Bill to ban horse slaughter introduced in Senate, House

Woman walking across country to gain support

Friday, April 3, 2009

Kristina Kremer of Capulin, Co., began walking from Newark, Del., on March 14 and walked through a famed equestrian park in Fair Hill to Washington, D.C., this week to try to give President Barack Obama 1,200 letters that were written by children from every state with concerns for horses being slaughtered.

Kremer was at Freedom Hill Rescue in Owings this week, promoting her cause and is expected to be there for its Adoption Day on Saturday.

Kremer said she didn't get very far on Capitol Hill when she tried to find someone who would give the letters to the president; in fact, she was not even able to testify before Congress on the bill.

"It's been a big disappointment," she said. "Being from a small town in Colorado, you don't know how it works."

The children, some of who Kremer personally knows, took the president's words literally when he said, "the smallest voices will be heard," she said. In Colorado the kids believe the motto, "Put the ball on the top and let it roll down," she said, so that was the idea of giving the letters to the president.

The bill has many proponents, with both Sens. John McCain (R-Arizona) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) sponsoring it, said Chris Heyde, Animal Welfare Institute director of government and legal affairs.

Heyde explained that horses are being sold at auction for slaughter and their meat is sent to Europe and sold for consumption. One of the largest livestock auctions is in Pennsylvania. And some bidders will bid on the horses to be sold for slaughter and truck them to Mexico and Canada.

"They're not telling people what they are doing. It's what we call bottom feeders," Heyde said.

In 2007, three of the country's remaining horse slaughterhouses were shut down under state law, but since then the pro-slaughter camp has tried to resurrect the industry and has used scare tactics in an attempt to defeat the federal ban, a press release stated. The horses are being brutally beaten at slaughterhouses, Heyde said.

Kremer said she had some videos of slaughterhouses and challenged a man to watch them without getting sick at a truck stop diner outside of Washington, D.C., this week. He watched the first two, and then while the third video of horses being slaughtered was shown to him, Kremer said he threw her $20, put down his hamburger and walked out.

Many people do not even realize this is happening, she said. Twelve states have applied for slaughter plants, and Montana is one signature away from making it legal, so a federal law is needed, she added.

Kremer, who runs a horse rescue in her hometown, also wants to promote awareness of abandoned horses on her walk, which plans to take her all the way to Long Beach, Calif. People are abandoning their horses and turning them loose in the West because they are not able to afford to take care of them anymore and they don't want them to go to slaughter, she said. It's been an increasing problem because of the economy, but people do not want to talk about all the abandoned horses because they feel it will hurt the bill, she said.

In a letter to the editor for Horseback magazine, Caroline M. Betts, an economics associate professor at University of Southern California, writes, "While the horse slaughter industry exists because foreigners want to eat horsemeat, it provides an easy reward for those who want to breed as many horses as they choose and dispose of the excess in the manner that they want to, and for owners who will not take responsibility for their horse's care. Take away that reward with a federal ban on slaughter and export for slaughter, and slap a good tax on the product of any equine breeder, and the politicians currently yelling that we need to kill a bunch of horses may find it much harder to spot one that is abandoned.

"According to USDA data, approximately 20 percent more American horses are being exported to Canada and Mexico for slaughter now than were being slaughtered in the U.S. prior to the closure of the foreign owned slaughterhouses in 2007. It is clear that the option to slaughter is readily available: you simply drop off your horse at the nearest auction or make a quick call to the local ‘kill buyer' and he will be dispatched through the pipeline to a foreign-owned slaughterhouse in one of our NAFTA partners."

In order to include the export of horses for slaughter, Heyde said the bill had to be written in such a way to avoid international and treaty issues.

The bill is controversial and Kremer said she is trying to gain support through her walk and asks people to write or call their congressional representatives to urge support on the bill to ban horse slaughter here and abroad.

Freedom Hills Horse Rescue Inc. of Owings is supporting Kremer's efforts to raise awareness of the plight of the American horse. To view more about horse slaughter and to support the bill and contact a legislator, go to www.freedomhillrescue.org.

charvat@somdnews.com