Thursday, January 15, 2009
No Horse Left Behind: Ending Equicide, and a Conscientious Industry’s Campaign Thereto
Equicide's time is running out--if we care enough to act.
OK. Let's try this again.
"Ending Equicide, Take Two."
My head aches from banging it against the quarter-pole.
We at HRI have been striving to educate the racing community about horse slaughter—why it's wrong, and why it must end. We've written blogs and articles. We've talked every chance we get, to anyone who'll listen.
But, ah. We all have been given a Second Chance—that glorious gift of opportunity. The door is open; the time is now. The place is here.
The Conyers-Burton Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act, H.R. 503, is now on the floor.
H.R. 503 replaces H.R. 6598, which was tabled at the end of the last session.
The Act finally, once-and-for-all, will make it illegal to slaughter equines in the United States and to transport them out of the country for the purpose of slaughter.
Yes, this may dry up the slaughter business in Canada and Mexico.
But I don't give a damn.
And neither should you.
New year, new Congress. Bright, shiny new door open, for those of us who say that we love our horses—Thoroughbreds and other breeds, alike—to step up to the plate and DO SOMETHING about it.
I must ask: What is keeping you from picking up the phone, and calling your Congressperson, right now, to tell them that you want H.R. 503 passed?
Too busy?
It takes less than four minutes to make the call.
Don't know the number?
Go to the Humane Society of the United States' page for horse slaughter, and there's a link right there, in red. In ten seconds, you can find your Representative's phone number:
Help End Horse Slaughter
Don't care?
If you make money on this sport, in any way/shape/form—you have a moral obligation to make sure that H.R. 503 passes. If you're an owner, trainer, jock, breeder, security guard, auctioneer, exercise rider, groom, turf writer, magazine publisher, handicapper, bettor, administrator—any of a number of job descriptions in Thoroughbred racing—you have no right, whatsoever, to make money on the backs of these horses and then passively sit by while their throats are slit and they exsanguinate in a Mexican slaughterhouse.
If you're a fan, and you've never made a dime, but you just plain love the horses—you've probably already called Washington.
It disgusts and angers me to see so many people making so much money in this sport; knowing that our unified voice COULD defeat the Ag lobbyists and their lies—and yet knowing that so many in racing just plain don't give enough of a damn to make the call.
If you say you love horses and you don't call Congress—you're no higher up the food chain than those Ag lobbyists. And they're riding the rail all the way to the Seventh Circle of Hell. Their lie—that ending horse slaughter—will slippery-slope to the bovine and other meat industries—plays on the fear of the ranchers who make their living raising and slaughtering other species. The argument is false on its face, but irrational fear doesn't acknowledge reason or logic. As long as the Ag lobbyists have a fearful group of ranchers standing behind them—and no Thoroughbred people standing in FRONT of them—they'll win.
I'm not out to prevent anyone from eating hamburger or Chick Fil'a. I'm not trying to earn the moniker, The Baconatrix.
I want to stop horse slaughter. And I want to stop it NOW.
Every day that goes by—hundreds of horses are going to an unceremonious, evil, vicious, violent death. An undeserved death marked by unthinkable fear, followed by unimaginable pain.
We are all complicit in this horror show, if we don't join hearts, minds and voices and get that bill passed.
I don't want to hear the litany of crap, that there are too many "unwanted horses." We all know that the answer to "unwanted horses" is—STOP MAKING SO MANY OF THEM. And, if you absolutely MUST, just MUST, keep manufacturing horses—be a man. Be a woman. Accept the responsibility that's yours for that horse: acknowledge that you should make sure that that horse never—ever—"slips through the cracks." It's your job—your obligation—to assure that that horse is followed through its entire career, and that it retires gently and lovingly.
This is not to indict every breeder or owner--not at all. I know many b's and o's who love their horses, deeply and truly. They breed carefully and conservatively--and they care about the horses they make after the critters leave their care. Most attempt to follow the horse, and keep a caregiver's eye out as long as they can.
I don't even know how feasible it is to demand that breeders and owners follow their horses forever...I just know that to not even try...to just sell 'em and wave good-bye, "A,MF!"...is wrong. There must be some way of documenting and following a horse. It's not for nothing that their names are registered, and their lips tattooed. If we put our heads together--we can figure how to do it...our mantra must be, No Horse Left Behind.
But if you're not willing to take on that responsibility—which may be just a matter of filling out some paperwork—then shame on you. In a breeding industry that makes billions of dollars a year—yes, we know that breeders and owners can make BILLIONS—it is absolutely unconscionable of you to assert that you can't keep track of your horses throughout their lives. It really is just a matter of caring, and taking action. There must be a Big Plan out there, somewhere--and we owe it to our horses, and to our Karma, to find it.
So that's it. The HSUS link is there. Click the link. Go to their 'site. If you've not convinced that equine slaughter must be stopped—read the page. Then contact your Congressperson, and demand that H.R. 503 be passed THIS session, and made into law, ASAP.
Equicide—the slaughter of horses—must stop. The only reason anyone kills an "unwanted horse" is because there's money to be made. Not because they care about the horse potentially starving to death.
That's a filthy lie, and we all know it. Ag lobbyists, killer-buyers—we're on to you. We're out to get you. And—with the aid of every person in Thoroughbred racing and nothing short of the Congress of the United States of America—we will succeed.
Horses of the United States, take heart: the Cavalry is on the way.
Written by Marion (Mare) Altieri
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