If you’ve been reading this blog for more than a week, you have probably come to realize that the pro-slaughter faction has a little problem with the truth. I’m not entirely sure that it is out of profound ignorance and stupidity or if it is deliberate on their part. Because Slaughterhouse Sue is their chosen mouthpiece, I’m going to go with ignorance and profound stupidity in most cases although the general consensus among Antis is that it’s deliberate on Suey’s part. I know, tell you all something you don’t know, right? While she hasn’t bothered to even acknowledge, let alone address the scandal with horse meat in Europe, she did toss this little bone out to her fan club last week:
“Glad to report that the horse business is on the right track and we are getting some major things done. What a joy a great team of dedicated people are, and we do have one tremendous team! When the time is right and we are at a place where we can share some good news on that front, you can be sure I will.”
Now, for Suey that could mean anything from a new set of doctored statistics to the start-up of yet another organization that will require you to pay memberships as well as provide a DNA sample to belong to. Of course the ignorant followers lap it all up like the devoted little asstards that they are. They may not have money to feed their animals or engage in dental hygiene, but gosh darn it, they do have money to pay these memberships and buy the t-shirts and official merchandise! Anyhow Suey, via the IEBA, finally threw a card on the table and issued a press release. (http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs133/1103685263837/archive/1112528591717.html) It seems they have decided to intervene in the lawsuit between Valley Meat LLC. v. Vilsack et. al. and HSUS, that was filed in New Mexico. Suey and some of her horse hating buddies have all sworn affidavits and they are linked at the bottom of the press release. This is a lot to wade through for one blog entry, so I thought we would take a look at Suey’s affidavit for now as she is speaking on behalf of the IEBA. I’m going to pick out the pertinent points in her affidavit for commentary, but feel free to follow the link and read it in all its original glory.
Slaughterhouse Sue sizing up her next meal
The IEBA represents companies and individuals who are currently, or who intend to be in the business of equine processing. The Association is structured to provide service and support to equine harvest businesses,and the use of horses for food, dairy, leather, and by-products. The association provides technological systems, animal care standards, and advocacy activities.
– Don’t you hate it when they call it `harvesting’ when they’re trying to shove their evil agenda down somebody’s throat? I would also like to know WTF a slaughterhouse has do with equine dairy products. I realize that in some countries that mare’s milk is consumed, but just don’t see it becoming a big seller over here. I suppose commercial horse dairies are next on Suey’s agenda.
I am a lifelong rancher and meat producer involved deeply in this particular issue since 2007 when HSUS was successful in closing the last three remaining plants in the United States which very quickly resulted in severe and far-reaching negative impacts in the horse industry. I helped form the initial grass roots volunteer organization United Horsemen,which still exists as a separate 501( c)nonprofit educational and charitable organization dedicated to building a better future for horses and horse people by focusing on returning humane and regulated processing of horses to the United States, and controlling the over population of wild and feral horses on federal, state, tribal, and private lands. Besides leading the IEBA, I also am President/CEO of Chevaline, LLC, a marketing and facility coordination company opening horse processing facilities nationwide, and providing marketing services for other companies.
– As we all know, what severely impacted the horse industry around the time she speaks of is the economic crash. Since then, the prices for quality bloodstock has steadily increased. Good horses still bring good money. As far as the UH goes, she basically left Douchebag Duquette holding the bag after they went belly up and couldn’t even afford to issue refunds of their cancelled (due to disinterest) Scummit of the Horse. I have to wonder how much all her traveling around to attend to business matters for all these organizations is actually being done on the taxpayer dollar and written off under her state rep. expense account. Phone calls? Stationary? Faxes? I can’t see Suey being ethical enough to keep things separate. Taking a page out of NT’s book, we should demand to see the financials on these non-profit groups and businesses. Afterall, she is a public representative and there should be transparency.
