Anti-horse slaughter bill defeated in
House vote
SPRINGFIELD - Illinois lawmakers on Friday
voted down an attempt to ban the slaughter of horses if headed for dinner plates
overseas, meaning that the state's only horse slaughterhouse, Cavel
International in DeKalb, is cleared to re-open.
"We are very pleased with the outcome," said Brett Brown, attorney for
the Belgium-based Cavel.
Cavel, located at 108 Harvestore Drive, will be reopening in the coming weeks,
Brown said. The original plant burned down in an Easter Sunday fire two years
ago, months after getting the OK from the city of DeKalb to build a new, updated
facility. The cause of the fire was never officially determined.
Cavel will be one of only three plants in the United States that slaughter
horses for human consumption. The other two are in Texas.
The bill to stop horse slaughtering in Illinois passed the Senate on May 20
after '80s movie star Bo Derek, a spokeswoman for the National Horse Protection
Coalition, testified before a Senate committee about her opposition to horses
being turned into food. But it didn't get a similar reception in the House,
where it failed 51-60. The House had rejected similar legislation in March as
well.
Brown said the company doesn't expect any
further attempts this year by state lawmakers to shut Cavel down.
There are, however, two bills in Congress that would end horse slaughter for
human consumption in the United States. Brown said he doesn't expect federal
lawmakers to act on them soon.
Gail Vacca, spokeswoman for the Illinois chapter of the National Horse
Protection Coalition, said she and others opposed to horse slaughter will
continue their fight in Springfield and Washington D.C.
Vacca expected the battle over horse slaughter to continue during the state's
fall veto session.
"We are not giving up," she said. "This is not going away. We are
not going to let down DeKalb like Rep. Pritchard let DeKalb down."
Rep. Bob Pritchard, R-Hinckley, opposed the
ban on horse slaughter and said it failed because fellow lawmakers realized it
would be unconstitutional and a threat to the agricultural industry. He also
said the ban would have had a negative effect on the DeKalb County economy.
Cavel is slated to employ about 40 people.
"This is about jobs," Pritchard said in a statement. "The defeat
of this bill today is a victory for employment in our community, for broadening
our local tax base and helping our school districts. It's an economic shot in
the arm."
Pritchard's office claimed the plant has provided "good-paying" jobs
and has generated $1.1 million in payroll taxes and $90,000 in local property
taxes.
Pritchard said the House supported a measure requiring people who are auctioning
off their horses, and who don't have a problem with them later being slaughtered
for food, to sign a certificate to that effect.
"It clearly puts them on notice to take necessary steps to say they don't
want the buyer to slaughter the animal," he said.
Some of the House bill's opponents said it ran counter to the state's
agricultural industry.
"I have never seen anything slap Illinois agriculture in the face more than
this bill does," said Rep. Jim Sacia, R-Pecatonica, who argued that it
would be wrong to bar the slaughter of any livestock, no matter how unpleasant
it looked on tape.
Opponents also questioned the constitutionality of the measure, saying it would
be wrong to legislate what people can eat.
"I've got seniors eating cat food," said Rep. Charles Morrow, a
Chicago Democrat who voted present on the legislation. "Maybe they ought to
eat a horse. If you can eat Bo Peep, Bugs Bunny and Bambi, why can't you eat
Mister Ed?"
He also complained about Derek's involvement, saying, "I find it insulting
that we're now governing by celebrity."
Paul L. Mikolajczyk can be reached at pmikolajczyk@pulitzer.net. Associated Press Writer Ginny Skalski contributed to this report.