10/20/11

USDA Picture of One Transport Violation at Beltex Corp. in Ft. Worth Texas 2005


USDA picture of  transport violations of Beltex Corp. in Fort Worth, Texas in 2005. There are 899 more pictures from Beltex just like this one. Is this your idea of humane? Picture obtained under FOIA request.


06-108-records-e_page57_image1

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10/17/11

Action Alert! Observations and Opinions of a Horse Killer (Parts 1 & 2)

These videos are interviews of a horse killer, who for decades, bought and shipped horses to slaughter for human consumption. He and his associates also rounded up Wild Horses for slaughter.
After leaving the business, his conclusion was that the entire industry was inhumane, cruel, lacking in transparency and with a profit margin was so small that it could never be regulated to be humane by any standards.That this was a business that was good for neither people nor horses.

In a word, exactly what we have been saying for 30 years. We have enough documentation to sink the Titanic, but somehow that is overlooked in favor the anti-slaughter disinformation - for which there is no documentation - that is parroted by the pro-slaughter horse registries like the AQHA and the Jockey Club and Big Agriculture as if ending horse slaughter for human consumption could somehow affect them.

I personally find it impossible to believe the entire animal/Ag industries can actually believe the scare tactics of the queen of slaughter mouthpieces, Ms. Sue Wallis and the so-called "United Horsemen" when they claim that we all are "animal rights radicals" bent on closing down all animal Ag and are paid by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and PETA. This is just too idiotic for words and I don't believe this "slippery slope" junk is actually taken seriously by Big Ag. However, it's a convenient excuse for whatever it is they are really afraid of - whatever that may be - and, who knows, it might be true, right?

Actually, no, it can't be true - not even close. But - for whatever reason - they seem to be willing to risk not only horrific cruelty to our horses, the health of consumers overseas eating the meat from a non-regulated non-food animal.They even seem to be willing to severely damage the credibility of our food safety regulations, and, in fact, our entire meat industry. If they can champion the continued export of horse meat that is tainted with numerous substances - phenylbutazone (bute) being the most widely known - without blinking an eye, why should we believe they would feel entirely differently about other contaminated meat products? I'm a confirmed beef eater, but anyone would have to wonder. Frankly, I find it shocking.

Even more shocking is the way these Deep Pockets industries can manipulate Congress to the point that they have been able to block any anti-slaughter legislation for years with no reasonable reason. When a small minority of the people in the horse industry can influence the animal/Ag industry to use their might to block the will of the great majority of Americans who consider the continuation of horse slaughter for human consumption - and that's what we're talking about here, human consumption - a disgrace, well, Houston, we have a problem.

Part 1


Part 2



I ask you in the strongest possible terms to send these videos not only to your own Congress people, but also to the leadership of both the House and Senate and the ranking members of the Committees where both S. 1176 in the Senate and H.R. 2966 are now sitting - and where they will stay, blocked like all the bills before them unless we let Congress know that 80% of the American people want horse slaughter for human consumption stopped and stopped now. Contact these people in Congress and continue to contact them about this issue. Our opponents may be a minority, but they are well organized and well funded. For all the info you need go to: POPVOX.com

 We however do have an huge advantage that the horse bleeders will never even understand. They are doing what they are doing for profit. We are doing what we are doing for our horses. And that makes all the difference in the world.
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10/10/11

I Wouldn't Ask You To Sign a Laundry Slip

This was written by a poster on the "United Horsemen" Face Book page. It's a perfect example of the ridiculous, ignorant and plain silly the pro-slaughter contingent can be. Of course, anyone who would send any horse to slaughter is ignorant and best and evil at worst.
I will now answer this post lie by lie - from experience.
This was posted by X, who is one of the newest contributors to our UHO FB team.
A few of use have been attaching it to the petition when we share it and it's getting
a lot of response.
To those that have asked Me to sign a Petition for the end of Horse Slaughter.
You may disagree with Me, and that's OK....You can delete me if You feel I'm not
"with you"....I'm an American, a...nd Men have died so that I have the right to
My Opinion, and the Right to express My Opinion.

