We did it! 5,000 signatures! To all who signed and shared - THANK YOU!
10/9/11
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”
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.”
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.
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
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.
9/24/11
ACTION ALERT! Support The Ban On Horse Slaughter
Here's our chance to make the President aware of what is happening, and why it should never happen again! You do have to create an account and log in, but it only takes a moment, and this is so important!
Sign this petition. Forward it to EVERYONE you know, and implore them to sign it and share it! If we will each take this VERY seriously, we can make our concerns known at a whole new level!
Forward ho!! Let's do this- NOW!
https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/%21/petition/support-b an-horse-slaughter/q30gJg1k?ut m_source=wh.gov&utm_medium=sho rturl&utm_campaign=shorturl
9/20/11
TCEQ Cites Company For Dumping Dead Horses On Rriver Bed
Yet another reason for ending this cruel and dishonest business for good.
kvue.com
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 8:33 PM
Updated
today at 5:35 PM
PRESIDIO -- KVUE News has a follow-up to a story on the horse export pens on the border.
Horses in this country headed to slaughter in Mexico are held in livestock pens in this tiny West Texas town before they cross the border. A recent report revealed allegations of abuse and neglect at one facility. Now, the Texas Environmental Agency has cited that same company for illegally dumping dead horses along a river bed.
KVUE News has obtained video shot by investigators with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. They flew over the export pens in a DPS helicopter after complaints this summer about dead horses dumped in a dry river bed.
"The smell is horrendous," said Amber Taylor, who works with a horse rescue group in Virginia. She shot her own video of the illegal dumping site. Taylor came to Presidio to document allegations of abuse and neglect of horses kept in the Texas export pens before they’re sent to slaughter in Mexico.
"You can just look up where these horses are and see the buzzards flying around," she said.
Taylor said she saw dying and dead horses at the export pens leased by the C-4 Cattle Company.
"I have to believe there are so many more," she said.
Environmental investigators also videotaped a path they discovered at the illegal dump site. It lead straight to the C-4 export pens.
The investigation details four serious violations. Most focus on the C-4’s failure to document the number of horses that died at the facility, the cause of death, and proof that the animals were disposed of at an authorized dump site.
In an e-mail, the owner of C-4 said his lawyer would appeal the decision to cite his business. The environmental agency has not imposed a penalty yet.
The company faces up to $10,000 a day per violation.
U.S. Representatives Praised for Introducing Bill to End Horse Slaughter
from the Humane Society of the United States
We have been waiting for this for years. Here is our best chance of finally getting the horror of horse slaughter outlawed for good.
The pro-slaughter factions - especially well funded and organized groups like the so-called "United Horsemen" have misled not only our law makers, but many well meaning members of the public as well. They have claimed that the "unwanted" horses such as the old, sick, crippled and otherwise "useless" horses will be left to suffer because their owners "cannot afford" to pay for veterinarian administered euthanasia.
They have said that slaughter is "euthanasia" or even more disgusting, "humane harvesting." and that in the U.S. slaughter was well regulated and humane.
They have even gone so far as to deny the food safety issues in American horses despite the undeniable fact that American horses are not raised like food animals and that slaughter in this country is not intended for food production anyway. The only reason horse slaughter exists here is so the large breeders can breed indiscriminately and have a dumping ground for "culls" that don't meet their expectations, aren't the "right" color or don't have the conformation to excel in whatever sport they were bred for. Slaughter makes it easy for irresponsible, heartless owners to get rid of horses they no longer want for whatever reason.
But now, with the appearance of this Irish Veterinary Paper which clearly describes the lengths the European Union is going to in order to protect its citizens from the drug that is probably the most commonly prescribed drug in American Veterinary Medicine: Phenylbutazone - bute. It is an NSAID, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory, and is used in horses the way aspirin/ibuprofen is used in human medicine.
