Montana Mayor Too Smart to Bring The Environmental Disaster of a Horse Slaughter Plant to His Town

Hardin Montana Says No Thanks to Horse Slaughter Plant

CHICAGO, (EWA) - Montana Representative Ed Butcher's plan of building a horse slaughter plant in Hardin, MT has ended.

The city of Hardin unanimously passed Ordinance No. 2010-01 that amends the current zoning ordinance to prohibit the slaughter of more than 25 animals in a seven day period. The action effectively bars the building of a slaughter plant in Hardin.

Mayor Kimberly A. Hammond provided the following statement to Equine Welfare Alliance (EWA).

"I have no deluded thoughts or feelings about the need for proper disposal or care of unwanted horses.

As Mayor of a small city, it is my responsibility to make information available to our public, especially when it concerns public safety, health, and how their tax dollars are being spent.

The way our City Industrial Park is set up, a business is required to hook up to City Water and Sewer. A horse slaughter facility running at 200-400 kills a week would have brought our waste water treatment plant to a screaming halt.

Our City would have been forced to construct a new waste water treatment plant that would capacitate the slaughter facility, at the cost of our tax payers. The City most likely would not have been able to get aid with funding a 6-8 million dollar treatment plant.

I, as Mayor had our City Attorney draft an ordinance that prohibited slaughter houses within the city limits. Upon 1st reading, our city council did not like the verbiage that there would be NO slaughter facilities. They thought it was unfair to the small mom and pop operations that could be looking for a commercial plot. So we changed the language to only prohibit facilities that would kill more than twenty-five animals in a 7 day period.

Our decision was based purely on the adverse impact that a facility of this size and nature would have had on our City Waste Water Treatment Plant."

Mayor Hammond's concerns were well placed. Horse slaughter plants are notorious for their waste problems. Horses have almost twice as much blood per pound of body weight as cattle and it has proven very difficult to treat. In the three years Cavel International operated in DeKalb, Illinois, their discharge was in violation every month. The operation moved to Saskatchewan, Canada where it was caught discharging blood into the local river from a tanker truck. That operation was shut down last year because of health violations.

EWA applauds the city of Hardin, Montana for this proactive legislation to preserve the environment of their beautiful city.



The Equine Welfare Alliance is a dues free, umbrella organization with over 100 member organizations. The organization focuses its efforts on the welfare of all equines and the preservation of wild equids.

www.equinewelfarealliance.org

Montana Equine Veterinarian Speaks Out About Horse Slaughter

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=163x1051



I know many of you and many of you know me. I know many of you to be very good, honest, decent people and it saddens me to see the lies that are being spread about the issue of horse slaughter. We are all entitled to our beliefs as we are entitled to share & stand up for our beliefs. I feel the need to clarify some absolute lies that have been circulating via email.

If you are in favor of horse slaughter, you are entitled to that, but please know some truths. The pictures and videos are real. They are not made up or sensationalized. The wounds, broken legs, foals born in feed lots, pictures of shod horses, pictures of peoples pet horses in feed lots and at slaughter, videos of horses being repeatedly hit with the captive bolt, overturned cattle trucks with 60 horses mangled..Those things are real; they are not made up or sensationalized. Please just accept that fact for what it is. Horse slaughter and its journey for the horse is not humane. If you are OK with that treatment of the horse, that is certainly your choice, but it is sad to me when I hear people deceiving themselves by saying that they are sending their horse to slaughter because it is humane. If I offered to buy your horse and guarantee you that I would haul it and treat it inhumanely then kill it in an inhumane method, there is no way that many of you would sell your horse to me. But that is what we are doing when we drop off our horse at the sale ring and walk away with a small check and a rosy thought in our mind that our horse went to some green pasture with a good owner, mind you, many horses do get this good end, but many do not and to close our eyes & just hope it all works is sad because reality is, the slaughter horse is destined for a very bad journey.

I am tired of the emails circulating that say PETA is sensationalizing, blah, blah, blah. The truth is PETA is NOT at all involved. The people who are spreading that rumor to incite anger are really being ridiculous. I have been a very involved person against horse slaughter; I know the opponents and I assure you PETA is not involved. I also assure you that other rumors circulating are false as well. There is not an abandoned horse problem, the Montana Grass Roots Horse Coalition has done a county by county survey and the rumors are false. Additionally, the allegations have been studied on a national level and have been proven false. It is a ridiculous argument anyway because the reality is that there is still a loose horse market, horse slaughter is still going on so if there were abandoned horses, the people who would do that would do it regardless of access to a slaughter facility as there is still access to horse slaughter. This false rumor is being spread by proponents to incite fear.

Furthermore, the Montana Grass Roots Horse Coalition is simply a group of Montana horse people who are against horse slaughter. In fact, some of the people started out leaning towards being more in favor of slaughter, then the more they researched & studied the issue, they failed to see how or why horse slaughter is a good thing. Not one person who is at the core of the group is a member of PETA, not one person is a vegetarian, not one person is an animal activist and they are all really nice people from around the state who live year round in Montana. Most of you would really like them if you were to ever meet them (or, if you do know them, you already know them to be good people). It is shameful for Linda Grosskopf, the editor of Western Ag Reporter and Stan Weaver to say that the group was made up by Animals Angels. The thing that is made up is the email Stan circulated. That organization does have a website and I personally have downloaded and distributed some of their stuff, but that organization is in no way connected to the Montana Grass Roots Horse Coalition. The reality is that Linda and Stan out & out lied to you about this issue. One of the people in the Montana Grass Roots Horse Coalition does have that email address and she did email around fact sheets. It is ironic that so many of the emails Stan Weaver is sending have so many false things in them and are sent in such a way as to try to elicit fear. Fear of who is involved and lies to create fear. If you are a horse slaughter proponent, you are certainly entitled to that opinion but please make your decisions on facts, not lies or fear.