I love the Horse too much to agree with the deplorable Conditions that these Honorable
Animals are forced to endure at the Hands of UN-Regulated, Haulers, and Butchers,
across our Borders.

Then get yourself educated about the many, many available solutions other than slaughter. But you won't do that - none of you who are so concerned about our horses can ever even suggest anything but kill, kill, kill! I would think that anyone who is so concerned could come up with at least one other option. If they wanted any other option, that is. And, for your information, the plants in Canada and the EU certified plants in Mexico are just as "humane" as ours ever were.
It was More Honorable, that they WERE Humanely Euthanized, by USDA REGULATED Processors,
in the USA.

I guarantee here and now that you have never stepped foot in a horse slaughter plant anywhere. Well, I have. I was at Dallas Crown in Kaufman, Texas when I lived in Dallas and was looking for stolen horses that belonged to three of my friends. I still do not like to discuss what we saw there and this was back in 1992. The screaming of the horses was bad enough. I wouldn't have to have seen anything. But I did see. I saw a horse in the kill box fighting frantically to avoid the captive-bolt. I saw another shot miss and hit him/her in the face. I couldn't look any more. The screaming continued as long as we were there. That was a USDA regulated plant in the USA. It was not euthanasia. It was not humane. It was Hell on Earth! And you are an irresponsible, sad excuse for a human being for not listening to people who have been there! By her own admission your heroine Sue Wallis has never been inside a horse slaughter plant.  
Facts:
Your NOT going to stop the International Processing of Horses Commercially!
You know something, baby. We don't even have to. If we don't stop it ourselves, the European Union will stop it for us. They know our horses are tainted with banned substances. They know the killers are forging affidavits saying the horses are free of drugs because they caught them in an inspection of EU regulated plants in Mexico. They also rejected 30% of US horses in a feedlot this side of the border because they were unfit to haul. Oh, they know what's happening. They are the ones eating this meat.
Right now, Canada and Mexico are implementing the passport system so they can continue to sell horse meat to the EU. By 2013, horses coming from any 3rd country - like us - must be on a comparable program or they will not be accepted for slaughter by anyone. That is, if the EU doesn't just ban them altogether before that because of the idiots who are trying to insist that bute can ever be safe. Rave on. The sooner the ban, the better.
You can NOT convince the rest of the World to stop eating Horse Meat!
I couldn't care less what the rest of the world eats. They can eat all the horse meat they want as long as they eat their own horses and not mine. Besides, they have a traceability system called the passport system where every horse is tracked from birth as to what drugs he/she has been exposed to and when. If a horse is exposed to a banned substance - bute, for instance - there is a place on the passport to sign that will permanently remove that horse from the human food chain. One bute and they are no longer eligible for slaughter for human consumption. That's what we've been trying pound into your rock heads.
We on the other hand have absolutely no way to trace what a horse has been exposed to or when he/she was exposed to it. So, even for drugs that have a withdrawal period, we have no way of knowing if the proper interval has passed or not. That's why our horses are unfit for humans to eat
We as Americans CHOOSE, not to Eat Horse Meat, thats OUR Choice.
You've got a better chance convincing Muslims, to throw away the Koran.
I'm not really sure what the heck your point is here. I agree that as Americans we choose not to eat horse meat and it damn well is our choice. That doesn't mean we're trying to stop others from eating it though.
You HAVE created the worst economic Impact of the Horse on the US Economy in History.
You HAVE created a situation, of MILLIONS of un-wanted Horses being dumped, and
neglected of Veterinary Care, and the basics of Nutrition, because a Horse that
was worth $5,000. in 2007, is now worth $500., and the Basic Care of a that Horse
is more, than the Horse is monetarily worth.
How old are you? 12 maybe. From all your errors in spelling and syntax maybe younger than that. Or maybe you're just as uneducated about everything else as you are about economics. The greatest recession since the Great Depression and the Big Breeders breed just as many horses as before - great business model! Any producer with any brains knows that in a recession you cut production - especially when you have inventory from the previous year which you cannot sell - and wait it out. Economics 101. But not horse breeders. After years of telling us that horse business is a business just like any other, they want very special treatment - a disposal service that even pays them! What a deal! Sorry, but it don't work that way, kiddo.

