Antis Behaving Badly – Starlight Sanctuary

I have always stated that I am pretty much an equal opportunity offender and would not hesitate to out ANYBODY that was mistreating or abusing horses regardless of their slaughter stance.   You can cry `anti’ all you want, but if you are a part of the problem, you’re as big or bigger of an asshole than any pro.  Probably bigger.  So, sadly, we have an anti to spank today.  Although, I had lots of other things to cover, they will have to wait as I think this is more important.  I’m also not feeling all that much like laughing after seeing this mess, so we’ll talk about Suey’s radio show and D-bag discussing penis size another time.   Perhaps it would be a good idea to wear protective head-gear in reading this blog today.  I know I’ve been banging my head on the desk a lot after finding out about this mess.

Not the sort of before and after pics anybody wants to see

The Starlight Sanctuary is a 501c3 rescue operating out of Nevada.  They regularly pull horses from the Fallon sale yard that would normally be bound for slaughter.  Starlight, is run by a woman named Laura Bell and they have a super awesome website and everything.  (http://www.thestarlightsanctuary.org/index.html).  The website features pictures of healthy, happy horses and even lists the numerous credentials of Ms. Bell.  There is lots of information on the site about the slaughter issue and if only going by the website, a person would think this is an ok rescue.  Well, you know what they say about being anything you want on the internet…The photo I posted above is of a horse that is currently at Starlight.  Sadly, the top picture is the `before’.  Apparently, Starlight Sanctuary started out ok about a year go and Ms. Bell was generally respected as a knowledgeable horse person.  In other words, she talked a good game.  I have to confess they weren’t really on my radar prior to this issue hitting my inbox, so I can’t say where it all went so horribly wrong.  What we seem to be looking at right now is a case of hoarding and animals are suffering terribly according to several eye-witness accounts and videos taken in the past few weeks.  Reports of  up to 60 horses with at least 20 emaciated, all living in filthy pens with inadequate feed and water available to are coming in by former volunteers and eye witnesses.  If all this seems more than a little reminiscent of Dorothy Robertson, it’s because it appears to be exactly the very same issue going on here even though the motivations behind it are vastly different.  Ms. Bell, checks all the boxes for hoarding. Way more horses than she can physically or financially care for and outright denials and refusal to acknowledge the animals in her care are suffering.   Now that she’s flat busted, along come the excuses and denials.  I read a series of text messages that were posted on a Facebook page by somebody from another rescue that tried to offer her help as recently as a week ago.  Here is the exchange with my own comments in red:

Laura, I sent you a message on fb.  Please let me help you.  We both know what I saw today isn’t ok.  I can help you.  Let’s figure this out together.  You’re a good person and I know you want better for your horses.

– What did you see, XXXXX?

That your heart is huge and you needs some help. 

You know that XXXX would shit if I take him there.  I am taking him to my place for now, but we gotta get you some help with feet, weight gain etc.  you bust your ass every day helping others.  Let me help you please.  You know I’m a career aco.  I can’t turn a blind eye so let’s just fix this please.  I will help you place whoever is adoptable or who you think would do best in socal so you can focus on sanctuary horses.

XXXXX?  I have receipts to prove how much hay I feed on a daily basis? and also how much I spend on dewormers, lice spray, rice bran, and sweet mix etc.  I also have to trim feet myself because it is nearly impossible to get shoers out to Silver Springs.  and I guess I thought you knew what kind of horses we take in, but apparently not.  so, before i start to get ticked of being accused of neglect? maybe you can call so we can discuss this.

I KNOW how hard you work and how much you love these animals.  I know you spend every extra dime on them.  But eyes are on you right now with all of this auction crap.  I don’t want starlight to get slandered in the mix.  We gotta dot your i’s and dot your t’s right now.  Perception is powerful.  People will talk of I send this horse to XXXX.  This is beyond colic and lice.  She will freak. 

Let me ask you do you think i wasn’t feeding him?  because i can assure you i was.  and apparently, XXXXX, you, just like me, before the past 5 horrible months have never seen a severe bot and lice infestation.  So, perhaps you should just turn me in and I will have whomever speak with my vet and they will explain the kind of nightmare I have been living through for the past 5 months trying to get this crap under control.  I have the receipts to prove what has been spent trying to get the horses well, so I don’t know what to say other than it just makes me want to put all the horses that are old, skinny, have issues etc, down rather than just let them live their lives until THEY tell me they are done.

5 months worth of lice and bot infestation?  Perhaps somebody needs to take a closer look at the dewormers they are using and maybe quarantine new arrivals? 

I understand the bot and lice issue.  I had several Shasta horses at my ranch with bot/lice.  That still doesn’t explain the babies emaciation or the grossly over grown hooves.  The extreme dreadlocks and mats in their manes and tails.  Titan, the pony, maple, guinness, raja and Sultan are all visably thinner than when at the lot.  Your herd lacked even the most basic husbandry.  They had excessive feces, little to no water, fly allergies, unkempt hair, grossly overgrown feet, weight issues, runny eyes, snotty noses, etc.  I have almost 40 head at my place.  They are all groomed, bright eyed, and alert and in clean pens with trimmed feet and fresh water.  I take in bottom of the barrel horses too.  The difference is my horses improve at my ranch.  Yours are visibly declining. 

XXXXX, i just brought sultan and raja in 4 days ago, and quite frankly, they are not thin.  Neither is atlas, izzy (that is not Maple) and she just came back from another location and I haven’t trimmed her feet yet.  And the black filly has severe issues from the bots and lice and is actually looking better than she was 3 weeks ago.  And I REFUSE to talk about dreadlocks because in your world apparentely horses with dreadlocks and tangled manes are neglected…..that is plain silliness XXXX, and i guess if you think atlas and the others are thin we are not going to agree on this…and I don’t even know what to say to you on raja and sultan seeing as Ive only had them 4 days.

Dorothy Robertson blamed her elf boots on horses on them being in another location too.  If you are responsible for those horses, you are responsible no matter where you have them stashed.  Period. 

XXXXX? we ALL LEAVE MANURE DOWN WHERE WE LIVE BECAUSE OF THE HORSES INGESTING SAND WHEN THE HAY BLOWS IT AROUND.  Sorry but the things you think are life and death are not? and we do not live in places out in the desert like I guess you are used to.  Youve crossed over to insulting when you act like a horse with a runny eye would rather be dead than have a runny eye that ONE APPLICATION of eye ointment will clear up.  Are you really this  dainty and anal, or simply passing judgement on how many people and horses live in the desert.

This is the first time I have ever heard of leaving horses to stand in filth as a means to prevent sand colic.  To think of all the money I could have saved on Sand Clear over the years!  As for the runny eye…GIVE THE DAMN HORSE THE OINTMENT IF ONLY ONE APPLICATION WILL FIX IT!!!!!  WTF?

What is insulting Laura, is that you know I am a 13 year animal control officer, a former vet tech, horse owner and a rescue who has defended you for a year and you’re going to try and convince me that the conditions of your `sanctuary’ are humane.  I’ve built cases, seized animals and sent people to jail for less than I what I found at your house. 

First, isn’t that horse chestnut?  Because I do have Peaches that came to the feedlot that way and i’m in no big hurry to brush her tail out because i simply DO NOT CARE ABOUT MATTED, TANGLED, DREADLOCKED MANES AND TAILS on any horse because it is NOT a big deal to the horse certainly and also is not a concern or big deal to me either.  this is not the pretty pony farm XXXX where horses come to be groomed every day and pampered.  they live with or next to other horses until I put them in a herd and then they hang out with other horses.  In my world, there are not much in the way of expectations for horses that went through kill sales on were on their way to slaughter because no one wanted them.  So quite frankly? I might come to your place and see horses you were driving crazy and just wanted to be spoiled a little and then put back with other horses….the difference here is that i would never insult you even if i didn’t like what you were doing.

While tangled manes and tails is probably not a basis for intervention, it would make the horses a bit more comfortable and time spent grooming does give you a chance to look over the animals for issues such as bot and lice infestations, no?  The fact that she thinks that because these horses were saved from slaughter means they don’t deserve the same standard of care as any other horse caused me to concuss myself. 

I’m going to XXXX, XXXXX and XXXXX with photos.  For the horses sake, the hearts of your followers and your team….I hope you can find a way to improve the lives of those animals.  You know as well as I do you’re in over your head. 

XXXX, I really don’t think tangled tails, dreadlocked manes and long front hooves that a 10 minute trim is going to fix, and a goober in the eye is going to impress animal control out here very much.  And when they see 6500 hundred dollars of receipts for hay alone in per month, 800 dollars worth of dewormers in 3 months, receipts for medicated shampoo, lice spray, rice bran, sweet feed, and teeth floating, they will acknowledge that I have rescue horses that I am trying to take care of, but will NOT spend a fortune on and will put them down if necessary.  I got in over my head when I realized 5 months ago that there was something really wrong with many of the horses and it is bots and lice like I have never dealt with before, we are simply never going to see eye to eye over matted manes, dreadlocks, some over grown feet that are NOT life and death and take minutes to fix when I finally get a farrier out to trim the easy horses they all like to work on and i simply cannot and will not get stressed about a runny eye on a horse and some damn flies that aren’t bad comparitively to other places around me with fewer horses.  And about the manure?  THAT is staying down because dealing with a sand impaction or a gut irritation that wears a hole through the horses intestine  or bowel is deadly.

So, here is the plan now that I am out from under the feedlot rescues….we are going to be spending all of our money on our own horses, we are getting 6 to 7 into good homes, and we are not bringing in any more…..so I do appreciate your concerns on some things XXXX, but really won’t ever worry about tangled manes and such.  thank you for caring and we will be going forward taking care of only our own.

There really is no helping somebody in such deep denial.  She seems to be mostly offended about the commentary on her lack of grooming than willing to address that her horses are in worse shape than when they were rescued.  If it will only take `minutes’ to fix up the overgrown hooves, then get off your ass and fix them rather than wasting the time online justifying why you haven’t done it yet.  FUCK.  Don’t believe me?  Have a gander at these pics of before and after of some of the horses she currently has on her property.

As I mentioned, this person is 100% anti slaughter.  I hesitate to call her one of our own as I no more consider somebody that does something like this for any reason, let alone in the name of rescue, as one of our own any more than I consider the radical activists that live outside the law in the name of animal rights to represent the vast majority of antis.  This is the lunatic fringe.  From what I can gather, Ms. Bell has her `own’ horses and then there are the rescues.  It would seem the rescues do not get the same level of care because they should just be happy they didn’t go to slaughter.  I guess that’s about like having a foster child that you do the bare minimum for while spoiling your own children and they should be fine with that since they came from a bad situation.  Just because she is hoarding horses to prevent them from going to slaughter does not give her a pass.  This is a mental illness and these horses are no better off than the emaciated wrecks Dorothy Robertson hoarded because people didn’t want to pay her enough for them.  Ironically, they seem to live in close proximity to each other making Fallon, Nevada the horse neglect capitol of the U.S. right now.  It’s all sick and it’s all criminal.  HiCaliber Rescue out of California at first attempted to offer Laura Bell discreet assistance and was rebuffed.  They are now in intervention mode.  They have a Facebook page and I would suggest looking at it for the full back story and efforts to help Starlight.  There are also many pictures and videos of the current conditions at Starlight.  It’s not good.  From what I gather, it was a horse called `Guinness’ that brought the plight of the Starlight horses to HiCaliber’s attention.  It would appear that Guinness was already bought and paid for by an adopter but was held back for whatever reason.  He is now removed and being rehabbed at HiCaliber, but here are his before and afters as well.

Aside from the texts above, Laura Bell has come forward with justifications for her neglect in recent days.  She has even gone so far as to create fake Facebook accounts to `support’ herself in public.  Here it is, straight from the hoarder’s fingers (my comments in red):

Thank you to all who have been defending me behind the scenes because you’re too afraid of the witch hunt people…….at least some people realize that if there are only two choices, and one is that I take in a horse that no one else wants, not even the other rescues, I feed it plenty of hay, but no special food because I don’t have time for that, and the horse gets to hang out with other horses, they eat, they drink, they sleep, and when it’s their time to go, they are humanely euthanized by a vet, and the other choice is that the person is going to simply take their older, or horse with issues, that’s not ride-able to the Fallon kill sale where they’ll sell by the pound, or to the feedlot where they will be bought by the pound and will then ship to slaughter…..life and death, that simple, so I am not interested in tangled manes, some long hooves, a skinny old horse that has been dewormed and had their teeth done, etc…….they are hanging out like horses do, they eat and drink, they play and fight with their herd mates or over the fence, and they are put down peacefully……THAT in my book will ALWAYS be better than being trucked a 1000 miles or more to a commercial slaughterhouse where they are killed horribly.

– So she is taking in rescues but giving them `no special food’ because she doesn’t have time for that?  What the actual fuck??????  At least it explains why some horses are in satisfactory body condition while others are basically dead on their feet.  Rescue or not, you have a responsibility to keep a horse at maintenance, whatever that takes, or don’t have the horse.  Period.  As far as long feet being no big deal, let’s let this nutjob grow her toenails out until they are curling under her feet and force her to walk around on them.  You have saved them from slaughter and damned them to another kind of hell.  Congrats.