The IEBA has adopted the Humane Handling Assessment Tool and Guideline for Horses at Processing which has been developed in Canada by the Horse Welfare Alliance of Canada, and which is now implemented in well run Canadian horse processing plants. This system, developed by humane handling expert Jennifer Woods with oversight from Dr. Temple Grandin, Joey Astling of the USDA-APHIS Slaughter Horse Transport Program, and others goes above and beyond the minimum requirements which have always been in place under the U.S. Humane Methods of Slaughter laws. IEBA members commit to following these high standards
and to regular and consistent internal and external monitoring to see that standards are enforced.
– Don’t y’all just love how the stories change depending on the intended audience? How many times have we see Suey pull the poor horses having to be slaughtered in a foreign country where they are not governed by the same humane standards card out of her ass? Now she’s saying that Canada is the gold standard for slaughter? If you believe this load of BS, please take the time to go over to the Canadian Horse Defense Coalition’s website and look at the numerous documents and footage of what it’s really like in Canadian slaughter houses. (http://defendhorsescanada.org/) I’m so happy to read that the IEBA commits to torturing horses in the same way. I wonder if they gave Temple Grandin the courtesy of letting her know she will be overseeing these chambers of horrors unlike the time they said she would be designing all the plants but forgot to let her know about it.
The IEBA has developed a thorough and effective system of horse identification, tracking, and testing both prior to animals arriving at the processing facility, as well as rigorous and scientifically valid testing of meat to ensure that all meat is 100% free of drug and residue contamination. This system is auditable and provides assurance to regulators and customers that all meat provided by IEBA member facilities is of the highest quality and safety. In addition, IEBA works with the scientific community to ensure that withdrawal periods and testing methods are thorough and valid.
– Just a bold and blatant lie being told here. How the holy hell is she going to test these animals prior to them arriving for slaughter and how many times do people have to tell this ignorant cow that there is NO WITHDRAWAL PERIOD FOR BANNED DRUGS. NONE. Canada has been trying to get their identification system online for years and it’s still not going to be ready to go by the deadline. Suey can develop all the systems she wants, but if she isn’t in compliance with the EU standards, it’s all for naught. Right now horses are not identified or tracked in accordance with the EU standards so how the hell is she going to find out the backgrounds and drug history on all these horses on the ground right now? It is impossible.
There is absolutely no credible evidence of any kind that horse processing facilities would be any more detrimental to the environment than any of the thousands of meat processing facilities for all other kinds of meat. If anything, by providing a valuable use and purpose for otherwise worthless animals the horse processing industry will be improving the environment as it will eliminate the likelihood that horses get turned onto public and tribal lands to further increase the significant damage done to land resources by overpopulated feral herds. As to the safety of the nation’s food supply, since the testing of equine meat far exceeds that of any other meat species already, and the industry has stepped up to provide a fail-safe system to ensure zero drug residue, the notion that pure meat prepared in a USDA inspected facility under sanitary conditions would endanger the food supply is simply ludicrous.
No credible evidence, huh? I guess Kaufman, Texas doesn’t exist either, just like we didn’t really put a man on the moon all those years ago. What is Suey smoking? You can refresh your memories about it all here: (https://shedrowconfessions.wordpress.com/2012/07/17/the-truth-about-kaufman/) and please follow the links at the bottom of that entry for several other articles and documents. I bet the citizens of Kaufman would disagree that hosting a slaughter-house `improved the environment’ as blood was bubbling up through their drains and dumpsters full of animal remains were left uncovered to stink and host various rodents and scavengers. Also, the key wording used here is `meat species’. Horse are not now, nor have they ever been, primarily raised as a meat animal, any more than dogs and cats are in this country. Besides, North America has already been busted for releasing adulterated meat into the food supply more than once in the past year alone. Hardly a `fail-safe’ system.
IEBA member companies are seeking to open horse processing facilities elsewhere in the country and the inordinate delay that Valley Meats has endured has prevented all other companies from opening as well. In addition, IEBA represents businesses throughout the equine supply chain including horse buyers, and truckers, in New Mexico who have been directly prevented from conducting business with the Valley Meat facility as a result of this delay.