This paper clearly states what we have been trying to tell our legislators for years: Even minute amounts of bute in horse meat can cause aplastic anemia in children, and even a single dose in a horse's lifetime requires mandatory, permanent removal from the human food chain.
The United States simply cannot continue to knowingly export horse meat containing this dangerous drug - as well as many other banned substances.- for consumption of unsuspecting consumers overseas. It is despicable as well as illegal.
Please contact your own Senators and Representatives and ask them to co-sponsor S.1176/H.R. 2966 The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act of 2011.
September 19, 2011
The
Humane Society of the United States applauds U.S. Reps. Dan Burton,
R-Ind., and Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., for introducing H.R. 2966, the
American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act of 2011, a bipartisan measure
that will end the export and inhumane killing of American horses for
human consumption across our borders. The bill was introduced in the
House with 57 original co-sponsors.
“Although horse slaughter plants no longer operate in the United States, many thousands of American horses still endure the long journey to Canada and Mexico to be killed in cruel and unacceptable ways,” said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The HSUS. “Americans don’t eat horses, and we don’t have to be the nation that is the pipeline for horse meat to satisfy the demand for a small group of high-end foreign consumers in Belgium and Japan.”
“I personally believe in the importance of treating all horses as humanely and respectfully as possible,” said Rep. Burton. “I look forward to working with Representative Schakowsky to end the cruelty after decades of effort to stop these practices.”
“I am proud to join Representative Burton in supporting this bill to put a stop to the cruel practice of shipping horses abroad for slaughter,” said Rep. Schakowsky. “As a strong supporter of animal rights and a horse lover, I recognize the need to protect animals that aren’t able to protect themselves. Protecting animals ought to be a bipartisan issue, and this bill is a strong step in the right direction.”
Approximately 100,000 American horses are sent across U.S. borders to slaughter each year. This represents 1 percent of the total population of American horses, as the vast majority of horse owners choose humane euthanasia—not long-distance transport and slaughter—as an end-of-life option for their beloved companions. States have acted to stop horse slaughter, shuttering the last remaining horse slaughter plants in the United States in 2007, and federal courts have upheld these state laws. Now Congress must act to stop the export of live horses for slaughter in Canada and Mexico.
The horrendous end for these American icons sold for slaughter begins at an auction. The journey to and across a border can mean confinement in a trailer at temperatures in excess of 100 degrees for thousands of miles without access to food or water. Once unloaded, the exhausted, dehydrated and often battered horses are recklessly shoved into kill boxes where they suffer abuse as workers’ attempts to render the panic-stricken animals unconscious cause additional suffering.
A recently released GAO report also recommends that “Congress may wish to consider instituting an explicit ban on the domestic slaughter of horses and exports of U.S. horses intended for slaughter in foreign countries.” National polls show that 70 percent of Americans favor a ban on the slaughter of these animals, which hold an iconic place in the nation’s history and its self-image. The HSUS joins Reps. Burton and Schakowsky, along with the vast majority of Americans, in support of this bill to protect our treasured equine companions from this cruelty by banning their slaughter for human consumption.
A Senate bill, S. 1176, was introduced in June by U.S. Sens. Mary Landrieu, D-La, and Lindsey Graham, R.S.C., and now has 24 co-sponsors.
We have been waiting for this for years. Here is our best chance of finally getting the horror of horse slaughter outlawed for good.
The pro-slaughter factions - especially well funded and organized groups like the so-called "United Horsemen" have misled not only our law makers, but many well meaning members of the public as well. They have claimed that the "unwanted" horses such as the old, sick, crippled and otherwise "useless" horses will be left to suffer because their owners "cannot afford" to pay for veterinarian administered euthanasia.
They have said that slaughter is "euthanasia" or even more disgusting, "humane harvesting." and that in the U.S. slaughter was well regulated and humane.