And, by the way, some of us don't judge the worth of a horse by his/her "monetary worth" I paid $3,500 for my horse back in 2002, and you know what? I don't care what he would sell for now because I wouldn't sell him for $1,000,000. Especially to someone who was going to butcher him. There are millions of people who can't sell their homes for enough to pay off their mortgages. Is the closing of domestic horse slaughter plants responsible for that too? Makes just as much sense.
Your Cause was Honorable, but the Decision You made to Stop US Horse Processing
Commercialy, has backfired, and You have caused more Damage, than You can possibly
imagine, for the HORSE, the Creature that You believe you are Championing!.
You are nuts. No one made you Stop US Horse Processing Commercialy. Good grief! As I have said, we are shipping just as many - if not more - horses to slaughter now than we did when the domestic plants were open. At least that's what the GAO Report said. So, you might want to retract that statement because everyone know it's not true.
You didn't hurt Me, You have sent everyone of those Animals to an absolutley worse
HORRID Death.
No, babe, you and your kind have sent thousands and thousands of our horses to the most horrid death imaginable - first in our slaughter plants and now in the slaughter plants of Canada and Mexico. By the way, we always sent horses to slaughter in Canada and Mexico, even when the domestic plants were open. It's nothing new. You didn't even know that. You've never seen a horse slaughter plant anywhere, yet you scream and holler to send other people's horses there. You've never loved a horse. You don't even know what love means or you would be looking toward anything but slaughter. Instead, you refuse to look at anything but slaughter. You're disgusting.
If You want to make a difference for this Magestic Animal, from Your Urban Apartment,
Vote to Get American Slaughter Houses back open, shut down the exporters, and and got
to work for the USDA, as an Inspector, and Regulate the HUMANE Slaughter of Horses,
in the USA.
Just when you think this post cannot get any more ridiculous, it does.Who the hell do you think you are so state categorically that everyone who opposes horse slaughter lives in an urban apartment? That alone proves what liars you all are. I was born in Dallas, but I never lived in an apartment anywhere. Yes, for my first 15 years of horse ownership I had to board my horse. Do you have any idea how expensive it is to board a horse in a trustworthy stable? Most of the other boarders were just like me - working full time and spending almost every dime of our disposable income - and often more - to keep our horses. None of us minded because we loved our horses and considered the cost more than worth it. Among these people were the friends whose horses were stolen that fateful night. You pros think about that, will you, for just a moment? These were not unwanted, neglected or abused horses. They were much loved pets whose owners would sacrifice anything for their welfare. And that's where many, many slaughter horses come from. Did you think they all came from auctions? And even there, a lot of people are so naive they believe their young, healthy horses will find good homes at auctions. I totally and completely blame your pro-slaughter lies for fostering the idea that killers buy old, sick, crippled horses and the good horses go to good homes. You idiots! The killers grab all the good horses because they are going to sell them for humans to eat. You don't really believe they buy old, sick, crippled horses for that purpose do you? Surely not! They don't buy those horses
I became so frightened that my horse would be stolen next after they took my friends' horses that my husband and I took our horse and moved to his native Indiana. Now, I live on a farm and can afford to have more than one horse. I only have two though, because that's as many as I can afford to give the kind of care - during and at the end of their lives - that I want them to have and that they deserve. If something happens to me, I have someone I trust who will take them. It still worries me sick that without me they will somehow fall into the slaughter pipeline though. Thanks to people like you, responsible horse owners haven't been able to draw an easy breath in a generation. Thanks SO MUCH.   
If You don't believe me, simply "Google" Mexican Horse Slaughter, I won't post the
Videos on FB...too Graphic, and it pisses Me off, that these same Liberal Americans,
are EXACTLY the ones reponsible for the deplorable demise of this Creature, in transit,
and at our Borders.
I don't have to "Google" anything, honey. I have DVDs full of pictures - nine hundred pictures -  obtained via FOIA from the USDA showing of violations at Beltex in Ft. Worth from January 1, 2005 - November 17, 2005. I'm not going to post them either, but you can see them in all their gory glory at http://kaufmanzoning.com And, while you're there, you might want to notice the opinions of those who had to live with this monstrosity.
Don't be pissed at the Mexicans, and Canadians, be pissed at Yourself...YOU Liberal
Americans did this to the Horse.
Lamb Chop, the only persons I'm pissed at are you and your horse blood-sucking, money grubbing buddies who would sell out your horses for a damn dime.
The Horse deserves better than what You have done, and You should be ashamed of
Yourself.
Yes, the horses deserve better and we'll get if for them, unless the EU has to do it for us - which they will. Have you ever considered what you are doing to the reputation of legitimate, follow-the-rules livestock/Ag producers? No, you haven't. Many people - and not just overseas - are beginning to question our entire meat industry. I can't blame them after seeing the meat industry and cattlemen support the exporting of meat that they If a person loudly supports toxic horse meat, why would they be trustworthy about toxic beef. Toxic meat is toxic meat after all. I am . I'm only stating what's going through my mind, and that of others. I'm from Texas after all. I always believed our Cattlemen were totally on the up-and-up. But, after their rabid support of horse slaughter all of a sudden - they were against it when they had that law passed in Texas banning it. You know, the law that shut down the plants in Texas? Who do you think that law came from? Now, the cattlemen want the plants reopened that their law shut down. What changed? Something did. Was it quality control, or... what?
Again, I love the Horse too much to sign Your Petition.
I never asked you to sign anything. I knew you were too ignorant. And I also know that you never loved a horse in your entire life. If you had, you would search for any answer except slaughter. You know, it's not illegal except in a couple of states to slaughter and eat your own horse. Why don't you toddle on off and do that and leave other people's horses alone.