Now I am hearing some gossipy bullshit that I’m “going to put all the horses down” which is just plain ignorant……but since I’m starting to think many of you have lost your minds and are stirring the pot so hard your arms are worn out, here’s the deal:

– Y’all read the texts that she, herself, sent stating that she should just put them all down.  “so I don’t know what to say other than it just makes me want to put all the horses that are old, skinny, have issues etc, down rather than just let them live their lives until THEY tell me they are done.”

I feel I only have one horse that needs to be put down soon, and that is the Wobblers Syndrome horse that I bought from the kill sale 1 1/2 years ago. His brain is almost totally disconnected from his hind end and he is dangerous to be around and is dangerous to himself if he falls into something or falls down.

– So, she has let the Wobbler stagger around for a year and a half?  If he is that bad, why isn’t he already put to sleep?

My little dwarf baby who is deformed may have to be euthanized if we have a bad freezing winter, but I would prefer to make that decision as we approach winter.

– Laura Bell does not like to post pics of horses in bad shape, so I have no idea of what the `dwarf baby’ is or what shape the poor thing is in.  I’m not sure I want to know.

Otherwise, I really DON’T WANT to euthanize any horses besides my poor Wobbler kid who has gone downhill fast in the past 3-4 weeks.

– Anybody else wondering how much worse this horse needs to get before she does the right thing?  There is no cure for Wobblers.

So please ladies and gentlemen, stop with the rumor mill and gossip, stop with putting words in my mouth I never spoke, understand that whether I’ve had a horse that is like my daughter for 18 years since she was born of a captive wild horse mare, or I just got them in and am offer them comfort, food, water, companionship, kindness and love until its there time to have a dignified death, I DO NOT WANT to euthanize anyone but have to see what animal control says when they get here.

– Well speaking and texting is basically the same thing, no?  There is nothing comforting about the conditions I have seen in pictures and in video of the situation.  Horses at rescues or sanctuaries are supposed to IMPROVE over time, not deteriorate and suffer. 

Seems her house keeping skills are on par with her animal husbandry skills….

Even though all this is scandalous enough, I wanted to find out a bit more about Starlight Sanctuary prior to the scandal.  Since they haven’t been `official’ for even a full year, there isn’t a lot to go on other than their own Facebook pages and websites.  Lots of different horses’ names are being tossed around as former supporters come forward.  It would appear that rather than a rescue, Starlight was a great big scam and front for hoarding.  First off, they were proudly in cahoots with a kill buyer.  That in itself doesn’t mean you should write off a rescue as a I know of many good and legitimate rescues that maintain friendly relations with KBs, if only because it gives them access to horses they might otherwise have missed rescuing.  I’m not talking about brokering horses either.  I’m talking about a KB having a skinny old horse of a certain breed or something he knows won’t be lucrative to sell to slaughter and he will call a rescue and ask if they want it.  Often the horse will exchange hands for the same or similar price that the KB purchased it for in these cases.  So, Starlight makes mention of their `friendly’ relationship with the Fallon feedlot, but where it comes off the rails for me, is when they have a price list associated.  Rather than just bail from the feedlot, they give their supports the chance to PAY the feedlot for such services such as:

• Rides under saddle (in the arena or outside) $20/ride
• Halter-breaking (cost varies depending on horse)
• Farrier $40/all-around trim and shoeing beings at $90 but will be quoted by horse
• Pregnancy test $50

They also state you can continue to board your horse at the feedlot after purchase, because that isn’t high risk or anything.  The feedlot horses are different from the sanctuary horses apparently.  It’s mind-boggling to attempt to sift through it all and figure out exactly WTF she was doing and where the money was going.   As you all know, any money you put the hands of a kill buyer will promptly be spent sending even more horses to slaughter that will never have a chance to be rescued.  There is a reason that so many feedlot horses are underweight or sickly.  They would be rejected for slaughter anyhow.

Guinness after being rescued from Starlight Sanctuary

Guinness’s vet report showing no other reason for his condition other than lack of groceries

It would seem that Laura Bell holds herself apart from other rescues and considers herself the last stop before slaughter.  I’m not really sure what she thinks other rescues do, but she is clear to say that while she used to be a professional broker, she is no longer one.  Ok, fine, but from what I can gather, she was charging broker prices and there are tales out there of horses being misrepresented just like every other broker program we’ve heard about.  She even likes to do the emotional blackmail of horses about to get on the slaughter truck in order to motivate her donors.

I could probably post several pages about all that is wrong at Starlight Sanctuary, but I think you all get the point.  There are many dogs involved in this case as well  (http://www.youtube.com/embed/xh0GgU21h2o?autoplay=1)This is NOT rescue and it is not helping.  If anything, this is hurting every single good rescue out there and the anti-slaughter movement.  Already Douchebag Duquette has latched onto this mess.  He neglects to mention that most of us antis are every bit, if not more disgusted.  He also doesn’t realize that the spectre of slaughter and living in such close proximity to a slaughter feedlot may well have been what pushed Laura Bell over the edge into hoarding.  It doesn’t excuse it.  Clearly, Laura Bell has lost the plot.  As evidenced by the posted text conversation, she was offered real and substantial help without this going public and refused.  She is unable to see that pain and suffering she is inflicting on the animals in her care.  One only needs to look at the videos linked below to see the deplorable conditions of her entire sanctuary to know that this is a person that is in way over her head.  So, where do we go from here?  It seems the situation is being addressed.  I will leave you with the words of HiCaliber rescue who is leading the intervention at Starlight.  I will try to keep you updated as new information comes to light.

“I know you’re feeling hopeless. I know you’re watching the clock. But we have to trust the authorities for now. We have no other option. I cannot give out much information, but I can tell you behind the scenes things are happening. I know you want to call the DA and the County and express your anger at a lack of action, but they ARE working on this. They are hearing us. They are accepting our help, evidence and testimony. A case this big takes time. They are watching the animals daily, making sure needs are being met. All eyes are on them. They are very aware.

I know you mean well, but please stop calling the DA for right now. Let them focus. Let them work. Let them investigate. We don’t want them to waste their time and resources assuring us that they are doing their job. I can tell you. THEY ARE. It’s better to build a solid case that takes a little longer, than a messy case that won’t fly in court. Think big picture. Think about how much information the authorities have to sift through, how many lies they have to disprove, how many horses they have to identify. We have had a year to absorb all of the details, learn the key players and find out “who’s who.” Let’s let them focus, offer help where they need it and continue to support their efforts. They are obviously taking this very seriously.

Please stop calling the vets, stop harassing Laura, and stop being bullies. She needs help as much as these horses do. Let’s stop gossiping, stop splitting hairs and stop worrying about the things that haven’t happened yet. Stay positive. Don’t let the ugliness get to you. Don’t let the ugliness become you.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2CoXFIECLo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlElcGvkWAY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpvB_j567bA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojKlu3xDl84

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bH4qfX2RKPA

Laura Bell’s personal horse she raised and celebrated her birthday every year…

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Why A Horse Is Not A Cow and Other Musings From The Slaughter Front

As both sides of the slaughter issue get ready for the showdown in New Mexico that will be taking place very soon, it seems that both the PSAs and antis have had a LOT of time on their hands to argue on various forums and social media outlets.   Slaughterhouse Sue has been busy manipulating the media and trying to get a gnarly, fungussed toenail in the door in Missouri.  She has been interviewed for a four-part series on the proposed slaughter plant there.  So far only the first has aired, but already we have Suey flapping her yap and spouting her delusions as facts, so we’ll take a closer look at that as well as another of her super awesome press releases.  Don’t worry, we’re also going to talk about why a horse is not a cow.

Ok, I know I’ve talked about this before, but I thought rather than give myself a concussion from beating my head against a wall, I’ll try to explain one more time why, even if you do consider them livestock, a horse is not a cow, chicken or pig.   Believe me, this is a conversation I never thought I would have to have with grown adults, but apparently it is a very tough concept for slaughterphiles to grasp.  I’m not even going to go into the anatomical differences  or how it’s impossible to keep horses calm and ensure a clean, killing shot each and every time in a commercial slaughter plant.  If you can’t grasp that, there is no hope for you and you should probably go ahead and declare yourself mentally challenged.  What I want to talk about is why a horse is not a food animal.  I realize the majority of slaughterphiles consider themselves to be quite the livestock experts.  I make no such claims, although I did grow up on a cattle ranch and several members of my extended family are still in that business.   The thing is that `livestock’, as far as animals we generally eat, are fairly easily tracked.  They don’t tend to change hands a bunch of times.  Before a cow makes it to your dinner plate it may have changed hands three times.  Maybe.  We didn’t finish our own calves so we sold them off in the fall. If you do the math, that means we had them, the feedlot had them and then they were sold to slaughter. That makes three times and easily tracked via our brand and bills of sale.  Most horses are quite different.  I have had some that have been born on our place and lived out their lives with us and I’ve had others that have changed hands up to 7 times before they ended up with us.  If that animal is not registered there is basically no way of knowing where it was or what was given to it throughout the course of its life.  That is why when BSE showed up in a slaughtered cow, they were able to track that cow back to its very farm and pasture it lived in.  You can’t really do that with horses, not even registered ones.  Lots of horses do a lot of traveling in their lives, especially competitive ones.  Not quite the same with food animals.  Do you know what other animals are really hard to track throughout the course of their lives?  Roadkill and I wouldn’t eat that either.   Because they are not raised for food is exactly what makes horse meat economical.

So, let’s get back to Missouri and Suey’s full court press there.  We already know that she is heavily invested in that particular slaughter enterprise, so it’s no wonder she’s focussed her beady eyes there at this time.  The first of the four-part series on horse slaughter came out yesterday (http://www.stjoechannel.com/story/horse-slaughter-debate/d/story/vHVgZEu7wkCS6JscsuVCTQ).  The clip starts off with David Rains, of Rains Natural Meats, telling us why he couldn’t make a living slaughtering regular food animals and then going on to tell us horses are just like cattle and other animals he’s slaughtered because the carcasses are all rather similar.  Yes, folks, this is exactly the type of asstard that wants to slaughter animals because he figures they’ll just file quietly to their deaths just like a cow.  The fact that he says their carcasses are similar does not make me all that confident about our food supply either.  Then we get to hear from Slaughterhouse Sue and I’m about to jam a letter opener in my ear if I have to hear her hick voice too many more times telling us how `treasured’ horse meat is and how 3/4 of the world’s population enjoy it.  Clearly, she pushed D-bag Duquette aside so she could fish that statistic out of her ass.  I’m sure we’ll hear more from her in the next installments, but they finished with Rains telling us how nutritious the meat is and how it helps unwanted horses.  He’s studied the Slaughterhouse Sue handbook well.

You have to believe that the Slaughterphiles are primarily focussed on Missouri now that Iowa has removed their bid to slaughter horses.  I have long thought that Valley Meats in New Mexico was merely a decoy while they put their ducks in a row elsewhere.  Given the history of de Los Santos and the fact he couldn’t even process downer cattle without constant violations, the chance of him being the flagship horse slaughter operation was slim at best.  I’m sure he’s still delusional enough to think it may happen, but his function appears to be that of a sacrificial lamb as far as the IEBA is concerned.  At any rate, Puppymill Patterson is on the Missouri bandwagon in a big way given that it is her home state.  I’m sure nothing would turn her on more than the smell of rotting horse carcasses and the knowledge that animals are being tortured and abused in mass quantities in such close proximity to her hovel.  Because Puppymill is never content just to talk about slaughter, she has whipped up a petition to Gov. Nixon to get on board with the horse torture.  Of course she has carefully worded it as getting him to support `horse welfare’ and the preamble is more than misleading as well.

There is a movement afoot by animal rights extremists, and other organizations non-related to the U.S. horse industry, who are urging Missouri’s Governor Nixon to block the opening of the horse processing facility proposed to open in Gallatin, Missouri.

Those people who seek to block the Gallatin, Missouri facility are also working to eliminate any possibility of humanely processing horses in the U.S. — yet they offer ZERO solutions to the serious problem of horse abandonment and neglect in our country.

– Not sure about the rest of you, but I don’t belong to any animal rights organization at all.  Also, the majority of antis actually are very much horse industry unlike Suey, who doesn’t even own a horse.  We have offered many solutions, but they just don’t result in beer money for the slaughterphiles so they won’t look at them.

 

The reality is that those who own horses, and make their living in the horse industry care deeply about their horses and their welfare. The animal rights movement and their agenda based on emotion, not science or fact, have continued to promote the false belief that horse processing is cruel and inhumane — when in reality, the exact opposite is true.

– Actually, we do have science and facts to back up our position and yes, many of us make our living in the horse industry.  Those that don’t, are still very much industry as ever industry needs consumers to drive it. The people that have a pleasure horse at a boarding stable probably spend far more money on that one horse than the breeder spends on any one individual horse, stud fees aside.  The other question I have for Puppymill is that if slaughter is so humane and kind, then why do so many slaughterphiles state they would never send one of their own to slaughter?

 

In fact, the lack of horse processing in the U.S. (since 2007) has exacerbated the suffering of horses, increased the number of needless and wasteful deaths, and has caused more abandonment, neglect, pain and misery for horses nation-wide.

– This is a completely false and misleading statement.  We have the hard data to back up the fact that the welfare of horses has nothing to do with the lack of slaughter at all.  She also fails to mention that at least as many if not more horses have gone to slaughter each and every year since 2007.  Not sure how slaughter is going to fix `needless deaths’ either as I can think of little as needless as a perfectly healthy young horse going to slaughter.