They have even gone so far as to deny the food safety issues in American horses despite the undeniable fact that American horses are not raised like food animals and that slaughter in this country is not intended for food production anyway. The only reason horse slaughter exists here is so the large breeders can breed indiscriminately and have a dumping ground for "culls" that don't meet their expectations, aren't the "right" color or don't have the conformation to excel in whatever sport they were bred for. Slaughter makes it easy for irresponsible, heartless owners to get rid of horses they no longer want for whatever reason.
But now, with the appearance of this Irish Veterinary Paper which clearly describes the lengths the European Union is going to in order to protect its citizens from the drug that is probably the most commonly prescribed drug in American Veterinary Medicine: Phenylbutazone - bute. It is an NSAID, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory, and is used in horses the way aspirin/ibuprofen is used in human medicine.
This paper clearly states what we have been trying to tell our legislators for years: Even minute amounts of bute in horse meat can cause aplastic anemia in children, and even a single dose in a horse's lifetime requires mandatory, permanent removal from the human food chain.
The United States simply cannot continue to knowingly export horse meat containing this dangerous drug - as well as many other banned substances.- for consumption of unsuspecting consumers overseas. It is despicable as well as illegal.
Please contact your own Senators and Representatives and ask them to co-sponsor S.1176/H.R. 2966 The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act of 2011.
September 19, 2011
U.S. Representatives Praised for Introducing Bill to End Horse Slaughter
The
HSUS applauds U.S. Reps. Dan Burton, R-Ind., and Jan Schakowsky,
D-Ill., for introducing H.R. 2966, the American Horse Slaughter
Prevention Act of 2011.
“Although horse slaughter plants no longer operate in the United States, many thousands of American horses still endure the long journey to Canada and Mexico to be killed in cruel and unacceptable ways,” said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The HSUS. “Americans don’t eat horses, and we don’t have to be the nation that is the pipeline for horse meat to satisfy the demand for a small group of high-end foreign consumers in Belgium and Japan.”
“I personally believe in the importance of treating all horses as humanely and respectfully as possible,” said Rep. Burton. “I look forward to working with Representative Schakowsky to end the cruelty after decades of effort to stop these practices.”
“I am proud to join Representative Burton in supporting this bill to put a stop to the cruel practice of shipping horses abroad for slaughter,” said Rep. Schakowsky. “As a strong supporter of animal rights and a horse lover, I recognize the need to protect animals that aren’t able to protect themselves. Protecting animals ought to be a bipartisan issue, and this bill is a strong step in the right direction.”
Approximately 100,000 American horses are sent across U.S. borders to slaughter each year. This represents 1 percent of the total population of American horses, as the vast majority of horse owners choose humane euthanasia—not long-distance transport and slaughter—as an end-of-life option for their beloved companions. States have acted to stop horse slaughter, shuttering the last remaining horse slaughter plants in the United States in 2007, and federal courts have upheld these state laws. Now Congress must act to stop the export of live horses for slaughter in Canada and Mexico.
The horrendous end for these American icons sold for slaughter begins at an auction. The journey to and across a border can mean confinement in a trailer at temperatures in excess of 100 degrees for thousands of miles without access to food or water. Once unloaded, the exhausted, dehydrated and often battered horses are recklessly shoved into kill boxes where they suffer abuse as workers’ attempts to render the panic-stricken animals unconscious cause additional suffering.
A recently released GAO report also recommends that “Congress may wish to consider instituting an explicit ban on the domestic slaughter of horses and exports of U.S. horses intended for slaughter in foreign countries.” National polls show that 70 percent of Americans favor a ban on the slaughter of these animals, which hold an iconic place in the nation’s history and its self-image. The HSUS joins Reps. Burton and Schakowsky, along with the vast majority of Americans, in support of this bill to protect our treasured equine companions from this cruelty by banning their slaughter for human consumption.
A Senate bill, S. 1176, was introduced in June by U.S. Sens. Mary Landrieu, D-La, and Lindsey Graham, R.S.C., and now has 24 co-sponsors.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