– Can somebody please explain to me what Valley Meats not being able to slaughter meat in New Mexico has to do with the `equine’ supply chain’, say, in New York? I’m going to sue the government too because their laws against recreational pharmaceuticals have prevented me from opening up my company to manufacture and distribute drug paraphernalia. It makes a bout as much sense…
– Our member companies would be prevented from providing a valuable commodity with a worldwide market to those who want to use it. They would be prevented from creating jobs and economic opportunity in hard hit rural communities and tribal areas across the nation. The lack of a viable secondary market for otherwise unusable or unwanted horses provides a baseline value to the entire horse industry, and a humane option to horse owners. Without this secondary option it is inevitable that the entire horse industry in the United States will continue to decline. Already, just since 2007, all of the major United States horse breed
registries have seen in excess of 70% decline in the number of foals bred and raised.
– We’ve already discussed what kind of jobs and economic opportunity a slaughter-house creates in hosting communities (https://shedrowconfessions.wordpress.com/2012/06/16/slaughterhouse-sue-wants-to-kill-rockville/) and what kind of people those types of jobs attract (https://shedrowconfessions.wordpress.com/2012/07/14/death-dying-and-the-hand-that-delivers/)Also, the existence of horse slaughter encourages the over breeding of horses and creates even more `unwanted’ horses. As far as the preferred horse for slaughter being unusable, one needs only to run Cactus Cafe or Canuki through a search engine to see how `unusable’ they are as well as countless others. Slaughter does not want the old, thin and infirm horse, but rather the young, healthy ones that people seek out for show and saddle horses. As far as the `entire horse industry in the United States’ being on the decline, one need only check out the Keeneland and Fasig-Tipton sales results over the past few years to see that is a fallacy as well. As the economy crashed, the prices went down and now that things are improving so are the sales averages and medians. Besides, isn’t breeding less crap a far more humane way of dealing with all these surplus horses Suey keeps telling us about?
We have already been delayed for over a year since Congress lifted the riders from the Ag Appropriations bill due to USDA’s review of their equine inspection procedures, and their validation of the science underlying their drug residue procedures. This in spite of the fact that they had all of these programs in place and functioning in 2007. Every day that the plants are delayed means that jobs are not created, value is not created, economic opportunity for companies and communities is not realized, and more horses are left to suffer unspeakable fates because they have no value or outlet. The imposition of NEPA process would only provide unrelated third parties with ulterior motives and political agendas to further delay and obstruct the restoration of the industry.
– Perhaps all the scandal with adulterated horse meat being released into the food chain by North American horses not being properly inspected has more to do with the USDA’s review of their inspection procedures and validating the science underlying their drug residue testing as well. Maybe the fact that the USDA has had their budget cut and that funding inspections for horse meat would mean funds have to be pulled from inspecting chicken, beef and poultry which are actually food animals that the majority of Americans do consume. Honestly, with all her histrionics over how many jobs will be created and economic opportunity lost, you would think it was the sale of liquor that was being banned or something. Besides, most of us are aware that the people Suey is trying to partner in her horse killing business are mostly foreign interest and that is exactly where the profits go too. I believe it was Dallas Crown in Texas that was found to pay a grand total of $5 taxes on something like $42 million of income that went straight overseas with the carcasses of the horses they slaughtered. They were also the ones that ended up costing their host community millions of dollars that could have been spent on things that actually benefitted the community rather than lawsuits, decreased property values and cleaning up the mess that plant created.
Currently there are approximately 2,500 head of horses per week going to Mexico for processing and 1,500 to Canada. Once those horses cross the border, they are out of the United States’ jurisdiction. If we want animals to be handled under the highest standard in the world — the U.S. Humane Methods of Slaughter laws – then it would be much better to have that happen in the United States where our horse industry, veterinarians, and experts can oversee the entire process.
