Due to some recent media, we are asking you to please call, fax and/or e-mail
the following IL Representatives, and urge them to support the bill to ban horse
slaughter. If they or their aides tell you there is no bill before them,
please stress that if and when there is a vote to ban horse slaughter, you want
them to support the ban.
FYI - The letter to the editor below has some great talking points you can use,
when making your calls, about why horse slaughter is so wrong.
Please contact Lindner and Osmond in their district offices through April 19th.
District Office
976 Hillside Ave.
Antioch, IL 60002
Phone: (847) 838-6200
Fax: (847) 395-9277
Springfield Office
201 N Stratton
Springfield, IL 62706
Phone: (217) 782-8151
Fax: (217) 557-7207
The following is from the:
Gurnee Review
April 15, 2004
Angela Sykora
Osmond
voted against the ban and said she spoke with officials from the Department of
Agriculture who had nothing but good things to say about the Cavel
International, a DeKalb-based slaughter house that ships horses overseas. The
business burned to the ground and will reopen soon.
Osmond added that while Americans choose not to eat horse meat, Europeans and
Asians consider it a delicacy.
The following is a great letter to the editor that was in the Illinois Leader
today.
Constituent urges Rep. Lindner et al to reverse horse slaughter vote
Thursday, April 15, 2004
I have been reviewing the pro and con arguments on SB1921 [
"11 letters skewering horse slaughter company," January 27, and "Protect
companion animals," January 23] the bill that would ban horse slaughter
plants in Illinois for the purposes of producing horse meat for human
consumption. I've learned that there are just three of these plants still
operating in the United States. Two in Texas are in danger of closure because
they are operating in defiance of state law as currently established. And the
third, Cavel International in DeKalb, burned to the ground but has been rebuilt
and wants to reopen its operations. Let's start with an important premise. The
consumption of horse meat by humans is illegal in the United States. The horse
is considered a companion animal, like a dog or a cat, and therefore, cannot be
eaten on United States soil by anyone for any purpose. So why are there any
horse slaughtering plants in the U.S. that produce horse meat for human
consumption? There is a market in Japan and Europe, so the slaughter plants here
export the meat. One advantage to exporting horse meat, rather than beef, is
that the tariffs run approximately four times less. Since there are willing
buyers, why not allow a business to operate that meets individual wants? First,
an argument like that justifies pornography, strip clubs, chicken fights, drug
legalization, and many other "live and let live" ideas that most
Americans find unseemly and worthy of banning, or at least, strictly regulating.
Second, what are the social and humane costs of allowing these horse
slaughtering plants? The idea of gentle and beautiful horses crammed into double
decker trailers and hauled across the country with minimal food and water is
cruel and inhumane. The idea of gallant horses standing in line waiting for a
bolt to be shot into their heads and having their throats sliced in front of
their kind is also repulsive. These are not animals raised and bred for food.
They are raised and bred for service, sport, and companionship. It is sad that
rather than absorb a $150-$200 cost of euthanizing and burial, owners would sell
their horses to a killer buyer for $200-300. There is no problem with rendering
plants that handle dead horses for the purpose of reduction and recycling. The
problem is killing otherwise viable horses for eating. By keeping the horse
slaughtering business going, there is a profit motive to bandits stealing horses
from private persons. How tragic for a young child to wake up and find their
horse missing because someone wanted to make a quick buck. Anyone who has ever
been around horses knows how smart and docile they are. They can smell the blood
at the horse slaughter plant and hear the cries. Do we want DeKalb, Illinois to
become the horse slaughter capital of the United States? For the price of 40
jobs, mostly gut sweepers? It's not worth it. The grassroots support for this
type of legislation was tested in California in 1998. A voter initiative there
has not received such a high percentage of support, before or since, than the
66% that voted for the ban on horse slaughter for human consumption. Public
opinion polls have run as high as 85% in other states. There are many horse
adoption and horse therapy facilities that would gladly adopt an unwanted horse.
That is the least that these innocent animals deserve in our humane society. The
web site "Horse Protection
Society" tells the whole story. I urge my State Representative Patricia
Lindner to reverse her position on this issue when the bill comes back for
another vote when the legislature returns to session. SB1921 received 55 yes
votes and only 54 no votes the first time it was called. The high-powered
lobbying of the pro-horse slaughter groups worked the first time. It won't
happen again as regular folks mobilize and weigh in with their views. 60 votes
are needed to pass it. A Federal ban on this practice, HR857, has 180 cosponsors
in the US House and even more committed supporters. A majority vote of 218 is
needed there to supercede state laws. But let's handle this right here at the
state level.