Red-meat-2
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10/6/11

Author of Bute Article Blasts Wallis’ Letter as “Nonsense” | Horse Back Magazine

As promised, here is Dr. Marini with her response to the ridiculous article from Slaughterhouse Sue Wallis and her merry band of horse eaters. If I were Dr. Marini, I would sue. I mean, enough is enough, and this is off the charts.

Pursuing a political agenda is one thing, but having "experts" with no relevant credentials at all challenge not only Dr. Marini and her co-authors, but the FDA, USDA and the European Union Commission on Food Safety is quite another. This is a very serious subject, and one that should end any speculation on the ethics - or lack thereof - of Sue Wallis and the "United Horsemen." I don't know if they are truly "united," but they certainly are not Horsemen.

Author of Bute Article Blasts Wallis’ Letter as “Nonsense”

October 5, 2011
By Steven Long  
HOUSTON, (Horseback) – The chief author of a landmark paper published in a prestigious medical journal has spoken out offering a definitive defense of the document. Dr. Ann Marini, PhD., M.D. called a letter published by a pro horse slaughter group, United Horsemen, “nonsense.”
At issues is paper titled, “Association of Phenylbutazone (Bute) Usage with Horses Bought for Slaughter” and was published in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology authored by Marini and Nicolas Dodman, a veterinary anesthesiologist at Tufts University, Nicolas Blondeau, The Institute of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology (France) and Dr. Marini, of the faculty of the Bethesda, MD. based Department of Neurology, Uniformed University of the Health Sciences, operated by the U.S. Department of Defense.
The critics are all equine science instructors from the agriculture departments of three small colleges and universities. They are William Day, PhD of Morristown State College, Sheryl King PhD, PAS, of Southern Illinois State University, Don Henneke, PhD of Tarlton State University, and Pat Evans EdD of Scottsdale Community College.
The letter was distributed by a second term state representative from a rural village who claims to represent the entire horse industry. Rep. Sue Wallis (R) of Recluse, WY (pop 13), is the nation’s most outspoken proponent of reopening U.S. horse slaughter plants, shut down after Congress refused to fund federal meat inspectors in such facilities, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear challenges to state laws in Texas and Illinois outlawing them.
“None of them have a medical background, and it seems clear they don’t understand drug disposition, metabolism and excretion ,” Dr. Marini said in an exclusive interview with Horseback Magazine. “There is a certain amount of every drug that is ingested that remains in the body.”
Marini cited long ago research that led to a total ban of the use of phenylbutazone (bute) in all food animals. The findings showed that “patients were taking phenylbutazone and developed agranulocytosis and aplastic anemia and died,” Marini said. “This is the basis of why the FDA banned pnenylbutazone in all food animals including horses.”
“It is a carcinogen that causes cancer in lab animals and also causes a liver hypersensitivity syndrome that’s fatal,” she told Horseback. “Bute is shown to produce serum sickness like syndrome that results in fever, fatigue, malaise, and inflammation of the kidney, swollen glands, and an enlarged spleen. A person can end up on dialysis for the rest of their life.”
Drug residues in horsemeat that is ingested may be enough for people to develop these illnesses,” Marini said.
The physician also pointed to a recent article in an Irish journal showing a relationship to the development of aplastic anemia in children.
“This is an idiosyncratic disorder,” she said. “No one can predict who is going to develop the disease. The letter is really nonsense. That is the reason the FDA bans bute in all food producing animals including horses.”


