Thanks to The Paulick Report's excellent coverage, readers are familiar with the slaughter pipeline where U.S. horses, including many off-track Thoroughbreds, are inhumanely transported to Mexico and Canada for slaughter and butchering so their meat can be sold for human food.
(If you're not familiar with this issue, you can learn more in our previous reporting here.)
In case you're a new reader, the slaughter pipeline is the legal practice where “kill pens” across the U.S. buy, hold, and transport horses to slaughter. It's a lucrative but unimaginably cruel business. Tens of thousands of horses, donkeys, and mules are shipped across U.S. highways and sold by the pound each year. Their journey and slaughter are particularly shocking. Unlike cattle, it's difficult to stun or sedate horses, so some are still conscious when they're strung up. Many slaughtered horses were young, healthy, and adoptable. Some were pregnant. Some were straight off their last race. Kill pen buyers are not picky.
Paulick Report readers know — and hate — all this. But what they may not know is that there is yet another chance to make the slaughter pipeline illegal. House Resolution 3684, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (yes, the infamous $3.5 trillion Infrastructure Bill) is now back in the House of Representatives and it holds that chance.
While the Infrastructure Bill was debated in the House in June, Representative Troy Carter of Louisiana offered a simple amendment that promised to finally end the horse slaughter pipeline in this country. His amendment, which became Section 4406 “Transportation of Horses,” passed the House with bipartisan support. However, the bill's text, including the horse amendment, was stripped when it arrived in the Senate. Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey stepped in and offered an identical amendment, but it was never voted on.
So after two noble, but failed efforts, Congress now has another chance to stop this horrible practice and do something Americans agree on.
But Congress' plate is full of urgent business and protecting horses has never been a priority. Make it one this time by contacting your representative and urging him or her to offer an amendment to ban the transport of American slaughter-bound horses, or to support such an amendment if offered by a colleague. Not sure who your representative is? Check here https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
–Kathy Stinson Hessmer
Volunteer at Circle A Home For Horses
Virginia Beach, VA
If you'd like to submit a letter to our editorial staff, please click here.
The post Letter To The Editor: It’s Not Too Late To Shut Down The Slaughter Pipeline In The U.S. appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
