Despite the overwhelming adoption in both Houses of Congress of a ban on USDA funding in horse slaughter plants, there is a back door movement afoot to subvert the legislative process.
Need a little background to follow?
In June of this year, the House voted 269 to 158 to pass the Sweeney/Spratt Amendment to the 2006 Agricultural Appropriations Bill.
In September of this year, the Senate voted 68 to 29 to pass the Ensign/Byrd Amendment to the Senate version of the 2006 Agricultural Appropriations Bill.
Both amendments will defund the USDA inspectors at horse slaughterhouses (we're down to three in this country) as well as at the borders. Without USDA inspectors, the slaughter houses have to close down. They can't export the horsemeat out of the country, nor can they transport live horses over the border for the purposes of slaughter without USDA approval.
Since the bill has passed both houses of Congress, it automatically goes into committee whereby any differences are reconciled or thrown out if no consensus can be reached. Seems like a no brainer that neither amendment would be touched since they are the same, yes? Well...think again!
Led by Henry Bonilla (R-TX), chairman of the House Agricultural Appropriations subcommittee, there is now a concerted effort to strip the amendments from the bill completely. How can they do this?
Even though both amendments passed with overwhelming bipartisan support on both floors of the Congress, the conference committee is stacked with pro slaughter advocates (including such knuckleheads at Conrad Burns and Sam Brownback)...no accident if you ask me. What other administration or political party has so whored itself out to big business?
What can you do if you want to see the Amendments stay on the bill? Please contact your senators and representatives and ask them to oppose any agricultural appropriations bill that does not contain the horse slaughter amendments. If your senator or representative is on the conference committee, please ask them to vote to keep the amendments on the bill. Those committee members are:
---- CONFERENCE COMMITTEE MEMBERS CONTACT INFO LIST ----
HOUSE AGRICULTURE APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE
Name ------------------- Vote position ---- Phone -------- Fax
Rep. Henry Bonilla (R-TX) NO 202-225-4511 202-225-2237
Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-CT) YES 202-225-3661 202-225-4890
Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-LA) NO 202-225-8490 202-225-5639
Rep. Allen Boyd (D-FL) NO 202-225-5235 202-225-5615
Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-CA) NO 202-225-2511 202-225-5444
Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO) NO 202-225-4404 202-226-0326
Rep. Sam Farr (D-CA) YES 202-225-2861 202-225-6791
Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA) YES 202-225-4711 202-225-5681
Rep. Maurice D. Hinchey (D-NY) YES 202-225-6335 202-226-0774
Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) YES 202-225-4146 202-225-7711
Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) NO 202-225-5831 202-226-2269
Rep. Ray LaHood (R-IL) NO 202-225-6201 202-225-9249
Rep. Tom Latham (R-IA) NO 202-225-5476 202-225-3301
Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) NO 202-225-5861 202-225-6498
Rep. David R. Obey (D-WI) YES 202-225-3365 Not available
SENATE AGRICULTURE APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE
Name ------------------- Vote position ---- Phone -------- Fax
Sen. Robert F. Bennett (R-UT) YES 202-224-5444 202-228-1168
Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI) YES 202-224-5653 202-224-9787
Sen. Christopher S. Bond (R-MO) NO 202-224-5721 202-224-8149
Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) NO 202-224-6521 202-228-1265
Sen. Conrad R. Burns (R-MT) NO 202-224-2644 202-224-8594
Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-WV) YES 202-224-3954 202-228-0002
Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) NO 202-224-5054 202-224-9450
Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-ID) NO 202-224-2752 202-228-1067
Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-ND) NO 202-224-2551 202-224-1193
Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-IL) YES 202-224-2152 202-228-0400
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) YES 202-224-3841 202-228-3954
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) YES 202-224-3254 202-224-9369
Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD) NO 202-224-5842 202-228-5765
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) N/V 202-224-5824 202-224-9735
Sen. Mitch McConnel (R-KY) YES 202-224-2541 202-224-2499
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) YES 202-224-4254 202-228-1229
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) NO 202-224-3004 202-224-2354
Public polling of this issue shows that the American public is overwhelmingly in support in a ban on the slaughter of horses. Both amendments passed with overwhelming support of both houses, yet the corporate interests and their friends in our government don't care what the majority want...they want the right to make money anyway they can, regardless of how we may feel about it. Even if you don't get the objection to the slaughter of horse, certainly this sort of backroom deal should be objected to.
I work with a horse rescue in Washington. We try and re-home horses that end up on a feedlot in Yakima before they get shipped to slaughter. The horses we try to rehome come in all ages and sizes, but the one thing they have in common is that they are not broken down or useless...many have much companionship and work to offer those people who buy them off that lot. They end up on this lot for many reasons: the owners don't realize that killer buyers haunt the local auctions looking to buy horses that they can sell to slaughterhouses, breeders use the lot as a convenient dumping ground when they overextend their breeding program, PMU farms are being shut down and the horses are thrown out like so much trash...I could go on and on...
Please, if the practice of slaughtering horses is something you would like to see stopped, please contact your Congresspeople. If you need help figuring out who your elected representatives are, hit this link:
Contacting Congress
Thanks for taking the time to read this.