 

Having horse processing available in the U.S is NOT a mandate on all horse owners to send their horses to the processing plants at the end of their useful lives. However, all horse owners should have this option as a method of euthanizing their equine as a means of freedom to choose.

– Slaughter is NOT euthanasia!  I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that Puppymill figures people should have the option to torture horses in this way considering she works overtime to ensure people maintain their rights to continue running puppymills and any other way of abusing animals she can think of.

 

Horse processing is a viable, safe, and humane solution to the problem of horse abandonment, abuse, and neglect and we urge for Governor Nixon to support the private property rights of owners of these livestock by supporting the opening of the horse processing facility in Gallatin, Missouri.

– Thankfully, her little petition isn’t doing so well with the signatures as of yet.  Here is what the rest of you need to do.  You need to contact Gov. Nixon, whether you’re from Missouri or not and set him straight on the lies in this petition.  Let him know exactly what slaughter is all about and how it has remained an option for horse owners all along, yet has fixed nothing.  Let him know about the kinds of horses that go to slaughter, the horses we have featured on here.  None of them unwanted and none of them needing slaughter to fulfill their promise or find a good home.

Why don’t ANY of these PSAs ever look like they’ve missed any meals?

 

We aren’t done with Suey just yet either.  As I mentioned earlier, she’s been issuing press releases for IEBA again.  She still hasn’t taken the time to spell-check her main website, but she’s churning out press releases as fast as her pudgy fingers can type.  (http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs133/1103685263837/archive/1114558950527.html).  Thankfully, this one is brief but that doesn’t mean it’s any less laughable.
Last week we kicked off a multi-pronged fundraising campaign to fill up the IEBA war chest so we have the resources we need to continue the fight against HSUS in the courts, and communicate effectively with Congress and the American people.

I’m happy to share the news that we are off to a great start!

– Ok, she keeps referring to this `war chest’, so I’m guessing the war she is declaring is on our food supply.  The only way any of these morons are going to communicate `effectively’ with Congress or anybody else is if they hire somebody that can actually read, write and keep their emotions in check.  I won’t be holding my breath.

 

We’ll be rolling out our IEBA Voluntary Equine Check-off at the Billings Livestock Horse Sale this weekend. Sale barns in Nebraska and Kansas will have them at their next sales.  Make sure your local horse auctions know about it and encourage them to offer it at their sales. The cool part is we are already getting messages like this one from Sharon W. —

“I am going to suggest in our next event email (it will reach over 600 people) that whoever sells a horse in the loose pen for pennies a pound donate the entire proceeds to IEBA. I will begin by sending IEBA the amount we received for a perfectly healthy 1100 lb arthritic gelding.  $183.00”

– Wow, I wonder if Sharon W is related to Angela Marshall?  Probably not, but it sure says a lot about slaughterphiles as she just sold her `perfectly healthy’, yet arthritic horse for meat and sent the blood money to Suey’s pork rind fund.  It must have been a huge sacrifice to give up so much beer money.

 

That’s the way to do it, folks!  Download IEBA check-off slips below, forward this email with your own personal message like Sharon did to every network of horse people you belong to, and let’s get those dollars rolling in! We have had a number of people become members, and donate straight into the War Chest as well.

– I’m actually completely onboard with this statement.  By all means, please do send these slips out to your horse network so everybody can know what a heartless shit you truly are and refrain from doing business with you.

 

But the funnest thing of all is starting to plan these Rope ’em, Choke ’em, and Poke ’em to Stick it to HSUS events!  These will be super fun competitions with two people teams team roping, or golfing, or skeet shooting, and playing pool or any configuration thereof, with an evening Calcutta the night before. Let me know if you want to get one going in your area. Email if you want to get a hold of one of these folks who are already planning events. So far we’ve got point people in Nevada, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska starting to pull together to coordinate one. We are all going to need plenty of help from promotion to donating stock to volunteering at the events themselves. 

– The `funnest’?  Is D-bag writing these press releases lately?  As many of you have noted, the Rope em, Choke em, and Stroke em, sounds more like what passes for foreplay for most of these people rather than a fundraiser.  Funny how she indicates this is all about sticking it to the HSUS and not really about the welfare of horses as she likes to tell the media.  What’s that old saying about many a truth being spoken in jest?  Yeah…

 

Dollars raised through any and all activities associated with this fundraising campaign will be used to pay for the legal and political protection and promotion of the horse industry; to work for a strong, sustainable market at every level; protect the rights of equine owners; and to advocate for humane and regulated horse processing ensuring the intrinsic value of every horse.

– OK, I really want to know what this `political protection’ is that she feels she needs to pay for unless they are buying Steve King and Roy Blunt new cars so they can continue to fight for the right to torture and abuse animals in DC.  As far as Slaughterhouse Sue promoting and protecting the rights of horse owners goes, I dare that cretin to show her face in Kentucky and try to tell the hard boots how her slaughter emporiums are going to help out their bottom lines and return the intrinsic value to their animals.  For the record, the numbers from day two at the OBS yearling sales are in and the average is up 27.1% with the buy back rate dropping significantly.  All this without the help of Slaughterhouse Sue!

Sadly, Suey wasn’t content to just issue a press release.  It would appear she has not only appointed herself spokes model for the horse industry but now she is the cultural sensitivity police.  I should qualify that as she is the cultural sensitivity police as long as your culture includes eating horses and you aren’t black or Muslim.  It would seem, and I’m just guessing here, she is about to appoint herself an honorary Tongan as well. 

“Wonderful article talking about the medicinal and cultural use of horse meat by native Americans. Also, people need to understand that cultures such as the Tongans prize horse meat, and want to use it for alll of their special occasions…weddings, funerals, retirement parties. How culturally and ethnically arrogant are these animal rights activists…HSUS et al… in thinking they should be able to tell these traditional societies what they can and cannot use for their own nourishment, medicine, and spiritual practices???”

Well, to begin with we actually had a reader on here comment on the whole Tongan thing and it would seem Suey is more than a little misleading as far as the entire culture being all about the cheval.  Also, if we want to push her point about cultural sensitivity and allowing other cultures to practice tradition and spiritual practices I guess we can look forward to female circumcision, arranged marriages, cannibalism as well as the slaughter of cats and dogs as we push our OWN culture and practices aside to make sure every other person is happy.  Believe it or not, but I’m normally a fairly accepting person, but if you are so needing to act like y’all did in the old country, then perhaps that’s where you should be living.  What about our culture?   Anyhow, this little outburst of Suey’s came with the link of yet another article proving how much Indians love horse meat.  Or, at least that’s what she thought it was about. (http://navajotimes.com/news/2013/0813/081513hor.php).  What is interesting about Suey choosing to link this particular article is that she clearly either didn’t read it or was half in the bag when she did.  It’s actually more of an anti-slaughter article than it is a pro one.  Yes, it mentions that the Navajo harvested and used horse meat for medicinal and ceremonial purposes, but it also makes clear that that is entirely different from what Suey has in mind for them.  Hell, you didn’t even have to read more than the first two paragraphs to come up with this quote from Tim Begay, Navajo Cultural Specialist:” It was used as medicine, which is totally different than slaughtering and selling them to different coutnries”.  Begay also mentions that his cultural background makes him reluctant to see horses rounded up and sold for slaughter.  He goes on to talk about the `Enemy Ways’, so I’m guessing Suey is gonna have to do a lot of sweet talking to convince them to build their own slaughter emporium on their lands.

Will this be next on Slaughterhouse Sue’s plate?

 

I’m sorry to report that we got a bit of bad news yesterday out of Fallon, Nevada.  It seems that the judge has lifted the TRO and the remaining unbranded horses that were rounded up by the tribes will be sold at auction and likely to kill buyers.  (http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/08/21/3124208/hearing-wednesday-on-nv-tribe.html).  As one of our readers commented, it seems as if they have found a new way to `launder’ wild horses.  Just chase them onto private land and they automatically become domestic and eligible to be sold for meat.  Awesome.  If you have any doubt as to how brutal and inhumane this whole round-up and auction was, here is a quote from somebody that was present at the sale yard the day of the auction: “We watched horses hurt beyond imagination run around and sold for meat. We know that 50 horses that they forced into trailers had broken legs, hips and piece of their shoulders and other large fleshy parts hanging off their bodies. those horses never made it to the auction and because they were of no value were most likely shot too. Two mares were killed by fighting and they lost the battle and their babies orphaned they were still in need of milk. A baby was kicked in it’s head by a violent interaction and he was shot and killed. His mother was hurt and she is the black mare with a very damaged foot. My guess is that one shipped already.” All for a little blood money.

So, this should bring things mostly up to date as far as what the PSAs are up to this week.  We are getting very close to the court date in New Mexico as well and I’ll try to keep everybody up to speed on that as information comes in as well.  As always, I prefer to quit on a good note so I’m going to leave you with a link to this blog I was sent. (http://curtpatestockmanship.com/2013/08/21/horse-slaughter/) It is worth reading.  You’ll think he’s pro slaughter until you read through til the end.  He may not be as staunchly anti as many of us, but he articulates his reasons for being anti right now very well.   It will give you a lot to think on, but he sums it up best with the following:

“As I look back and honestly look at the results of the banning of horse slaughter in the U.S., I see more positives than negatives.

When it was easy for people to get rid of any horse, people were making purchases of horses that had no business owning horses.  Horses were kept in places they should not be kept, to many kept on small acreage with no regard to the environment, people riding horses and getting hurt that should not be riding in the first place, and studs breeding mares of poor quality.  It has been a tough go for the over supply already in place, and the way it was immediately implemented with no way to scale back or prepare for the lack of places to market a horse was unfair, but that is the reality of it.  Now when we purchase or breed horses we know it may be tough to get rid of them and we think before we buy, and anytime you think before you do something it is a better outcome.

Horses are a wonderful animal.  They have done so much for mankind that I think we owe them the best quality of life and the best quality of death.  The way to do this is to make a commitment to the best animal handling and husbandry skills.  That is stockmanship and stewardship.”

 

 

 

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Press Releases, Frankenhorses, and Horse Sales, Oh My!

Well folks, as we head into another weekend the slovenly sow of slaughter has been at it again.  Not content to shuffle off quietly as she heads out to get her drink on and hunt up a cowboy to dance with, Slaughterhouse Sue has left us with some fodder in case any of us were weakening in our disgust and distaste for her murderous mission.  While Douchebag Duquette’s efforts in keeping us entertained over the past week or so were admirable, nothing quite beats an original Slaughterhouse Sue press release full of spin and sin and I’m happy to say we finally have one.  So, we’ll be taking a look at that and some other mind-boggling things the slaughterphiles probably wish we didn’t know about.  Please remove all beverages from the vicinity of your computers before reading on.

As I mentioned, Slaughterhouse Sue whipped up another press release today.  You might think she would take the time to address the fact that Responsible Transportation LLC in Iowa have dropped out of the horse slaughter non-business for the time being, but you would be wrong.  She didn’t even bother to try to spin it, but upon reflection there is only so much lipstick you can put on a pig and I’m pretty sure she’s using all hers to go dancing this weekend.  We shouldn’t be surprised that Suey refuses to acknowledge that which can not be spun to her advantage, but Responsible Transportation has not yet updated their website and still only talks about horse slaughter on it.  Even so, it is widely reported that they will be slaughtering cattle because they cannot afford to wait any longer (http://www.kcci.com/news/central-iowa/iowa-company-drops-horse-slaughter-plans/-/9357080/21458340/-/9jp6hs/-/index.html).  So, with all that aside, we still have today’s press release to deal with and it’s a gooder!  It’s basically a beg for money and announcing the launch of her super awesome fund-raising campaign.  (http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs133/1103685263837/archive/1114511142419.html).  So, let’s stick with tradition and take a closer look.  She introduces her masterpiece as such : “We just launched our fundraising campaign to fill up the IEBA Litigation War Chest so we can go fight HSUS in the courts. Please help us any way you can, especially by sharing this far and wide so as many horse people and horse industry supporters as possible get to see it. Let’s get it done and have some big fun doing it!”  

As we edge towards a return of humane and regulated horse processing here in the United States, the hysterics and abusive bullying tactics–not to mention outright domestic terrorism in the destruction of property and threats to families–of the radical animal rights groups funded and driven by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) gets worse and worse.

– I’m thinking of changing her name to Hyperbole Sue after this one.  As far as I’m aware, there has been no official announcement of the cause of the fire at Valley Meats nor has it even been officially ruled as arson.  In fact, things seem to be a little too quiet on that front given the fact they can normally tell right away if a fire was deliberate or not.

Now much of the struggle has been hauled into the courts, litigation being a favored and especially lucrative activity of HSUS wherein they are able to fund their nefarious activities with deceptively raised dollars and way too much taxpayer money.

The cost of intervening in these lawsuits on behalf of the horse industry is shooting up astronomically!

– I think a more accurate statement would be that the HSUS and other groups are forced to tap into their resources to fend off the threat of slaughter rather than putting it towards the animals directly.  At any rate, we have been over and over this and the function of the HSUS is to do just what they are doing.  Advocacy and lobbying and anybody that donates to them is likely aware of this as they don’t really hide the fact.  Now, if you want to talk about `nefarious activities’ and `deceptively raised dollars’ we might take a closer look at The United Horseturds and Humanewatch.  While we’re at it, maybe we should ask Suey exactly how much of their donated funds go towards actually caring for and rescue horses and how is that rescue/rehab that the UH were pimping out coming along…

Thank goodness, we are working with teams of dedicated attorneys who are providing more free and reduced services than most would ever expect. They have my undying respect and gratitude, and I’ll bet yours, too.