Bute_and_Slaughter_Horses_Toxicology_Study.pdf Download this file


Bute_and_the_Passport_System.pdf Download this file


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10/5/11

Wyoming Politician Challenges Bute Findings by Medical and Veterinary Experts | Horse Back Magazine

I really don't know what else I can add to this. Every day I marvel anew at the depth Sue Wallis and her sock puppets will sink to in order to be able to brutally slaughter our horses for Europeans to eat.
Of course this ridiculous drivel from so-called "experts" who are not medical nor veterinary experts will be laughed off by anyone who knows anything. As it turns out just a little background research on two of the equine “scientists” and their objectivity in regard to the safety of bute in horses slaughtered for human consumption…
Dr. (of Education) Pat Evans is a founding member - along with Ms Wallis -  of United Organizations of the Horse (see http://whohateshorses.wordpress.com/2010/12/17/boycott-the-leaders-of-horse-slaughter-summit-organizers-a-little-history/). While teaching at Utah State, she co-wrote a paper titled “The State of the Horse Industry Since the Closing of the Horse Harvesting (sic) Facilities” (see http://www.animalwelfarecouncil.com/html/pdf/utahstate.pdf).
Dr. (of what subject, I can’t determine) Sheryl King was named head of the Illinois Horse Council in Feb. 2011 (http://www.horsemenscouncil.org/HCI/NewsReleases/11Feb04.php) and defends slaughter as beneficial to horses and the horse industry. For instance, see page 15 of “Equine Monthly”, Apr. 2007 (http://www.equinemonthly.com/web/ha_2arc407.pdf), for King’s statement on Illinois HB 1711 amending the Illinois Horse Meat Act. In “The Lincoln Trail Riders Newsletter”, June 2004, Dr. King was quoted as writing the following:
“Dianne,
“The Senate Executive Committee voted for the anti-slaughter legislation by a wide margin. It immediately went to the floor of the Senate where it was also voted for by a large margin. Next it goes to the House floor for concurrence, and then to the governor for signature. I think both of these will happen.
“Unfortunately, the powerful and wealthy animal rights groups and the pet owners and city dwellers who do not understand the first thing about where their food comes from never mind the reality of animal agriculture or raising horses were very vocal and forceful.
“I fear that it will be the horses and the Illinois horse industry that will suffer. I really hope this is a wakeup call to horsemen to begin learning how to band together to fight against issues that will
be harmful to their interests. Unfortunately, we horsemen tend to be a very independent lot – I have my doubts whether we will ever be able to stick up for ourselves.
“Sheryl S. King, Ph.D.
Professor
Director of Equine Studies
Animal Science Department
Southern Illinois University
Carbondale, IL 62901″
And they had the nerve to claim the anti-slaughter advocates have a political agenda!
Don't go away. Dr, Marini has now made a comment, and it's a doozy. Next post.