– Wait a minute…Didn’t Suey hold Canada up as some sort of gold standard of horse slaughter she plans to model her own plants after a few points back? Now she’s saying that they aren’t the highest standard. As we have rehashed too many times to count, slaughter in this country was hardly the gold standard before and Suey has done nothing to prove that it will be any different other than just saying so. Given how many lies she has been caught in, why would anybody believe it would be any different this time around?
The meat and poultry industry is the largest segment of U.S. agriculture. Total meat and poultry production in 2011 reached more than 92.3 billion pounds. There are 6,278 federally inspected meat and poultry slaughtering and processing plants in the U.S., as well as thousands of custom exempt and state inspected plants. Equine processing facilities are identical to plants processing beef, bison, and other large mammals. These facilities are all permitted for environmental compliance through local and state laws, and there is no requirement for NEPA for any other meat plant. There is no credible argument that could be made that horse plants would be any different than existing plants. In fact, the companies seeking to open horse facilities now, including Valley Meats, are simply upgrading existing beef plants which have been in place for many years without environmental problems with their lagoons or other waste handling facilities.
– Keep on digging that hole, Suey. An equine slaughter plant needs to be quite different from other large mammal plants. Horses have an entirely different anatomy and flight response than beef and bison. You cannot immobilize their heads and ensure a clear and accurate shot with a captive bolt. They vary in size to such a degree that the angle at which they are shot needs to be addressed for each and every horses. The kill boxes are also not conducive to keeping a horse calm and unstressed either. It is also a proven fact that the blood volume from one horse is approximately double that of a cow leading to far more waste product to be disposed of and the necessity of a different standard for lagoons and waste handling facilities. I know I keep bringing it up, but one needs only look at what went down in Kaufman, Texas to see that Suey isn’t telling the truth here. Dallas Crown claimed they were going to sell all the blood product to other companies to use in fertilizer, only to have it declined due to toxicity.
The local community would be adversely impacted if the Valley Meat facility is not inspected in a timely manner so that it may open. Once a viable and potentially thriving business providing more than 50 good jobs would be prevented from operating, paying taxes to support the local revenue base, and all of the resulting economic benefits of local business with the dollars staying in the local community and rolling over several different times.
– Didn’t we read that Valley Meats was going to throw in the towel on the horse slaughter idea and go back to cattle? Oh that’s right, they were cited for inhumane practices when they were handling cattle, yet we’re supposed to think they’ll be nicer to the horses they want to kill. They also originally stopped processing cattle because they said that had become unprofitable yet we’re supposed to believe that slaughtering horses is going to be a bunch different and turn things around. As for the `50 good jobs’, we also know that most are minimum wage type jobs and that doesn’t exactly create an economic boom for any community. It especially doesn’t when may works in these types of businesses tend to be foreign and ship as much money home as possible.
Further, horse owners would be deprived of a humane and economically beneficial use for animals they wish to sell, which further depresses the horse market.
– I’m pretty certain if selling a horse into the slaughter pipeline is something you have no problem with, then humane treatment isn’t really a huge concern of yours. People that need slaughter to set the base price for the type of horses they are breeding need to get out of the horse business because they are failures and the only thing the availability of slaughter will change is the amount of those types we have to clean up after.
IEBA member companies and supporters are seeking to open facilities in at least 13 states with facilities ready, or nearly ready to open in not only New Mexico, but Missouri, and Iowa, and new facilities on the drawing board in Wyoming and Oregon. Once it is shown that facilities can be opened, can process horses humanely and provide safe, high quality product a robust worldwide market awaits, as well as a good niche market with health conscious, gourmet, and value conscious consumers in ethnic communities and elsewhere in the U.S. it is expected that numerous small and mid-sized beef and bison plants will be converted to equine, or will
become multi-species processing facilities capable of processing beef, bison, and equine. Besides the initial workforce employed directly by the plants which will likely average around 50 employees per plant, each plant will be supported by a wide network of buyers, transporters of both live animals and product, airline personnel, contractors providing everything from sanitation to marketing services, and more.