Nonetheless, we must fill up our war chest to have any hope of success. To do this the IEBA Board of Directors and I have developed a multi-pronged fundraising campaign that starts TODAY with your help.

– I thought their attorney looked `cheap’, I guess I didn’t realize just how cheap he really is.  Sometimes you get what you pay for….For the record, sometimes an attorney will take a high-profile case, they know they have little chance of winning just for the publicity and to be able to argue a case in a higher court.  While I’m sure he will try his best to win, it is basically a no lose situation for him and we all know that slaughterphiles love to get themselves into all sorts of legal tangles, so I’m sure he’ll get some kickback business from them as they continue to sue people that hurt their feelings.

Next time you sell a horse sign an IEBA Equine Voluntary Check-off slip and donate $10, or 1% to 100% (you decide), of the sale proceeds, whichever is greater. Click HERE to download a Check-off Slip.  Ask for one next time you sell a horse at a horse sale, and if your sale barn doesn’t already know about it, send them my way.

– This is a strange little gem.  Isn’t it Suey that cries that horses are worthless and some only bring $20 at auction?  If I ever attend a sale that hands me one of their slips I will be leaving and never doing business with that facility again.  I wonder if Carol Rose was signing them off at her dispersal sale today…I omitted the membership tiers and pay pal buttons because we’ve been over that before.

• Organize an IEBA fundraising event in your community.
  This can be as simple as a dinner or a cocktail party (we’ll be happy to supply speakers and maybe even entertainment), or as fun as a Rope, Stroke, and Poke where two person teams compete in a team roping, a round of golf, and a pool game. I hear in Nebraska another version of this is popular–Rope, Choke, and Poke–instead of golf, they shoot fifty clay pigeons. Or for the non-ropers, how about a Choke ’em, Stroke ’em, and Poke ’em–Skeet, Golf, and Pool? Calcutta anyone? All sounds like big fun, and a great way to gather up some dollars for a good cause!

There are already people getting Rope Choke Stroke or Poke events organized in Iowa, Wyoming, Nevada, and Nebraska…let’s get one together in your neck of the woods!   

– Does anybody else find it ironic she wants to use horses to make money to slaughter horses?  Maybe as an added festivity, they slaughter the rope horses and eat them afterwards.  I sure hope they are clear about what they are raising funds for when they advertise  because I would be very suspicious of any red meat these slaughterphiles serve for any occasion.  I’m seriously surprised they aren’t hosting charity horse trippings.

Dollars raised through any and all activities associated with this fundraising campaign will be used to pay for the legal and political protection and promotion of the horse industry; to work for a strong, sustainable market at every level; protect the rights of equine owners; and to advocate for humane and regulated horse processing ensuring the intrinsic value of every horse.

– What is political protection?  Is that where you buy your own personal politician to creep around in back rooms and remove language from bills about to be signed?  The only part of the horse industry interests she serves to protect are the bottom feeders as the rest seem to be doing just fine.  At least the slaughterphiles did not let us down.  Not even half as many linked this press release as linked the satire article we talked about before that they were all so convinced was real.

As most of you know already, the AQHA is now compelled to register clones due to losing their lawsuit recently (http://www.bionews-tx.com/news/2013/08/16/update-american-quarter-horse-association-loses-cloned-horse-ban-lawsuit/).  I guess this means that the world shows of the future will feature classes like the Smart Little Lena Cutting, restricted to Smart Little Lena clones and things like that.  I find all of this a bit strange and I find the AQHA not wanting to clone a bit weird too.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not a big fan of even shipped semen being allowed, let alone embryo transfers.  I think cloning will be the final nail in the AQHA’s coffin.  They’ve been systematically destroying their own breed for years.   If HYPP, HERDA and any other kinds of genetic mutants are not only allowed to breed, but actually regularly rewarded in the showring, what’s a few clones?  The AQHA has gone on record as supporting slaughter and guess what?  Slaughter fuels the clone industry.  Slaughtered mares provide companies such as ViaGen easy access to ovaries and oocytes that they require to build their frankenhorses (http://www.allaboutcutting.com/images/glo-images/PDFs/Cloning%20pdfs/3-Pure-Genetics-QHJrnl.pdf).  Now, to be fair, I haven’t seen a lot of slaughterphiles too excited about clones being registered, but I’ve also seen them argue that it does not fuel slaughter because those horses are too expensive to end up in the pipeline.  Oh really? Smart Little Lena was cutting’s first Triple Crown winner and all time leading sire.  Nearing the end of his life, he was cloned and 5 sons were bornin 2006.  Two of those were reported to have severe conformational defects (whatever that means) and two have proven to be sterile.  Of the 5 clones, 4 were auctioned off as a result of fighting within the syndicate.  The 5th clone had already died of cancer.  They sold for $28,000, $27,000,$3000 and $2400.  Not huge money at all on the grand scale of things and I would hazard a guess that the cheaper two are most certainly not forever safe from becoming Suey’s dinner.  Maybe they’ll see prices increase now that they can register the little freaks, but so far none of them have been shown or even trained as cutting horses.  I’m of the firm belief that it is more than genetics that determine what a horse will become and you cannot recreate the perfect storm that creates the legends.  Perhaps they should have cloned Bill Freeman so he could come back from the grave to train them all too?  If you ask me cloning has a lot to do with the slaughter industry and shows the same lack of regard for the very animals that provide a living to so many.

Smart Little Lena X 5

While we’re on the subject of Quarter Horses and their `intrinsic value’, Carol Rose held her dispersal sale on Friday.  For those that don’t know, she is the all time leading breeder of AQHA performance horses.  Considering how devalued horses are and that the slaughter option is far from settled, you would have to question the wisdom of holding such a sale right now when we hear that the industry is in trouble and there is no base market.  Located in Gainesville, Texas, surely the meat buyers would be out in droves to try to get some of these beefy beauties for slaughter.  I’m going to go ahead and guess that they all went home empty-handed if they did show up.  The low seller of the sale went for $1800 and goes by the name of Floyd.  Floyd also happens to be a steer that is broke to ride western so I’m guessing even he won’t be ending up on a dinner plate any time soon.  As for the rest of the horses, I’d say it went more than well.   Most horses sold in the five to six figure range with her main sire, A Shiner Named Sioux, selling for $850,000.  One buyer alone spent over $3million to get his hands on some of these horses.   For the record, Carol Rose was not selling out due to the state of the industry, but because she is retiring and only kept a few horses for herself, including the legendary Shining Spark.  As most of us already know, slaughter has nothing to do with the value of well-bred, quality animals and with the Thoroughbred sales showing strong returns thus far, I would say that the state of the industry is just fine and definitely in recovery.

Yurs N Mine – sold for $150,000

As we all know, slaughterphiles never say die unless they are talking about horses and even then they prefer softer terms such as `harvest’, `process’ and `recycle’.  So, in that spirit, Douchebag Duquette decided to toss his followers a shred of hope by copy and pasting the following blurb.  He doesn’t say where he found it or much of anything other than calling it a `very interesting development’.

“Kloucek & Mack ask Humane Society Leaders to Compromise on Horse Processing
For immediate Release: For more info contact Frank 605 583 4468 or email fkloucek@hotmail.com

Frank Kloucek 22 year veteran former legislator, farmer and cattle feeder from Scotland South Dakota and Bob Mack, cattle feeder and rancher from Watertown met with Humane Society of United States {HSUS} officials: President & CEO Wayne Pacelle and Vice President Joe Maxwell on Friday August 9th at the Organization of Competitive Markets annual conference at the Marriott Residence Inn hotel in Kansas City Mo.

Mack said “While I, like many family farmers and ranchers appreciate HSUS attempt to open a dialog and to support issues important to us like the proper use of beef checkoff dollars and the implementation of COOL, their opposition to humane horse slaughter concerns many of us.”

Kloucek said “We thank HSUS for their strong support of Country of Origin Labeling and beef checkoff issues but ask them to help forge a viable compromise on the humane horse processing issue. If they can support humane horse processing in the United States and also helping with alternatives such as funding for the cost of disposal of horses it would go a long way towards building a better image in the agriculture community. The time has come to put facts and sound science above emotion on this issue. The current policy they have on horses is not working and needs to be reexamined.”

“HSUS current position current position blocking horse processing is the US, by their own admission isn’t resulting in less horses going to slaughter. It is just seeing those horses transported longer distances to be slaughtered in less humane facilities or left to starve to death. HSUS policy is currently causing more suffering of horses instead of less. This goes directly against their goals of reducing animal suffering.,” said Mack!

“In WW2 my father and many soldiers owed their lives to the access of high protein horse meat. Currently there is a disconnect in our country. We allow humans to beat and even kill each other such as in kick boxing and we fight wars for oil killing innocent civilians , yet we can not allow for humane horse processing? It is time we step up to the plate and allow horse processing,” said Kloucek.

“I see no way for HSUS to meet their goal in regards to horses without coming up with a humane US horse slaughter policy,” concluded Mack.

“The framework is in place in Iowa and New Mexico to move humanely towards disposal of horses in the United States. I ask that HSUS remove their court injunction and allow this process to continue for the best interest of the horses,” concluded Kloucek.”

Basically, Kloucek and Mack are both Big Ag assholes.  Kloucek is a well-known and long time slaughterphile who was defeated in his senate bid last year.  We are also not sure why D-bag thinks this is `very interesting’ or even a development of any kind since Kloucek has tried for years to get slaughter happening in his home state.  I’m sure they can talk to the HSUS until they are blue in the face and it’s not going to sway them one iota.  However, since reading comprehension is a problem for D-bag and many slaughterphiles, I’m quite certain they have a completely different spin on this that I can’t even begin to guess.  Not sure about the rest of you, but I am kinda looking forward to hearing about what they think this even means.

I’m going to spare you all the frustration of wading through Slaughterhouse Sue’s other links of interest as she has been busy trolling around for articles to support slaughter.  She must be running out of ammo as she is now recycling old links about how much Russians love their horse meat and consider it the `Tatar’s Viagra’, even though they don’t love to buy it from the EU.  What I do want to leave you with is a little good news that is hot off the press.  As many of you have mentioned, there is a lot of concern about a sale going down in Fallon, Nevada tomorrow.  Nearly 500 feral horses have been rounded up by the Fort McDermitt Paiute Shoshone tribe with the blessing of the U.S. Forest Service and BLM.  Now, remember the reason they wanted to do this is because they are all starving and suffering due to drought and lack of forage.  By all reports, the horses that are crowded into the pens at the sale barn are all in decent shape.  Even worse, they are largely unbranded and likely to be wild horses that were removed from federal land.  Naturally, they were to be run through the auction loose and likely to be bought up by kill buyers.  Some rescues were planning on saving what they could, with Horse Plus Humane Society stating they planned to purchase up to 28 foals.  Thankfully, that may all be on hold as a federal judge in Reno has granted a temporary restraining order to block the sale of all unbranded horses.  (http://wildhorseeducation.org/2013/08/16/judge-grants-tro-to-stop-sale-of-wild-horses-at-nv-slaughter-auctio/).  The TRO is only good until August 21st when further arguments will be heard.  It would seem there was some serious fuckery going on as to where these horses came from and the circumstances surrounding their round-up.

So, we close out another week in the slaughter wars and there is still light at the end of the tunnel which is not an oncoming train.  I see a lot of concern for various causes all having to do with slaughter, but ultimately scattering energies.  In my opinion, it is wise to prioritize.  All of these issues, the wild horses, the kill buyers, neglect, etc. are important.  However, the one thing that threatens every single horse is slaughter.  Even with Iowa supposedly out of the picture, Valley Meats in New Mexico is still fighting to open and we all know Slaughterhouse Sue is heavily invested in Missouri.  We have heard next to nothing about Tennessee, but they have applied for inspection too.  They aren’t going to give up as long as slaughter remains and option.  The priority right now is to get the defunding of inspections passed in the budget and to get the SAFE Act passed.  If the SAFE Act gets passed into law, slaughter ends.  That means no more shipping over borders or anything.  It is of paramount importance to support it.  Get out and educate people.  Comment on articles, write letters and get the word out what horse slaughter is really all about.  Make your voices heard!

The SAFE ACT will not get past the committees onto the floor for a full vote unless the chair for each committee is on board. Currently, S541 is stuck in the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and the Chairman is Thomas “Tom” Harkin [D-IA] @(202) 224-3254.

In the House HR1094 is in the hands of Frank Lucas [R OK-3] @(202) 225-5565 who is Chairman of the Agriculture Committee which oversees the Livestock, Rural Development, and Credit (LRDC) subcommittee and its Chairman is Eric “Rick” Crawford [R-AR1] @(202) 225-4076.

HR1094 has also been referred to Fred Upton [R MI-6] @(202) 225-3761 as Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee who oversees the Health subcommittee and its Chairman is Joseph Pitts [R PA-16] @(202) 225-2411.

We need to make these calls over and over and urge constituents of their districts to become very politely active and persuasive. Some of these chairs lean one way and some the other. Make no assumptions.