Wyoming Politician Challenges Bute Findings by Medical and Veterinary Experts

October 5, 2011

By Steven Long
HOUSTON, (Horseback) – A second term state representative from a rural village who claims to represent the entire horse industry has challenged a peer reviewed article in a distinguished scientific journal citing a letter from three agricultural school equine science professors.
Rep. Sue Wallis (R) of Recluse, WY (pop 13), is the nation’s most outspoken proponent of reopening U.S. horse slaughter plants, shut down after Congress refused to fund federal meat inspectors in such facilities, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear challenges to state laws in Texas and Illinois outlawing them.
The paper titled, “Association of phenylbutazone (Bute) usage with horses bought for slaughter”: a public health risk states in its abstract:
“Sixty-seven million pounds of horsemeat derived from American horses were sent abroad for human consumption last year. Horses are not raised as food animals in the United States, and mechanisms to ensure the removal of horses treated with banned substances from the food chain are inadequate at best. Phenylbutazone (PBZ) is the most commonly used non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) in equine practice. Thoroughbred (TB) race horses like other horse breeds are slaughtered for human consumption. Phenylbutazone is banned for use in any animal intended for human consumption because it causes serious and lethal idiosyncratic adverse effects in humans. The number of horses that have received phenylbutazone prior to being sent to slaughter for human consumption is unknown but its presence in some is highly likely. We identified eighteen TB race horses that were given PBZ on race day and sent for intended slaughter by matching their registered name to their race track drug record over a five year period. Sixteen rescued TB race horses were given PBZ on race day. Thus, PBZ residues may be present in some horsemeat derived from American horses. The permissive allowance of such horsemeat used for human consumption poses a serious public health risk.”
Wallis, in a press release cited a letter to the article’s publisher, Food and Chemical Toxicology by four agricultural school professors challenging the findings of its authors, Drs.
Nicolas Dodman, a veterinary anesthesiologist at Tufts University, Nicolas Blondeau, The Institute of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology (France), and Ann Marini, MD, PhD, of the Department of Neurology, Uniformed University of the Health Sciences.
The three experts changing the findings of Dodman, Blondeau, and Marini, are William Day, PhD of Morristown State College, Sheryl King PhD, PAS, of Southern Illinois State University, Don Henneke, PhD of Tarlton State University, and Pat Evans EdD of Scottsdale Community College. All are equine science instructors with no medical or veterinary training.
Marini was unavailable for comment.
The study’s critic also wrote a lengthy note to Congress blasting the study failed to mention that bute is prohibited by the federal Food and Drug Administration for use in all food animals.
Asked by Horseback Online how the three United Horsemen experts could challenge the paper with no medical training, Wallis replied, “By that reasoning the original article authors weren’t qualified to write it.”
Horseback then asked Wallis, “Why does England and the rest of Europe require horse passports and only horses raised for their meat enter the food chain for human consumption?”
There has been no response.
“They really cherry picked their facts,” said John Holland, president of the Chicago Based Equine Welfare Alliance which completed a three day Washington D.C. conference last week featuring some of the nation’s top equine welfare scientists, academics, and advocates including Dr. Marini.
“For example, they stated that ninety percent of PBZ disappears from the blood in just over a day,” Holland said. “They neglected to mention its metabolite oxyphenylbutazone which is just as dangerous and lasts much longer.”
More recently in an Irish veterinary journal, the metabolite issue is addressed as well.
“Sue’s experts also omitted the fact that PBZ takes up in injured tissue,” Holland said in a written response to Horseback Online. “And then they cited an industry recommendation that was never adopted as if it had some special credibility: The 2004 Proceedings of The United States Pharmacopeial Convention reported that evidence had been compiled by the Canadian FARAD leading to the recommendation of a withdrawal time of 60 days following administration of phenylbutazone paste to beef animals and a withholding time of 10 days in milk would be sufficient to avoid residues.”
Holland countered misrepresentation saying, “they claimed I am ‘associated with HSUS and linked to PETA.’ I have no linkage to PETA what-so-ever, and only a loose association with HSUS (as if that were a crime).”
“They ignored the standing rule that PBZ is banned in all meat animals with no withdrawal period and that it is only allowed in diary animals under six months of age in a few countries. In other words, they are trying to spin things to create doubt where there really isn’t any,” Holland said.
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"From my earliest memories, I have loved horses with a longing beyond words." ~ Robert Vavra