Daily Chronicle, DeKalb, Illinois Letters to the Editor September 7, 2003

Stop the slaughter of innocent horses

Editor:

Yesterday, a TV station aired a western movie called "How the West Was Won."

I suppose that you have seen it. As in all western movies, horses play a significant role, more even in this one, because it is a brief summary of U.S. history and the conquest of the West.

Watching this movie, brought to my mind some questions: Would America's forefathers have won the West without the help of horses? Who would have pulled the wagons or the plows? Would the United States or the world be as we know it without the horse? Obviously not.

The end of the movie pays tribute to the pioneers who conquered and settled America, and therefore to the horse. Americans honor horses as a main piece of their heritage. But, while America recognizes the horse as a part of its culture, the killer-buyers are still downloading their cattle trucks at the gates of the horse slaughter-houses in Kaufman and Fort Worth, Texas, which kill over 1,000 sound and healthy horses per week to ship their meat as gourmet meals in Europe and Japan. Is that their reward after hundreds of years of service and work? Is that their reward for founding a country?

And to make things worse, a Belgian company called Cavel International wants to rebuild its horse slaughter plant (which burned on Easter 2002) in DeKalb to murder our American horses and put them on dinner plates to please palates in Belgium, France, Italy and Japan! This is truly intolerable!

I think that all of the pro-slaughter people should watch this movie, so they may learn why horses are companions, pets and partners, not food animals, and why horses are so special, so sacred, that they cannot be killed to satisfy the palates of wealthy Frenchmen!

P.S.: Plan to attend the Protest Candlelight Vigil Against Cavel's Reopening which is set for Sept. 27 from 3-9 pm at Hopkins Park in DeKalb. Also, quickly write, call or fax DeKalb City Council members asking them to stop Cavel's reopening and its barbaric activities.

DANIEL CORDERO FERNANDEZ
Sycamore