Push this. Pass it on. Contact anyone you know who might be, or know, a constituent in their districts, particularly in OK-3. If you know someone who might have clout with these congress people, contact them. We must end this once and for all.

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Help Find These Horses

Quick update from Remember Me Rescue re: Norway and Trophy Case.  Both horses are still missing and the reward for their return has been increased to $2000 for EACH horse.  Please share this around and network as best you can.  Let’s get them home!  The following is from Remember Me Rescue:

 

We have increased the REWARD money for the return of Trophy Case and Norway to $2000 for each horse. Please share any tip or info with us at remembermerescue@live.com or call Donna at 817-689-1214. If you know who has them please let them know we are offering the reward for their return NO QUESTIONS ASKED, just show up and get your money. We do not care what shape they are in or how they look. No questions asked…
Address is
Remember Me Rescue
4100 Conveyor Drive
Burleson, TX 76028
$2000 is a lot of money and I want everyone to know all of the reward money except the first $500 was pledged by people who have been following this story and are concerned about TC and Norway. This is truly horse lovers standing together to help find two missing horses. Keep sending prayers for the boys and we will continue to explore every lead and promise not to stop until we know where they. I think we have people in almost every state praying for TC and Norways safety.

Norway

Trophy Case

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Hilarity and Hijinx PSA Style

Well folks, it’s been nearly two weeks since we’ve had a press release from either the United Horseturds or the IEBA.  I’ve come to realize that those press releases are my comic relief lately and I miss them.  However, just as I was about to sink into a black hole of despair where nothing would ever seem funny again some miraculous things happened.  First off, somebody left Douchebag Duquette unsupervised with internet access for several days and then, as an added bonus, Slaughterhouse Sue put on her ass hat and did another interview.  It’s been a wild and whacky few weeks from the head PSAs and because I’m so community minded, I’m going to share with y’all.

I’m going to switch things up today and kick off with D-bag if for no other reason than I’m tired of seeing Suey’s face at the top of my blog posts.  I’m kinda tired of the chin pubes too, but some choices are harder than others.  To begin the festivities, I’m going to go all the way back a few weeks to a little video that was widely shared.  It was filmed directly after a temporary restraining order was issued in the New Mexico lawsuit. This will prevent horse slaughter plants from opening until further arguments can be heard in about a month.  It’s a short clip featuring Blair Dunn, attorney for the PSAs and Bruce Wagman who is the attorney for the slaughter opponents.  Also, at the very end, there is a short statement from Laura Bonner from Animal Protection of NM. (http://newmexico.watchdog.org/19173/video-reaction-to-judge-blocking-horse-plant-with-temporary-restraining-order/).  The entire clip is less than 3 minutes long, so clearly nobody really had much time to get into details about their positions.  Wagman, was non-committal and Dunn basically regurgitated the whole `help the poor starving horses’ argument while letting it slip that Valley Meats was approached by pro-slaughter interests to open up their plant originally.  Now, if you want my personal opinion, I think Blair Dunn looked like a cheap attorney.  He couldn’t even be arsed to take off his sun glasses for the camera presumably because he’s way too cool and sexy to do so.  Naturally D-bag thought this was a great little clip to show how awesome the PSA movement is and linked it up for his followers with this statement: “Blair Dunn does a great job here and the gal from the other side looks like she is gonna Hyper ventilate…”  That’s when things went south, headed up by Puppymill Patterson.

The hyperventilating activist had no solution to offer when the reporter asked her the question of what was the alternative to horse slaughter. All EMOTION and NO FACTS. AND, she looks like a troll from Lord of the Rings.

– Yup, this was Puppymill Patterson embracing her inner hypocrite and calling the kettle black.  For the record, Bonner was quite well spoken in the brief amount of time she had and at no point did she seem over-excited unlike the cap locking, ambiguous gender looking, Patterson.

…we work hard and sometimes want to just give up, but we are somehow cursed with the determination to stay the coarse

– Here we see the first evidence of D-bag being unsupervised at the keyboard as he tells his followers he is going to stay the coarse.  I’m pretty sure he meant `course’,  or maybe he really did mean `coarse’ and is telling them he is determined to stay vulgar and indecent.  Upon reflection, I’m pretty sure that wasn’t a typo…

I thought Blair Dunn was a crusty old man! No one told me he was young and good looking! #gamechanger

– The was Puppymill again.  I’m now thoroughly  convinced her baby daddy sports a mullet and rolls his cigarette packages in his sleeve.

So you want the horse slaughter to open up.. Dave.. really.. and Mindy your name calling(troll) is a clear reflection of your intelligence.

– What’s that sound?  That would be the sound of D-bag losing a supporter…

Not sure what rock you have been under XXXX but Mindy is a far greater Patriot than most I have been an active Pro-Slaughter leader for 6 years now.

– Hmmm, I was not aware that Puppymill played for the Patriots.  I’m also not sure what that has to do with anything unless D-bag meant patriot and is just randomly capitalizing things for effect?  At any rate, D-bag got all indignant and went on a roll as others voiced their distaste for horse slaughter and Puppymill tucked her tail between her legs and slunk off into the swamp from whence she came.  Here are the greatest hits from him that day:

Who’s going to pay to put down over 100k feral tribal horses that are starving and causing ecological disaster? You still didn’t answer the question above

– I can’t think why these tribes aren’t shipping to slaughter right now considering they are already receiving government support with free Coggins tests and gelding so they can do that very thing.  Has nobody told them we have things like trucks and trailers that will ship those horses?  Has nobody pointed out to the  Yakama Nation that even if New Mexico and Iowa get their plants open, that Canada is still closer?

Oh and lets not forget the toxic 100k bodies x 1000lbs= 100,000,000 lbs of toxic waste.

– Considering that less than 2% of the horse population end up at slaughter and are disposed of other ways, that means that we should be in the apocalypse now by D-bag’s estimation.  What does everybody else do with the bodies?  For that matter we plant far more humans in the ground that are plumb full of chemicals via embalming.  What about that toxic waste?

Or do you just want us to do what Wayne Pacelle of HSUS says, “I don’t care if you shoot them in the head, you just can’t eat them”

– Actually, I have yet to see an anti say you can’t eat your own horse.  The vast majority of us think that’s repugnant and akin to eating your dog, but we do recognize that you can do that if you want.  What the HSUS and every anti is saying, you aren’t going to profit from commercially slaughtering young, viable animals in barbaric conditions.

We have a history of eating horses here, you are just not educated, all the way back to Lewis and Clarke talking about eating their horses in their journal

– Ahhh,  good ole Lewis and Clarke again.  I wonder if D-bag knows about that Uruguayan rugby team that were in that plane crash back in the 70’s.  They were stuck on a mountain for more than two months and ended up eating their friends that had died in the crash.  I’m sure if you ask any of them, they wouldn’t choose to ever eat human meat again.  On second thought, I probably shouldn’t have planted that seed….Anyhow, D-bag got super pissed when somebody asked him if he raised horses for slaughter and blocked them all from his page.

Perhaps D-bag was emboldened by his off-leash time or maybe Slaughterhouse Sue has been momentarily distracted with dreaming up new ways to wipe out the horse population.  Whatever the reason, D-bag has decided to surf these `internets’ he hears so much about and lay down some links that were not provided to him by either Suey or Puppymill.  He played it safe to begin with by merely taking a few potshots at Wayne Pacelle, the HSUS, and Robert Redford. Then, I’m not sure what happened.  Maybe he was hopped up on Bute tainted horse meat or perhaps the product he grooms his chin pubes with was past its sell-by date and created noxious and mind-altering fumes that wafted upwards and affected his last remaining firing synapse.  For whatever reason, we can only assume he went out and got his Google on and found an article from a UK news source about horse meat.  I played around with Google and when I typed in `horse burger’ the article he linked up was at the top of the page.  That was only after I tried `horses is good eatin’ and `Wayne Pacelle is a terd’. (http://www.dailysquib.co.uk/health/4260-shock-as-lab-grown-burgers-contain-99-horse-meat.html).  Anybody with the reading comprehension of a third grader is going to read that and recognize that it’s satire and pretty hilarious at that.  Thanks to the readers here, I not only found screen caps of the ensuing hilarity in my inbox, but was given a link to Heather Clemenceau’s blog which probably covered this far better than I am about to (http://heatherclemenceau.wordpress.com/2013/08/12/united-horsemens-members-skewered-by-news-satire/).  D-bag introduced this little gem with this statement: “After Wayne P. from HSUS hailed the “Lab Meat”…..Sorry I can’t stop laughing…. out comes the truth…”  Because we know that by and large, most slaughterphiles are like-minded, hilarity ensued with as many of 35 of them linking it up in all seriousness.  Granted a few shares were D-bag under his UH and Oregonians Against Animal Rights Extremists hats, but the rest were just your every day PSAs who really thought they had come across something awesome.  Here are the very best comments from the PSAs who all thought this was real…

So, it this thing was allegedly “grown”, then how did a horse burger just show up all of a sudden? I mean, wasn’t someone checking it each day to see how much bigger it was? Weren’t tests run on it as it grew? Did someone just plop a small chunk of horse meat down one day and then came in early each morning to add to it to make it look as if it were growing?

So how do you like that Lab Meat now???

BAM!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!

hahahahahahaha… They don’t know how it got there!! Seriously?? Kinda like the dog ate my homework?? Too funny!

HSUS backed lab is growing meat in a laboratory. They are fighting the opening of horse processing plants here in the US. Then they find out this burger is 99% horse meat. Mmmmm What’s for dinner?

Oooopsum poopsum Wayne P. from H$U$ eat your heart out….ick

After Wayne P. from HSUS hailed the “Lab Meat”…..Sorry I can’t stop laughing…out comes the truth…You can’t make up this kinda karma up

LOL—ALWAYS KNEW THAT ANIMAL AND CLIMATE EXTREMISTS were/are from clean space where there is no oxygen for the brains.

Why not skip past all the money spent on research and simply sell “horse burgers”? They are likely more nutritious and more tasty than those from second class beef. People even eat their dogs ….in some countries.

And they all complain and wonder why we consider them to be morons.  It should be noted that many of those comments were made AFTER people told them the article was a spoof.  Ladies and gentlemen, you cannot cultivate this level of stupidity over a lifetime.  This is the kinda stupid that must be inbred for generations upon generations.  I can’t stop laughing either, but I am laughing AT them rather than with them.  My poor bladder!

Not to be outdone by her personal ass barnacle, Slaughterhouse Sue spent a little time laying down links  and trying to convince people she was a cowgirl.  Upon reflection, if one is what one eats, she may well be cowgirl and we also may have finally uncovered her reasoning behind portraying herself as horsewoman too.  Anyhow, Suey proudly announced to her acolytes that the HSUS was ordered to pay a $500k bond for the lawsuit in New Mexico.  This would be to cover the potential lost income of the slaughter plants should they manage to block the preliminary injunction at the end of the month.  What she neglected to mention is that they were originally seeking a $10million bond.  Kinda hard to think their little business is all about equine welfare and not profit when they figure that is the amount of money they will lose, no?  However ironic and funny I find her posting links from Protect The Harvest calling the HSUS `radical’ etc, I think her shining moment of the last few weeks was when she managed to get herself on yet another Ag radio show.  (http://www.whoradio.com/pages/pp_janmickelson.html)  The interview was on August 7th and it’s about 35 mins into the program if you are feeling masochistic enough to listen to it.  Sadly, I was and I am not going to bore you all with the blow-by-blow aside from letting you know that, in my opinion, it was heavily scripted and she may be the worst public speaker ever with all the stammering and ummms she peppers her speech with.  She basically spewed her version of the facts unchallenged and was sure to let everybody know she was very proud to be known as `Slaughterhouse Sue’.  This all became interesting to me when I ran across this quote a few days ago.  I assume the person that made it is anti, but I don’t know for sure.  It’s very telling anyhow.

“I have talked to her twice about being on the radio show .. Both times she has said no ,..unless I supply her with a very detailed and specific list of questions for her to prepare to answer … I told her that I have not done that and will never do that .. That the show is ” LIVE ” and it is a 100% ” LIVE ” interview .. She says she listens to the show, yet feels she would not come across favorably .. Also she does not want to hear the Phone calls / E-mails / Texts that could possibly come into the show during such an interview with me..”