– Ok, I really want to know wtf Suey is smoking that leads her to come up with this stuff. When equine slaughter effectively ended, there were only three facilities in the entire country that processed horses. Now, she thinks there are enough horses to support plants in 13 states? Does she plan to wipe out the entire horse population? We know that not a single modification was ever done in Missouri and nobody there has even heard from her since she got shut down there last year. We also know that equine and beef cannot be slaughtered in the same facility so I’m not sure why she even bothered to mention that. It’s good to know she’s suggesting that slaughtering horses is going to save the airline industry too. I’m surprised she hasn’t tried to tell us it was going to lead to the cure for cancer and the common cold too!
As mentioned before, the domestic horse industry in the United States has been severely impacted by the closure of the plants as was clearly delineated in the GAO study “Horse Welfare: Action Needed to Address Domestic Slaughter Cessation” which was released in June 2011. With the breed registries all reporting 70% fewer horses being bred it doesn’t take much of a leap to extrapolate a severe contraction in the industry representing a corresponding decrease in the number of jobs, equipment and supplies being sold, decrease in service businesses surrounding the equine industry, the ripples extend far and wide. Nationwide, we have
seen a dramatic upsurge of horses abandoned, neglected, and turned out to starve to death under horrific circumstances as the result of a lack of market.
– As many of you are already aware, the GAO study was widely debunked by clearer heads (http://www.equinewelfarealliance.org/uploads/GAO_Exec_Summary-final.pdf) due to it containing numerous inaccuracies and drawing its conclusions from questionable sources. I’m also not understanding why Suey cares that there were fewer horses registered by various breed associations, when she is crying about over population, lack of market and unwanted horses out of the other side of her mouth. Is she suggesting we should bring back slaughter so we can go back to breeding anything and everything on a larger scale?
There will be a huge economic impact if horse slaughter facilities are not opened. Beyond the obvious impact of the lack of access to a market, and the loss of value of livestock, the jobs that would not be created, the tax revenues that would not be collected, etc. etc.
– Please refer back to the Kaufman entry that is linked above. That should tell you all you need to know about how much tax revenues horse slaughter has typically brought in.
Currently Mexico and Canada are paying rock bottom prices for the very best meat horses. When processing plants open in the United States, there will once again be a competitive reasonable market. This will raise the price of the best number one horses, as well as provide a viable outlet for horses who simply cannot be sold at any price today because they have blemishes or are not in perfect shape.
I guess by referring to certain horses as `number ones’ she is attempting to disguise the fact that it ain’t exactly the thin, old and sick horses she is after for slaughter. What they are after is the young, robust and healthy. Exactly the kinds of horses that don’t need slaughter to find a value. The same old and sick horses will continue to be turned loose to fend for themselves as slaughter houses don’t want them. Do you think it’s really much of a coincidence that so many abandoned horses seem to show up near border crossings frequented by slaughter bound trucks? You can read this blog entry if you want t know where the prices on the real horse market actually are: (https://shedrowconfessions.wordpress.com/2012/07/02/the-reality-of-the-horse-market/)
There is no more negative environmental impact from horse slaughter facilities than any other meat plants. Please note that all proposed plants seeking to open as equine plants at the present time are former beef plants that have more than enough capacity to deal with waste streams, and already have all the required environmental permits and facilities.
How many more times is Suey going to repeat this outright lie? Horses have more blood volume in relation to their size than other mammals. When Dallas Crown was up running, nobody wanted to buy their blood product because of the amount of toxic drugs that they contained. Nothing like that has changed. That leaves most existing slaughter plants with woefully inadequate facilities to deal with waste products. Care to hazard a guess on the cost of upgrading them would be? Do you think that Suey won’t have her hand out for any and all available grants to make it happen or just not bother?
There is a positive environmental impact from the opening of horse slaughter facilities. By providing a humane option for horses otherwise unneeded and unwanted you not only improve the environmental picture
in terms of horses that are likely to be turned out on already heavily impacted public and tribal lands, but you also prevent this very vulnerable group of horses from being at high risk of neglect and abandonment.
