Due to the US Senate's miserable failure to allow S.1915 to come to the floor for a vote in 2006, where it definitely would have passed, America's wild and domestic horses will continue to be brutally slaughtered indefinitely. Will the new Congress finally respect the will of the American people on this issue and pass a national horse slaughter ban in 2007 or will special interests and horse slaughter proponents continue to prevail? Time will tell.

The Senate version of The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, S.1915 was never allowed to come to the Senate floor for a vote in 2006. Consequently, the great victory of H.R. 503, the version of the same bill that passed in the House of Representatives on September 7, 2006, is now lost and the entire process must start all over again.

This now means having to deal with staunch horse slaughter proponents again like Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), who remains the head of the Agriculture Committee in the House, and who strongly opposed the horse slaughter ban, along with Steve King (R-IA) and others representing special pro-horse-slaughter interests. We all saw their award-winning "performances" as they purposely distorted and twisted the meaning of this important legislation both during the hearings in the House and on September 7, 2006, the day it was voted on. Luckily, not only did they lose, but hostile amendments proposed by both Goodlatte and King were soundly defeated and H.R. 503 was passed as written. Had it passed in the Senate, a bill supported by the vast majority of Americans would have finally become law after eight long years of waiting. Now, we have to start from scratch, including going back to the House of Representatives again, even though the legislation passed there with 263 votes. Talk about government waste and red tape. This was truly a national disgrace!

California still has the distinction of being the only state in the nation where the slaughter of horses for human consumption is illegal, as passed by 60% of the California electorate in 1998. The historic state initiative campaign was organized and expedited by the California Equine Council and Save the Horses. Broad-based support from law enforcement, to major factions of the horse industry to people and organizations from all walks of life contributed to the resounding success of this initiative. While horse slaughter statistics fell steadily through the late '90's, the Bush Administration made sure that all the progress made in that area was reversed. Horse slaughter had reached all-time lows to under 50,000, but now is back to over 120,000 annually.

Defeated former Senator, Conrad Burns (R-MT) with his strong ties to the Cattlemen and other pro-horse slaughter groups, succeeded in helping to prevent this vital legislation from coming to the Senate floor for a vote, thus thwarting the will of the American people yet again on this issue in favor of special interests. The Cattlemen now have a direct profit-making stake in promoting horse slaughter, as they receive a fee for every horse slaughtered in the State of Texas, home to two of the three remaining horse slaughterhouses in the United States. Former Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist (R-TN) and Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) (formerly the Senate Majority Whip) also did nothing to try to get S.1915 to the Senate floor for a vote. Active horse slaughter proponents, including Charles Grassley (R-IA), Burns and others also threatened to block it. Without Frist ordering a motion to proceed, the bill was going nowhere...and it didn't.

Conrad Burns was the subject of a scathing article directly related to the privatization of America's wild herds and the escalation of horse slaughter which appeared in the November 2006 issue of Vanity Fair, entitled, Galloping Scared, by Kurt Brungardi. Quoting directly from that article:

"Exhausted and terrified, a herd of wild mustangs gallop around the side of the mountain, miraculously managing to skirt the treacherous prairie-dog holes and deep crevices as they try to escape the screaming, whirling predator on their tail. Their instincts tell them they can out-run most any animal, but this one is relentless. You wish a director would yell 'cut' and the horses would be led to a plush Hollywood stable for rest, food, water. But it's not a movie, and the pilot flying the helicopter is not an actor. He works for a government program to round up wild horses from public lands. The target horses this week are from the Sandwash Basin herd, in northwestern Colorado....When the crew is finished, a few of the horses will be released back onto the range, some will be put up for adoption, but most will be relocated to government holding facilities, and a large number will be eligible to be sold to slaughterhouses, thanks to (now former) Senator Conrad Burns (Republican, Montana). In 1971, Congress passed a law that banned the inhumane treatment of wild horses, and put safeguards into place so they couldn't be sold for slaughter. That law was the result of a two-decades-long crusade by Velma Johnson, better known as 'Wild Horse Annie'. But in December 2004, that law was gutted. Just days before the Thanksgiving holiday recess, when most of Washington was getting ready to leave for the long weekend, Senator Burns put the final touches on the rider No. 142, which removed all protections for wild horses (and burros) that were over the age of 10 or had been offered unsuccessfully for adoption three times. Such animals could now be sold 'without limitation', including through auction to the highest bidder, at local sale yards or other convenient livestock selling facilities. Burns inserted his one-page rider into a 3,300-page budget-appropriations bill on the eve of the bill's congressional deadline, and there would be no opportunity for either public or legislative debate...Despite protests, President Bush, who likes to borrow the imagery and ethos of the American cowboy, signed the rider into law, capping a series of policy moves at the Bureau of Land Management (B.L.M.), the government agency in charge of managing the horses, that have sought to diminish the protected status of these 'living symbols of the West,' as the 1971 law called them. The rider caused so much anger that in May 2005, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan bill to restore the original intent of the 1971 law. A similar amendment in the Senate had to make one stop before its confirmation vote: The appropriations subcommittee for the Department of the Interior, which has jurisdiction over all federal lands and the National Park Service. Burns was chairman of that committee. Proving again that one man can make a difference, he blocked the amendment from going to a vote..."

...And it was deja vu all over again in 2006 with the federal bill to ban horse slaughter. Disgusting!

Sadly, unlike the great work of Congressmen Ed Whitfield (R-KY) on this issue, who won his re-election bid in 2006 and John Sweeney (R-NY), who did not, the Senate did not have dedicated members to work for its passage, as was the case in the House. Whitfield won his re-election bid by a landslide and vows to continue to work just as hard to get this legislation passed again in the House in 2007. What this legislation now desperately needs is a real advocate in the Senate - someone with the integrity and dedication to do the work of the citizens of this country and get this legislation passed once and for all. Thus far, no one comes to mind, including the initial sponsors of the Senate bill, John Ensign (R-NV) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA) (Landrieu is sympathetic, but is still (and understandably) overwhelmed with Katrina issues; Ensign has too many ties to the Cattlemen and ranchers to be truly effective). Hopefully, this legislation will have new sponsors and better leadership to get this done.

Equine Advocates will keep you informed on all of the latest developments. We will also let you know who the friends and foes of America's equines are in Congress. Stay tuned...

How many years will it take for our government to do the right thing by America's equines? Let us all work together not just to ban horse slaughter, but to reinstate and restore the protection of America's wild horse and burro herds. It is what the American people want. No horse should ever be subjected to the horrors of slaughter.

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Down with horse slaughter!