So, I guess I have officially lost all hope that she will ever submit to a debate with any of us antis, even though she has accused us all of hiding from her in the past.   As funny as I found D-bag’s antics over the past few weeks,  the ever witty, John Holland from the Equine Welfare Alliance provided us with not only some cold hard statistics, but much guffaws at Suey’s expense.  Please take the time to read this piece if you haven’t already.  It’s totally worth it! (http://rtfitchauthor.com/2013/08/11/a-statistical-analysis-of-slaughterhouse-sue/)

One of the things I see a lot of PSAs complain about is that we call them stupid or lump them all in together.  Of course these are the very same people that would lead you to believe that anybody that is anti-slaughter is not only vegan, but also a card-carrying member of the Animal Liberation Front.  Hell, most of us aren’t even PETA supporters and while I support a lot of what the HSUS does, they also do some things I don’t agree with.  Contrary to popular belief, I’m pretty sure none of us have a poster of Wayne Pacelle in our bedrooms either.  However, when I look at the people that put the `face’ on the anti slaughter movement, whether that be Pacelle, Senator Landrieu, Congressman Moran, and even John Holland, I’m not ashamed to be associated with any of them or the numerous other people that stand on the side of the true horse industry.   In other words, when the `faces’ of your side of the equation are drooling buffoons such as D-bag Duquette, Slaughterhouse Sue, and Puppymill Patterson, to name just a few, then people are going to assume that you, too, are a moron.  Aside from guilt by association, you then have to look at the PSAs categorical refusal to look at the facts or anything that might prove their stance wrong.  I can’t count how many times I’ve seen them refuse to read a link or watch a video because it isn’t in tune with what they’ve convinced themselves the truth is.  I can only speak for myself, but I happily read the links that they put out and what I have found is they have no science or credible data to back up their positions.  You will see most of the anti slaughter people tell you they are anti because they know that slaughter only contributes to the existing problems rather than fixing them and that it is a barbaric and inhumane practice.  Yet, the PSAs will change their reasons more often than they do their underwear, if they even wear any, depending on the day, but what it clearly comes down to is making money off animals not raised to be food animals by torturing them.  They lose further credibility when so many of them are a huge part of the problem we all acknowledge exists.  Only today I saw a PSA proudly advertise one of their home-bred yearlings for sale.  The problem is that it was Impressive bred out the ass and the PSA admitted that they hadn’t bothered with testing the mother but was pretty sure she was HYPP n/h due to her having an `episode’ in the past and hadn’t bothered to test the baby either.  WTF?  Then you have another crying the blues that a bunch of extra well-bred (their opinion) bloodstock went through a sale and were bought up by a kill buyer and blamed it on the drought and no slaughter wiping the base market out.  That’s before this person admitted that most of them were only barely halter broken if at all and were run through the sale loose.  These people should be shot with a ball of their own feces for being so ignorant.  They certainly don’t deserve to own horses and I’m glad they are finding it tough to stay in business.  Good riddance!  So, as Slaughterhouse Sue has counseled all her minions to accost their reps during the August recess and tell them how badly they want to see horses slaughtered, I will leave the rest of you with something left in the comment section here that you can do to really make a difference.  Please read and do what you can do.  Every little bit helps!

The SAFE ACT will not get past the committees onto the floor for a full vote unless the chair for each committee is on board. Currently, S541 is stuck in the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and the Chairman is Thomas “Tom” Harkin [D-IA] @(202) 224-3254.

In the House HR1094 is in the hands of Frank Lucas [R OK-3] @(202) 225-5565 who is Chairman of the Agriculture Committee which oversees the Livestock, Rural Development, and Credit (LRDC) subcommittee and its Chairman is Eric “Rick” Crawford [R-AR1] @(202) 225-4076.

HR1094 has also been referred to Fred Upton [R MI-6] @(202) 225-3761 as Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee who oversees the Health subcommittee and its Chairman is Joseph Pitts [R PA-16] @(202) 225-2411.

We need to make these calls over and over and urge constituents of their districts to become very politely active and persuasive. Some of these chairs lean one way and some the other. Make no assumptions.

Push this. Pass it on. Contact anyone you know who might be, or know, a constituent in their districts, particularly in OK-3. If you know someone who might have clout with these congress people, contact them. We must end this once and for all.

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The Mythical Unwanted Horse

As we all know, one of the PSAs like to modify their arguments for slaughter depending on their audiences.  I imagine when they are only talking amongst themselves, they don’t bother with the warm fuzzies and probably just say things like `them horses all need to die’ and `horse is good eatin’ while banjo music plays in the background.  Lucky for the rest of us, they sometimes have enough brain activity to try to appeal to what they perceive would be our better natures when they try to convert anti slaughter people.  I give them credit for at least realizing that by and large, antis tend to actually like horses and have a lot of compassion.  That’s why we get to hear about old and sick horses that have nowhere to go from the PSAs.  It doesn’t usually occur to any of them that pretty much all of us realize that those horses aren’t `good eatin’.  I would have to say my favorite argument from them is the mythical `unwanted horse’.  I hear a lot about these creatures lately as apparently, they are infesting suburbia in packs and offending the delicate sensibilities of the PSAs not only by their mere presence, but they are the reason for the bad economy and a myriad of other ills society suffers from.  So, today I thought it would be all sorts of fun, to meet some of these `unwanted horses’ that apparently are or were in desperate need of harvesting so they can have their dignity restored and have a value.  As you know, the only solution in dealing with these beasts is slaughter.

Snowman

 

Meet Snowman.  He was a former plow horse of unknown breeding that found himself standing on a slaughter truck at the age of 8 yrs old.  Clearly his previous owner saw no value in him even as a beast of burden and no longer wanted this horse.  This would make him exactly the type of horse the PSAs say needs a slaughter-house in order to save them.  Lucky for Snowman, Harry de Leyer, a riding instructor, saw something in that horse that inspired him to purchase him off that truck for $80.  After getting him going under saddle and discovering a gentle nature, he used the horse for a lesson horse at the riding school he worked at.  When school let out for the summer, de Leyer needed to sell a few horses to get by and Snowman was purchased as a private mount.  If the story ended there, it would still be a success story and proof that this horse had far more value than a piece of meat on a dinner plate.  However, Snowman clearly felt he belonged with de Leyer and would escape from his new home to return to his old one.  Eventually it was decided he belonged with de Leyer and they went on to make history together in the show jumping ring.  I can never do his story justice in one short paragraph, but needless to say, he was very `wanted’ and went on to win countless national titles, become a media star and put his young rider on the map as well.  Who knows how famous and important he could have been had he just gone to be somebody’s dinner when originally offered for sale?

Sunday Silence

How about Sunday Silence?  Most people on this side of the pond will remember him for winning races like the Kentucky Derby, The Preakness, The Breeders Cup Classic, as well as his heart stopping rivalry with Easy Goer.  Hard to think of a horse like this as `unwanted’, but he was.  He was not considered to be particularily well-bred as a young horse and was small and cow-hocked.  After overcoming a near fatal virus as a weanling, he was offered for sale as a yearling where he failed to reach his reserve bid and went through as a buy-back.  He was then offered for sale as a two-year old in training where the bidding stopped well below his reserve price and again he went home to his breeder.  Soon after shipped from Kentucky to California in hopes of at least finding easier company to race in, when he survived a trailer wreck after the driver died of a heart attack resulting in a flipped over rig.  Still trying to recoup some of his investment in the horse, breeder Arthur Hancock eventually worked out a deal with trainer, Charlie Whittingham to purchase half of the horse for $25,000.  That’s not a lot of money for horse that would compete at the level Sunday Silence ended up at. Before he even raced, Whittingham sold half of his half to another friend.  Clearly, nobody had big dreams for this horse.  After retiring due to injury and despite his numerous accomplishments on the racetrack and winning $4.9 million, Sunday Silence still failed to attract much interest as a breeding stallion and was promptly sold to Japanese interests and shipped overseas.   Ironically, even though Japan is the same country that slaughtered Kentucky Derby winner Ferdinand after he outlived his usefulness as a sire, it was there that Sunday Silence finally found his value.  Despite dying at the relatively young age of 16 yrs of age, he topped their sire list 8 times and he was syndicated in Japan for what converts to approximately $25 million n US.  His impact on the Japanese racing industry is still strong and some of his offspring have found their way back over here to boost up our bloodlines.  Not bad for an unwanted horse, huh?

Neville Bardos

Need to hear about horses that are still in the land of the living?  Say `hello’ to Neville Bardos.  He began his career as a racehorse in Australia and by all accounts was a miserable failure.  He’s also a cribber, which if you remember our pal NT’s list (https://shedrowconfessions.wordpress.com/2012/11/27/24-reasons-to-slaughter-a-horse/), is one of the top reasons it’s ok to slaughter a horse.  In fact, Neville Bardos was headed for the dinner plate when Boyd Martin coughed up the princely sum of $850 to redirect his fate.  Neville Bardos has become an international star in Eventing and was named USEF Horse of the Year in 2012.  This was after he was in barn fire in 2011 that resulted in burns all over his body and lung and throat damage from smoke inhalation.  He was only given a marginal chance at surviving, but in fact not only survived, but returned to compete at the top level within months.  This former `canner’ horse from Australia is now owned by an American ten share syndicate.  Imagine how much more he could have become if he just would have gone to slaughter like he deserved!

All My Robyns – Before

All My Robyns – 6 weeks later

Maybe since most PSAs seem mostly concerned with wringing the last few dollars out of their companion animals, they can’t wrap their minds around the success of the horses we just featured.  I can understand how it would be hard for them to grasp that one horse in the right hands can basically become an empire maker or put a person on the map in a good way, when they seem to be so worried about a couple hundred dollars worth of blood money.  For that reason, I will talk about the horse pictured above.  She’s not famous and she probably never will be.  However, very recently she was standing in the kill pen at Unadilla Auction with her fate pretty much sealed.  Lucky for her, she was bailed out that day for the princely sum of $130 and a mere six weeks later was winning ribbons for her new owner (http://offtrackthoroughbreds.com/2013/08/09/mare-goes-from-kill-pen-to-show-ring-in-6-weeks/).

Cactus Cafe

Canuki

Still not convinced?  We’ve talked about the two horses pictured above before.  Both these horses raced at Beaulah Park in Ohio, but once their careers were over, found themselves at Viande Richelieu Meat Inc. in Massueville near St.-Hyacinthe, Quebec.  Usually, this means there is no chance of the storybook save from death in a kill box as was the fate of Backstreet Bully, when his connections tried to save him after he was shipped to slaughter (https://shedrowconfessions.wordpress.com/2013/01/11/a-sickening-end/).  Lucky for these two horses, due to the tenacity of several advocates and perhaps divine intervention, they were recovered from that slaughter plant, and as a result at least Viande Richelieu Meat Inc. will no longer accept known Thoroughbreds (http://www.drf.com/news/canadian-slaughterhouse-firm-no-longer-accepting-thoroughbreds).  Both of these young horses went on to compete at The Battle of the X’s, a challenge for former racehorses that was hosted by Remember Me Rescue in Texas.  They can also look forward to happy and productive lives for many years to come.  I’m sure their connections will be happy once their tails grow back out and they can erase all memories of what nearly was the fate of these two beautiful horses.

No matter how many examples I post, PSAs will continue to talk about unwanted horses.  They will say these are the exceptions and not the rule, while us antis will say that it is actually the reverse.   The fact is that these horses are not exceptions, but victims of circumstances and sometimes bad marketing.  That’s something that your average PSA just cannot comprehend. They will shriek that they took their horse to a sale and nobody bid on it.  What they will fail to mention is that not every sale is the same and you need to market to your desired buyer.  I could take my Warmblood to a weekend auction in cowboy country and I guarantee you the only bid he will get is from a kill buyer.  That’s even if I clipped him up and rode him through the ring.  The fact, is he wouldn’t be at a venue that the type of people that generally purchase horses like him frequent.  However, if I chose to market him to the show crowd, put a fair price on him and showed him around to those people, I could probably turn him quite quickly.  I shouldn’t even say `probably’ as I have turned down offers for him plenty of times.  If you take your horse to New Holland, Unadilla, Sugarcreek or any of those known slaughter auctions, you are selling your horse to a kill buyers or rescue organizations and none of those people are going to pay you top dollar for a horse.  For the most part, serious buyers don’t even go to those sales as they are pretty hard to witness when you can’t save them all.  Then consider the fact of running horses through loose, having them in filthy and poor condition and you have decreased their value even more.  The fact is horses find themselves in the slaughter pipeline because people are assholes and refuse to take responsibility.  No other reason.  Saying they are all unwanted is like saying that every single person is undesirable.  You only have to look at how many PSAs get married or at least have baby daddies  and mamas to know that’s not true.  Just like the unwanted horse, it’s merely a matter of being in the right place at the right time or vice versa.  I want to close by featuring two more horses that are not unwanted.  Sadly, they may be in the slaughter pipeline, but nobody is giving up on finding them just yet and we will not allow them to become one of these fabled `unwanted horses’.  They have never been unwanted.  Please share their picture/flyers around and put out the word.  Also say a prayer or whatever it is you believe in while you’re at it.  Let’s bring these boys home!

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Have You Seen These Horses?

I was going to recap some stuff on the pending slaughter houses today, but something more important has come up.  For all the PSAs that slag off rescues and whine about adoption contracts, pay attention.  This is why you have contracts and still bad things happen to a good rescue.  These were NOT unwanted horses!!  This from Remember Me Rescue in Texas:

$1000 in Reward Money being offered

 

 

Please help us find these 2 RMR horses.   Both horses were adopted by Melissa Curtis of Bowie, Texas.    A week or so ago Melissa called me and asked to adopt another horse.   She told me they had just bought a house and she wanted something to ride in drill team.    I asked a member of Remember Me to go see the new house and  only to find out it was all lies and that the horses she had adopted months earlier were missing.  

Melissa said they were donated to a church camp but would not tell us where the horses were.   Then she text me saying they were donated to a man named Danny.   Our contacts confirm that Danny is a local horse trader and kill buyer. 

If anyone has any information please conatus Donna Keen at 817-689-1214 or Vicki Morgan at 682-647-5145 immediately.  

Melissa betrayed these horses and we will chase her to the ends of the Earth to find them.  