It is true that the opponents have hired a lobbyist to fight HB 418, but it is also true that AQHA has spent well into 6 digits on their own lobbying for horse slaughter. Additionally, there are MT organizations that have also hired lobbyists in favor of horse slaughter, I assure you, this is no fear that proponents should have, they have more lobbyists than the opponents. Additionally, it is very confusing how AQHA can campaign for us to have horses as partners, family members and pets and yet promote horse slaughter. No wonder so many people don't want to face the reality of how cruel horse slaughter is. The AQHA is totally advertising a double standard.
Another thought, the horse slaughter industry wants young, healthy animals. It is a human meat consumption industry, they do not want the old, thin crippled horses. This is not a way to get rid of old horses. The average age of the horse slaughtered is 7. This is reality, so it really should be asked, do you want to raise horses as food animals. That is really the issue and that is what beliefs should be based on. Certainly there are people who will say yes to this and people who will say no but let us argue about that fact, not fears and lies.
There are horses that are unsafe, horses that are ill, people that cannot afford their horses. What would happen if all of us great minds in the horse community came together to deal with these things as a community. What happens if the lobbying money (assuredly, proponents have spent far more than opponents) was used to help programs develop. To help create euthanasia funds, spay and gelding programs, rescue programs, educational programs, feed programs to help people through a short term crisis with their horses, scholarships to help fund equine programs, and lots of other positive things that haven't yet been thought of.

Furthermore, we have learned so much about the care of older horses that still have great value in the horse community. Their value in human rehab programs, human therapeutic programs, teachers to young & silly colts and teachers to young and/or inexperienced horse people. There is a lot of work that can be created around these old horses, jobs and money that can stay in our communities and in our industry. Horses of all ages need farrier work, veterinary work, dental work, massage & other body work, feeds, caretaking jobs, etc. All of this is part of the horse community and supports that community. Slaughter plants simply take their profits overseas. Except for the sale rings and killer buyers who make money on slaughter horses, but they do have a food animal market to make money on. They can still make their money there.

Why not come up with good, positive ways to treat our horses humanely and create good and honest work in the horse community. Why not go back to our western roots of helping each other when in need.
We are all good, intelligent people who can do amazing things if we will work together.



In closing, please be passionate about your beliefs, but please base your beliefs on truths not on fear or on lies.
Thank you for your passion and for your efforts,

Dr. Lisa Jacobson
Equine veterinarian
Clyde Park, MT

It's Fiscally Irresponsible to Even Study the Feasibility of a Horse Slaughter Plant

In a time of severe economic difficulties, North Dakota apparently has money to burn. They have decided to pursue a $50,000 feasibility study for a horse slaughter plant.

This decision is fiscally irresponsible. Legislation is pending in the House of Representatives that will ban slaughter of American horses in this country and ban the transport of them out of the country for the same. All over America, constituents are voicing their objection to this grisley practice. The average horse enthusiast views their horse as a companion animal, like a dog or cat, and certainly doesn't want it to end up in a slaughterhouse. Even the FDA calls horses companion animals. See the second paragraph at this FDA link:

http://www.fda.gov/cvm/CVM_Updates/DraftGFIAnesthetics.htm

Knowing that the legislation is pending, and that America as a majority is opposed to horses being slaughtered, why would you throw $50,000 out the window? Obviously, the public sentiment that this journalist refers to is not of importance to the legislation of North Dakota.

And isn't it interesting that the sponsor of the study, Representative Froelich, is a quarterhorse breeder. Check out his website:

http://www.froelichranch.com/

Here's the dozens and dozens of horses he sold last September. Now where do you suppose all these horses went?

http://www.froelichranch.com/FROELICH5.htm

It will come as no surpise to you that the breed of horse most often found at the slaughterhouse is the Quarter horse. More Quarter horses are registered each year, keeping the The American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) in business through registration fees. The AQHA is in favor of horse slaughter.

And now we have Quarter horse breeders in power, advocating for slaughter plants.



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Study of Horse Slaughter Plant Gets ND House Nod



http://www.kfyrtv.com/News_Stories.asp?news=27150

2/18/2009

North Dakota lawmakers have agreed to set aside $50,000 for a possible study of a horse slaughter plant.

New laws and public sentiment against horse processing have resulted in the recent closure of U.S. plants.

Selfridge Rep. Rod Froelich says that makes it difficult for ranchers to dispose of horses that are old or injured. He says North Dakota should try to solve the problem.

Representatives voted 89-5 on Wednesday to set aside money for a study. The state`s Agricultural Products Utilization Commission would have to approve the project.

The bill says state money for the study would have to be matched by private industry.

The legislation now goes to the North Dakota Senate.

The bill is HB1496.