– I guess if you consider an increase of urban rodents and scavenger populations, toxic blood waste coming up through household drains and broken sewage pipes a `positive environmental impact’ then she’s right. Most of us wouldn’t see a lot of positivity about any of that though. Note how she says unwanted horses `likely’ to be turned out. If the sales figures for the past few years from the APHA, AQHA and Keeneland are anything to go by, the markets are on the upswing, so I will go out on a limb and say that the state of the industry tends to fluctuate more with the economic climate than the availability of slaughter. What she also fails to mention is the fact that there was abuse and neglect when there were slaughter houses, so clearly they didn’t solve that problem either. As long as people like Dorothy Robertson and Mendy Tobiano are involved with horses, there will be horses that suffer neglect and worse. Just as it always has…
Horse slaughter is humane. Horse meat is safe, nutritious, affordable, and delicious. The absence of a valuable use for otherwise unwanted horses results in immediate tragedy, increased suffering, loss of economic opportunity, environmental degradation, and unnecessary taxpayer burden. The answer is simple and obvious. Allow a properly regulated industry that protects the rights and choices of horse owners, while restoring a normal market that creates jobs, offers opportunity, and ends the unnecessary misery of horses.
– Mass production horses slaughter has never been humane and never can be humane and economical at the same time. That is a proven fact that has been widely discussed for years. I think recent events have shown us that horse meat is anything but safe as they are not raised to be meat animals and are often treated with medications, vaccines and dewormers that are clearly marked that they are not to be given to animals intended for human consumption. The vast majority of people that breed horses do not intend them to be eaten. Slaughter is still available to anybody that wants to go that route. As we all know there are numerous kill buyers all over the country that continue to ship roughly the same number of horses to slaughter as they always have. Considering there was only three operating slaughter houses before USDA funding ended, and Suey claims they employ about 50 people, does she honestly think that 150 jobs across the nation would have that big of an economic impact? Really? We also know that slaughter will just provide another way for horses to suffer and be tortured rather than end any `unnecessary misery’.
Attached is a brochure labeled “The Promise of Cheval” which is a comprehensive report as to an accurate representation of the position of the majority of the horse industry.
We will be picking this apart no another day. Suey truly is short-sighted if she thinks for one second she has the majority of the horse industry backing her. Wow.
So, that pretty much recaps Suey’s statement. I guess I’d like to know exactly what makes her an expert on horses and what is best for them or even a member of the horse industry. She doesn’t own horses and she doesn’t even like them. She basically blames a riding accident for being the ultimate reason that her other half passed away. I’ve had my share of horse related injuries and will likely live with more than my share of aches and pains for the rest of my life as a result, yet I don’t blame horses and I sure don’t want to see a single one slaughtered or suffering no matter what their breed, condition or background may be. I love horses and that’s kinda how it works if you really do. I’d also like to point out that all of Suey’s `facts’ are not actually backed up by anything other than her own ego-bloated opinion and the faulty GAO report. She can’t produce a single scientific study or any well documented and properly conducted research because there isn’t any. She dismisses the actual testimony from the residents of Kaufman, Texas in favor of the words of the facility’s well paid lawyer. The sad part is there is a nest of morons that hang on every word she says and that she is allowed to waste money and continue to spread these lies. I know it’s tiresome, but we need to continue to get the truth out there and repeat it as often as necessary. It’s the only way to truly help the animals so many of us love and appreciate. You know what is my favorite part f this press release? The little begging for money thing she does at the end of it.
“Financial assistance is needed. IEBA welcomes contributions to our legal fund in support of this intervention. Please make checks payable to IEBA, and send to Sue Wallis, U.S. Chair, IEBA, PO Box 71, Recluse, WY 82725 or contact Wallis at 307 680 8515, sue.wallis52@gmail.com.”
Don’t you dare support a rescue or take in an abused animal, but go right ahead and send your hard-earned money to Sue’s private address so that she can continue to rattle around the country getting free meals and making up more stories. How awesome!
Read Full Post »
Shedrow Confessions 