 

Norway   $500 Reward for the return of  no questions asked Tattoo # K23302 Marks: Few white hairs in forehead.—                 Cowlick slightly to left at top of eye level.—                 Cowlick at crest of neck on both sides; feathered cowlick on front of neck.***

Norway and Trophy Case’s last known whereabouts was more than likely in the possession of Danny Reeves.   A member of our group spoke with Mr Reeves and he confirmed to them that he had both horses and got them from Melissa Curtis. Per the conversation with Mr. Reeves, he remembers selling Norway either to an individual or through the sale ring, but Trophy Case was very lame after they rode him and to the best of his knowledge was loaded on a slaughter truck.  Our hearts are breaking at this news.  Fortunately we have made contact with a man at the border who inspects the horses before they go in to Mexico.   I spoke to him on Tuesday and told me that he will personally search through the horses for him.    We pray that it is not to late for this sweet horse.

$500 Reward for the return of no questios asked Tattoo # L11396 Dark Bay Gelding, may have sun bleached.  Has skunk tail (white hairs at base of tail) Irregular oval star; snip slightly to left between nostrils, ending on upper lip.—                 Median cowlick at bottom of eye level.—                 Left hind: pastern and part of ankle white, higher on outside and in back.—                 Cowlick high at crest of neck on both sides; cowlick on front of neck.***

Trophy Case at RMR last spring

Anyone with any information can contact Donna or Vicki and the information provided will be kept confidential.   Any information leading to the return of one or both of these horses will be recognized with a $500 per horse reward.  

Please help us find them before it’s too late.

Donna Keen 817-689-1214

Vicki Morgan 682-647-5145

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30 Days And Counting…..

By now, you all probably know that no horses will be going to slaughter in New Mexico or Iowa  in the next few weeks.  The lawsuit in New Mexico filed by Front Range Equine, HSUS, et al has been successful in obtaining a temporary restraining order from US District Judge, Christina Armijo. (http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/08/02/judge-blocks-planned-horse-slaughter-at-2-plants/2614297/) Aside from that, there has been some slight confusion as to what it all means as initial reports stated that the hearing would resume Monday, yet Wayne Pacelle of the HSUS released a brief statement saying it would be some weeks before anything was settled.  What we now know is that the hearing on Monday is to determine how much of a bond that the plaintiffs have to put up to cover potential economic losses should they be unsuccessful when the case is heard in 30 days.  Responsible Transportation in Iowa has stated they have something like a $1.5million loan and another $1.4million from investors.  I have to wonder who the brainiacs were that put up that kind of money for a business that will likely be legislated as obsolete within a few months.   Obviously, there has been a lot of reaction to today’s news and I’m sure that many of you are eagerly awaiting Slaughterhouse Sue’s take on things.  It’s always entertaining, if not factual to see what the equine industry’s #1 enemy has to say.  So, without further ado, let’s take a look at the latest press release from the Matron of Horse Haters.

I’m sure it will come as no great surprise to any of you that Suey spent the majority of her day hitting the refresh button on her computer . As she whiled away the hours dreaming of all the different ways she would eat horses and flicking her bean at the prospect of seeing  a warehouse full of carcasses, she also found time to lay down an ass pot full of links.  Mostly, they were the same links from yesterday’s press release.  For those of you that couldn’t be arsed to check it all out, I will save you the trouble and tell you that they were just a bunch of editorials she had whipped up under her IEBA hat.  No hard data or documentation, just her opinion how awesome slaughter is and how much fun it is for horses to get to spend time in a slaughter facility.  Bear in mind that Suey also considers kill buyers to be `heroes and saviors’.  (http://tuesdayshorse.wordpress.com/2012/03/06/sue-wallis-salutes-horse-slaughter-buyers-as-heroes-and-saviours/).  Anyhow, with their defeat in court today Suey took only enough time to allow her meds to kick in before issuing the following press release.  (http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs133/1103685263837/archive/1114391881148.html).  I have to admit her press releases have become one of my guilty pleasures lately.  Shall we take a closer look at today’s spin?
We have just received word that Judge Christina Armijo of the 10th District Court in New Mexico has issued her decision in regards to the HSUS request for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) that prevents USDA from sending inspectors to horse processing facilities.  This TRO will be in force for a short term while a decision on a Preliminary Injunction, which would be in force until the underlying lawsuit is settled, will be decided upon in about a month.

The fight goes on. While disappointing, this is really just the very first skirmish in what will inevitably be a long haul. We have proven already by our progress to this point that the horse industry will not lay down and die. We will not quit. We will continue to fight to our dying breath to preserve our way of life, to protect our horses, to protect our lands, and our freedoms.

– First skirmish?  Really?  Then why does it feel like we have been playing a non-stop game of Whack-A-Mole with the slaughterphiles for the past few years?  I believe that she will not quit, but do you know what?  I think many of us are more than willing to wait her out.  She is NOT industry and she never will be.  We, too, will fight for our horses until they threat of this barbaric industry is forever removed.  Then we will pick up the pieces and carry on cleaning up their mess.

A bond hearing will be held in the next week or two which will establish the financial loss that the plants will stand to lose if we are not allowed to operate. HSUS will be required to put up that bond. Bonds that they will forfeit if we ultimately prevail.

We will also be preparing to appeal this Judge’s decision, as her determination today was made on grounds that attorneys believe have no basis in law. It is also my understanding that there are, in fact, Supreme Court decisions to the contrary which this Judge chose to ignore today.

– As I mentioned earlier, they are asking for a cool $10million bond, so that should remove any doubt about what the real motivation for horse slaughter is if they honestly believe that is how much money they are going to lose in the next month or two.  As for her appeal, I suspect it will get tossed out of court.  If there were Supreme Court decisions to back up their position, I guess their attorney should have gotten off his ass and cited them in his motions, just as the plaintiff side did with citing precedents in theirs.

In the meantime, if there was ever a need for the horse industry, the states, the tribes, the counties, and everyone who cares about the continued existence of a horse industry in any form in this country to come together, and to support this effort with dollars and dedication…that time is now!

Do not weaken. Nobody ever said this was going to be easy. We have proved time after time that a few stalwart souls who are willing to stand up and tell the truth can make a difference. Don’t stop!

– Suey fails to realize that the horse industry, the states, the majority of tribes, counties and for sure anybody that loves the horse industry already have come together and we are speaking up.  The awesome thing is we are being heard.  Naturally, Suey would like you to send her some more money.  Her whiskey and pork rind supply is likely running low!

Thank you to all of you who have stepped up your personal efforts to communicate with political leaders and the public. A special tip of the hat and hearty appreciation goes out to the tribal leaders who have elevated an opposing view to the animal rights rhetoric that is, finally, catching the attention of the media. Hopefully those heartfelt and common sense messages will start percolating through the national conversation surrounding this issue.

– Leaders?  I think she means paid employees of various bands.  I have yet to see a chief or leader of any tribe named in any of their court documents.  As I’ve said a million times before…a lie is still a lie no matter how many times or how loudly you repeat it.

 

If you would like to hear from the attorneys involved in this case and what they had to say afterwards, here is a link to a brief video clip.  I found it quite `interesting’. (http://newmexico.watchdog.org/19173/video-reaction-to-judge-blocking-horse-plant-with-temporary-restraining-order/)

As you can see, Suey didn’t really have a lot to say about the actual proceedings today.  I guess it becomes difficult to twist things when the defeat is so resounding.  Here is a link to the order that was issued today.  It’s not a long document, but I’ll pull out a few sections that you all may find interesting.  (http://www.nmcourt.fed.us/Drs-Web/view-file?unique-identifier=0005456805-0000000000)

“…To obtain a temporary restraining order “the moving party must demonstrate: (1) a likelihood of success on the merits; (2) a likelihood that the movant will suffer irreparable harm inthe absence of preliminary relief; (3) that the balance of equities tips in the movant’s favor; and (4) that the injunction is in the public interest..”.

– So that pretty much dismisses the notion that this case is merely a stall tactic.  If that were so, the restraining order would not have been granted.

” Turning to the grants of inspection, as previously stated, the grants of inspection were based, in relevant part, on the existence of the FSIS Directive to protect the public health and safety.  The Court is not persuaded that the grans of inspections would have been issued in the absence of this Directive, the express purpose of which was to protect the public health and safety from the unique chemical residues possibly present in equines. Although the Court must afford deference to the FSIS’s actions, the Court does not find credible the Federal Defendants’ assertions that the grants of inspection would have been issued in the absence of the Directive given the express purpose of the Directive to protect the public health and safety and given the fact that FSIS specifically incorporated the Directive into their grants of inspection. The Court therefore concludes that Plaintiffs have established a substantial likelihood of success on the merits of their NEPA and APA claims challenging the grants of inspection.”

– Substantial likelihood of success…..read it and weep, Suey!

“Plaintiffs have submitted evidence of environmental harm at commercial horse slaughter facilities that operated in the United States prior to the defunding of inspectors in fiscal year 2006. [See . Doc. 13] This environmental harm included blood spills, improper disposal of animal parts and carcasses, noxious odors, and the leeching of horse effluent into the local water supply and waterways. [Id.] These harms are compounded by the presence of chemical residues in equines that are not otherwise present in other amenable species subject to slaughter. Evidence has been proffered that a majority of horses subject to slaughter are administered a variety of pharmaceutical drugs not approved for use in food animals, the effects of which could adversely effect the physical environment. The Court concludes that Plaintiffs have fulfilled their burden to prove that environmental harm is likely to occur in the absence of the issuance of a temporary restraining order”

– This was probably my favorite part!  We all know how much slaughterphiles LOVE to deny what happened in Kaufmann and at other slaughter plants when they were up and running.  This is only the beginning as I highly doubt that Suey and company can get some actual research and hard data together that will dispute what many of us have been saying all along.

Suey wasn’t the only one to have a strong reaction to today’s news.  In fact, she was downright mellow compared to some slaughterphiles.  Several of them donned their ass hats and decided to vent online.  In case some of you forgot for one second about the mindset we are dealing with, here are some of the greatest hits from today:

“i am a horse owner. i use my horses to make me a living… they are utility. yes they have names but they are not pets! Make no mistake about what I’m saying. if one of them is injured from being used i will provide the best veterinary care possible with financial reason. and don’t think for a minute i wouldn’t shed a tear for one of them. i trust my life on these magnificent beasts. but if the decision had to be made to sell one to a buyer to recoup some financial loss even knowing where they will end then that is what i woukd do. and that is my business choice to make not some liberal bleeding heart!,”

– I think these people would sell their children for research if it came right down to it.  Such compassion and gratitude!

“How many of these horses do you all want? This is only until Monday! Surely they will be able to open after that…would you all rather see these horses starve..that would be a much worse death!!”

– It’s actually 30 days from now and if that is all that is standing between your horse and starvation, then you shouldn’t be owning horses.  These people can still sell their horses to kill buyers and nothing has changed.  Why is it up to everybody else to clean up their mess?

“How many of you that are against meat marketing willing to put up? Take a few head.of horses & take care of them? Or pay someone to care for them?
Oh and sorry, check your history, Oxen built the West & this country more than horses..
Horses are bring dumped on back roads, State &Federal lands . People are finding them on their yards, loaded into.an empty trailer at Horse Shows. People can’t afford the cost of feed or the cost of euthanasia. $200-600 per Animal. Feed is crazy expensive also..
I would rather.ship a horse to a plant where I KNOW the animals are treated with respect & not shipped thousands of miles .
So come on with a REAL SOLUTION”

– As always, my question is why aren’t people reporting all these stray horses?  The actual reports of abandoned horses are few and far between.  I see far more reports of stray dogs and cats and nobody has suggested we ship them to China for consumption…..YET.

” if it is your own horse or dog or cat no one should be able to tell you how to “treat” it. If my horse acts up i will “treat” it with a board to the head. If i want to burn his legs a lttle that is my perogative. If I want Caat Stew tonite, I shall make it! HSUS be damned.”

– And this is exactly why we need big organizations such as the HSUS to speak up for the voiceless.  Wow.

Many of the comments above were actually on Wayne Pacelle’s Facebook page.  He actually spent quite a bit of time addressing people’s concerns, especially the PSAs that found their way over there.  There was one exchange I found rather interesting as somebody under a screen name decided to go on that page and regurgitate some Humanewatch propaganda.  Personally, I found it quite awesome as Pacelle set the record straight about many of the things that Suey and her butt monkeys have been spouting for quite some time.  Here are the comments and Pacelle’s response unedited.

wayne, I heard you make exorbitant amounts of money from your donors’ largesse while neglecting animals. Is it true that only 1% of your donation receipts actually go to pet shelters and protecting animals? SHAME ON YOU. I will never support your sham organization and will encourage my animal-loving friends to send their resources elsewhere as well.

– … that’s incorrect information put out there by those who don’t like our work to help animals. We spend over 79% of our funds on programs to help animals. These programs range from ending egregious forms of wildlife abuse to stopping puppy mills. The real scam is the shady network of nonprofit that Rick Berman, the man attempting to smear our name, put out there. Learn more about him at www.humanesociety.org/Berman

Wayne, on your 2011 990 tax return, roughly $6mm of your whopping $127mm (4%) in functional expenses went to grants to local and state societies to actually help animals. You spent $4mm on travel as well as $10mm on direct response costs. Not to mention salaries, wages, other benefits, etc. that consisted of over $30mm of your budget. That’s not really helping animals, Wayne. How can you say that 79% of your funds help animals? I might be a country bumpkin, but I learned math at a very young age

– We help all animals Ole, and we focus on the root causes of cruelty. HSUS is rated a 4-star charity (the highest possible) by Charity Navigator, approved by the Better Business Bureau for all 20 standards for charity accountability, voted by Guidestar’s Philanthropedia experts as the #1 high-impact animal protection group, and named by Worth Magazine as one of the 10 most fiscally responsible charities. The work we do is work that local shelters often cannot – that is why we were formed to begin with. We focus on issues that land animals in shelters, but also other issues, like factory farming, the seal hunt, horse slaughter, puppy mills, just to name a few.

Here are some other numbers that may interest you:
over 100,000 animals were provided care by HSUS, including displaced pets during Hurricane Sandy.
110 Chimps were spared from research
The new ownership of wild animals was banned in OH.
The hound hunting of bears and bobcats was banned in CA.
The Pets for Life program, which provides free pet care services to low income areas, expanded to the west coast.

Those are just some of the accomplishments in 2012 made possible by supporters of HSUS.

If you’re focused on financial figures:
over 30 million to direct care and service.
over 26 million to cruelty prevention.
over 18 million to research and education.

We’d encourage you to read more herel: http://www.humanesociety.org/about/overview/annual_reports_financial_statements.html

I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that emotions are starting to run a bit high.  These slaughterphiles have been promised certain victory for a very long time.  They live in a very small world surrounded by like-minded individuals.  Rarely, do any of them bother to expand their horizons or think that just maybe there isn’t always something noble about being in the minority of a hot-button issue.  There are lots of practices and traditions we have gotten away from over the years as we, as a civilization, have realized the error of our ways.  Cruelty is not acceptable in any form.  Horses are not traditional `American’ meals and having them on the table is not a part of our culture.  IF that is something you feel strongly that you need to do, there is nobody stopping you from eating your own horse.  Go ahead and do that.  Just don’t expect the rest of us to sign on and spend our tax dollars on funding a barbaric industry that wreaks havoc on our environment, threatens our actual food supply and lines the pockets of foreign interests.  I find it ironic that it’s always the slaughterphiles that you see screeching that animals are not people and shouldn’t have the same rights.  Well, one of the things that set humans apart from animals is their ability to feel compassion.  That is one emotion I have seen sadly lacking in the pro slaughter crowd.  Funny how that works.  As for the rest of us, we will take the weekend to take a deep breath and savor this small victory and then we will get busy again on Monday.  It is not time to rest on our laurels and start a victory dance just yet and I haven’t heard Suey sing either.  We have many miles to go…

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Good News Friday!

I’m going to make this short, but sweet for now.  There is a temporary restraining order to the opening of the proposed slaughter plants.  That’s the good news.  However, they are back in court on Monday over the same issue.  I’m sure we’ll have several meltdowns to report on later, but for now be thankful and keep sending those good vibes because it’s working.  More anon….

(http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2013/08/02/2612546/judge-to-decide-whether-to-block.html)

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Tomorrow Is Almost Here

We are officially out of tomorrows as the big day in New Mexico descends upon us.  For those of you that aren’t aware, the pending litigation in New Mexico will likely not be settled tomorrow or even next week.  The main thing that will be decided is whether or not there will be an injunction that will prevent these slaughter houses from opening before the case is complete.  One one hand, you have Front Range Equine, HSUS, et al stating that until it can be decided on whether or not the USDA was in violation of NEPA, that these slaughter plants should not open due to the potential environmental damage etc. On the other you have the slaughterphiles saying they should be allowed to rape and pillage the environment in the meantime while we wait.  How it plays out is anybody’s guess.  I may be a bit biased in my thinking.  With the clock ticking down on this important date, Slaughterhouse Sue has laid down the links and press releases like a woman possessed or at least a creature under the influence of adulterated meat.  As always, I feel the need to save you all the time of going to find them and share with you here.  No need to thank me, I’m feeling magnanimous today.

Despite being busy pimping out her newest little business venture where you can `crop share’ any meat from horse to a barn cat, Suey found the time to issue another press release today whilst wearing her IEBA dunce cap.  (http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs133/1103685263837/archive/1114375761005.html). I will break it down for you as she really flexed her creative writing muscle in putting this little gem together.

 

As the horse industry in the United States continues its dogged and tenacious struggle for a return of normalcy in the face of defamation and abuse perpetrated by extremist fundraising groups, it seems the hysterical, unsubstantiated, uncalled for campaigns of fallacious misinformation (in other words, flat out lies) just keep getting louder and more obnoxious.  When you start following the money from any of dozens of groups, all roads lead to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), and their hundreds of millions of deceptively raised dollars.

– Extremist fundraising groups, huh?  That’s a new one for me, especially since lately it seems to be the UH and IEBA that are crying broke and screeching for their supporters to send money.  Of course for Suey and company, it always ends up being about the HSUS and their money.  I guess the ability to read a mandate or even understand what one is, is far beyond their learning levels. Nice to see she busted out her thesaurus to make things interesting, if not professional.

 

After enduring the Obama Administration slipping a last minute, unannounced, back door provision in the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) budget request seeking to reinstate the disastrous defunding of inspectors for horse processing plants in the Agricultural Appropriations bill, and both houses of Congress ignoring their own Government Accountability Office (GAO) study “HORSE WELFARE: Action Needed to Address the Unintended Consequences of Domestic Slaughter Cessation,” and completely ignoring the horse industry, the agriculture industry, the scientists, the veterinarians, the tribes, the state governments, the county governments, and plain old common sense in favor of a culturally arrogant and elitist viewpoint of a Washington, D.C. beltway insulated special interest group with a radical vegan agenda it wants to impose on every American…I know I am not the only one in the horse business that was disheartened.

–  Wait a minute, wasn’t it actually the slaughterphiles that did the super secret last-minute creeping around that lead to stripping of the defunding language last time?  For Suey to say that they got back doored by having the language put back in is kinda funny to me.  At the very least it would be a prime example of them being hoisted by their own petard.  Clearly, Suey is unaware that the GAO report has been proven a complete and utter fraud. (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/58277209/How%20the%20GAO%20Deceived%20Congress%20v4.pdf) I think what she is actually trying to say here is that the only feelings and opinions that count in this matter are pro-slaughter ones as there are far more horse industry people, veterinarians, tribes, etc. that are very much anti and that’s not even counting the 80% of taxpayers whose money she wants to spend.

Nonetheless, sometimes truth and justice do prevail, and we have several positive developments that have come from the federal government to point to today. Earlier the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced that they had no choice but to follow the law and would finally issue grants of inspection to horse facilities that meet the requirements. (Never mind that the plants had met those requirements, or easily could have, mere weeks after the annual riders were taken off of the Ag Appropriations bill in November of 2011–a delay that caused the loss of literally millions of dollars, hundreds of unfilled jobs, and untold loss of value within the horse industry, not to mention equally untold amounts of unnecessary and totally preventable prolonged and increased suffering of thousands of horses).

– She trots this piece of information out like it is a recent development.  She also seems to forget that during the time there has been no domestic slaughter, the same number of horses have shipped to slaughter every single year.  Sometimes even more and it didn’t seem to make a difference.  The reason she keeps saying `untold’ this and `untold’ that is because she has no solid data to back up her ludicrous claims.  It’s just Suey stating her misguided opinion as fact…..AGAIN.

At least FSIS did issue at the same time a powerful response to HSUS’ “Petition for Rulemaking” that categorically denied every single one of HSUS’ bogus contentions. 

 

Almost immediately, and sadly predictably, HSUS wasted no time and with their affiliate Front Range Equine Rescue filed a lawsuit seeking to stop FSIS from providing inspectors based on extremely flimsy environmental grounds. They first filed this in the liberal 9th District Court in San Francisco, their favorite venue. Fortunately attorneys were able to point out the obvious forum shopping, and the case was moved to New Mexico where Valley Meats has an ongoing lawsuit against FSIS for holding them up for over a year.  Tomorrow, August 2, the New Mexican judge will rule on HSUS’ Motion for Preliminary Injunction.

– Again, old news by now.  *YAWN*

Today, we wanted to share with you the even more strongly worded and unambiguous submission to the 10th District Court by the Department of Justice on behalf of FSIS, “Federal Defendants’ Opposition to Plaintiffs’ July 2, 2013 Motion for Preliminary Injunction,”  which correctly points out that the fear and unsubstantiated speculation of a few animal rights activists is not grounds for impeding legitimate business, that the allegations of HSUS will not prevail in a court of law without clear and convincing evidence, and that HSUS has failed to provide any evidence whatsoever.  You will find reading just the introduction and the conclusion refreshing and enlightening.  

 

We also wanted to share with you a series of editorials that confront the “Lies” of HSUS head on from the horse industry perspective. The editorials address lies about food safety and the Safety of American Horse Meat, the Environmental Impacts of Meat Processing, Animal Welfare,  What Really Happens in a Horse Slaughter Plant, and concludes with a Point by Point Rebuttal of HSUS Lies Encapsulated in Their Litigation Attacks on Small Horse Processing Facilities.

 

– I don’t expect anybody to actually wade through the first link.  It’s a standard filing in opposition to the request for preliminary injunction.  We didn’t really expect them to agree with one being granted did we?  Of course not!  It’s basically their version of the situation.  What Suey fails to mention is that it was filed on July 19th.  Since then, the plaintiffs have filed a response outlining exactly why they expect to succeed and citing several precedents (http://docs.burningbird.net/horse/courtcase/document78.pdf).  As Suey advised, you WILL find reading just the introduction and conclusion refreshing and enlightening.

As for the rest of her links, well it’s just more of her outrageous opinion papers with absolutely NOTHING to back up her position aside from the GAO report.  You know, I half expect the PSAs to walk into court with a shoe box full of lined note paper all folded up, with the check yes or no boxes on it regarding horse slaughter.  That’s about how scientific as they in collecting data.

Our hope is that the documents linked to here will be useful for communicating to Congress, the media, and to the American people. Feel free to share, post, excerpt, and publish widely. As always, if you have comments or questions, please contact me at sue.wallis@ieqbassn.org.

– Thank you, Suey.  Your documents and editorials will be MOST useful for communicating to Congress, media and the general public as we can pull out science, data and facts to debunk them.  In fact, I have taken a screen shot of your footer on the press release where you can’t even be arsed to spell `European’ correctly.  Way to stay classy!

Not content just to issue a press release, Suey shared that they had found themselves some more Indians to join into the fray.  “More good news. The tribes, the states, the counties, the horse industry, the ag industry…now if we can just convince the U.S. Congress that listening to a handful of arrogant, elitist “inside the beltway” animal rights activist snobs is the wrong position…”  She really is stuck on this `arrogant, elitist’ thing, isn’t she?  (http://watchdog.org/98540/navajo-nation-will-support-nm-horse-processing-plant/).  She makes no mention of her disgusting foot in the mouth incident of calling Chief David Bald Eagle a faux chief and suggesting he was paid of his opinion, she just goes ahead and digs up more native spokes people that they have managed to sway with the promise of untold riches.

Let’s move right along to the next link she smacked down in the hopes of shaking her followers out of their Bute induced stupor. “Okay, great, Secretary Vilsack, now let’s see you knock yourself out to reopen the E.U. market for high quality for U.S. cheval!”  (http://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDAOC/bulletins/85b02b) I wonder if Suey realizes that Vilsack is on her side of the pending litigation in New Mexico?  At any rate, the link is more than misleading as it is all about the beef industry and makes no mention of the fact that US horse meat is banned in the EU as of July 31st due to non-compliance with their required traceability.  I guess it wouldn’t do to point that out to the horse eaters as they are all busy figuring out how many extra cases of beer they can buy with all the money they have been promised they’re going to make from selling off their cull horses.

Guess what?  She still wasn’t done.  At the 11th hour, she managed to get NM state rep. Sandra Jeff to write a little letter.  I’m not sure who the letter is to or what it is supposed to accomplish as it isn’t for the court case.  I guess Suey gets off on finding kindred spirits in horse hating or something.  (http://ieqbassn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Re-Jeff-horse-release-21.pdf).  Sandra Jeff is apparently a member of the Navajo tribe and was formerly best known for accusing the House Speaker’s chief of staff of swearing at her or something.  Anyhow, her letter says little new other than to say that the Navajo think horses are sacred but they still want to slaughter them. She says that they are not wild, but feral and somehow manages to guarantee that none of them have drugs in their systems.  Jeff goes on to admit they ship their horses to slaughter in Mexico at the current time.  I have to wonder what difference it makes whether they are getting killed in an EU sanctioned slaughter-house in Mexico or a Slaughterhouse Sue one in the US?  There is no difference to the horse other than how long they stand on a trailer and we already know most injuries in hauling happen during or right after they load.  Without realizing it, she basically says that slaughter hasn’t fixed their problem.  Seriously.

So, we end another link fest brought to you by Slaughterhouse Sue and her merry band of horse haters.  I’m sure many of them will be dreaming of horses flailing around on the bleed rail with visions of dollar signs dancing in their heads tonight.  I’m not going to throw any negative energy on things and hope for the best.  Just realize that no matter what happens, things are far from over.  There is still defunding language in the budget and the SAFE Act is out there needing your support.  Even if the absolute worst was to happen tomorrow, their days of profiting from the torture of equines are very numbered.  We keep moving forward, no matter what.  Stay positive!

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