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EWAGAO Follows Horse Slaughter Lobby down the Rabbit Hole
The Equine Welfare Alliance (EWA) and Animal Law Coalition (ALC) have issued an exhaustive analysis and executive summary, demonstrating the embarrassing and shocking lack of evidence for GAO’s findings. The analysis concludes that the GAO report is “disturbing” as it is filled with speculation, anecdotes, hearsay and unsupported opinions. The GAO sources appear to be largely known slaughter proponents. “The GAO’s pro-slaughter bias is clearly evident in the report’s defamatory accusation that the Cavel fire in 2002 was started by so-called anti-slaughter arsonists,” states co-author and EWA vice president, Vicki Tobin. The cause of the fire was never determined and it was Cavel’s owners who benefitted from the fire, claiming $5M when the damages were estimated at $2M. The EWA/ALC analysis details how, instead of doing the hard work of gathering actual data, the GAO relied on chitchats with a handful of state veterinarians with a few livestock board and other state officials and on information provided by pro-slaughter organizations. International Equine Conference on Equine Welfare and Food Safety
The three day event will feature renowned experts on the welfare and preservation of both domestic and wild equines, legislators and medical experts. Presentations will address many aspects of the field ranging from horse slaughter to wild equine preservation and will include related human and animal health concerns. “Few subjects have been clouded by so much misinformation as these,” says John Holland of the Equine Welfare Alliance. “We intend to provide a forum where attendees can get a documented, factual understanding of these complex issues.” Among the many distinguished speakers will be Madeleine Pickens of Saving America’s Mustangs, Senator Mary Landrieu, Congressman Jim Moran, State Senator Dave Wanzenried, Paula Bacon the former mayor of Kaufman, TX, Ann Marini, Ph.D., M.D., Ginger Kathrens of The Cloud Foundation, Michael Blowen of Old Friends Thoroughbred Retirement Facility, Keith Dane with The Humane Society of the U.S., Lonita Stewart with Canadian Horse Defence Coalition, Katie Fite with Western Watersheds Project and authors Deanne Stillman and Alex Brown. A complete list of the presenters can be viewed at http://www.equinewelfarealliance.org/Int_l_Equine_Conference.html. Horse Slaughter Group Targets Wrong Industry with PropagandaJune 22, 2011 – Chicago (EWA) – In an effort to appear credible, the United Organizations of the Horse (UOH) has created what it calls communication tools to “to help the horse industry counter hysterical anti-slaughter claims with sound science and common sense.” The simple marketing rule of “know your audience” has eluded UOH which offers it “tools” to the horse industry that overwhelming opposes horse slaughter. A recent poll on Popvox, a barometer for Congress to assess support on legislation, indicates 76% support the legislation (S 1176) to ban horse slaughter. One of the most egregious of Wallis’ “communication tools” is the total disregard of FDA and European Union food safety regulations. Wallis has actually written her own regulations on Phenylbutazone (bute), a medication routinely given to U.S. horses that is banned in horses intended for food. She doesn’t think it’s a problem for people to eat horsemeat that contains a known carcinogenic and which can cause other deadly diseases. The “science and common sense” has already been determined and it is up to Wallis to follow the law, not rewrite it. Food safety laws aren’t “hysterical anti-slaughter claims”. Wallis’ refusal to follow food safety laws by creating her own rules should be a red flag to Congress about the misinformation offered to support horse slaughter. “Unwanted Horse” Producer Pfizer Sponsors Teleconference to Promote Compromised GAO Report
June 19, 2011 – Chicago (EWA) – A long overdue Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on the effect of closing the US horse slaughter plants is scheduled for release on Wednesday, June 22. Although the report’s contents are to be kept confidential until released, slaughter supporters have been indicating for months that they were leaked the report and have now orchestrated an “Unwanted Horse” teleconference late in the day of the release, presumably to promote the report’s findings. The teleconference, called “Ask a Vet” is being presented by The Horse, the magazine of the American Veterinary Medical Association, a long term supporter of horse slaughter, and features veterinarian Tom Lenz, the former Chair of the American Horse Council’s “Unwanted Horse Coalition (UHC)”. The UHC, supposedly founded to propose solutions to the excess horse problem, has instead concentrated on promoting the phrase “unwanted horse” to take the focus off of overproduction, which slaughter actually encourages, and imply slaughter horses are somehow unusable except as meat. Pfizer Pharmaceuticals sponsoring a teleconference on solutions to the “unwanted horse” problem is beyond brazen. Pfizer owns Wythe Pharmaceuticals, the producer of a line of hormone replacement therapy drugs made from pregnant mare urine and is one of the largest producers of excess, poorly bred and untrained foals in North America. Horse Slaughter Group Launches Bizarre “Know the Facts” Campaign as Vote Nears in HouseChicago (EWA) – United Horsemen (UH), a 501c3 non-profit organization that promotes horse slaughter, has launched an advertizing and editorializing campaign that defies credulity. The campaign is an obvious attempt to derail the Rep. Moran (VA) amendment to the agriculture budget that continues a policy of defunding horse meat inspections. Horseback Magazine <http://horsebackmagazine.com/hb/archives/9390/comment-page-1> has recently run a series of these self-contradictory articles from the group that has stunned readers. The most glaring inaccuracies are those on food safety. U.S. horses have no production records since they are not raised or regulated as food animals and often contain prohibited substances. The spin started by calling horse slaughter opponents “anti-horse” and then by firing off euphemisms like “horse processing” and slogans like “taking back the reins of the horse industry”, it pirouettes into a frenzy of reality bending distortion not seen since Alice ventured down the famous rabbit hole. In many cases, a paragraph directly contradicts the preceding one. The articles claim that slaughter opponents have misrepresented a recent European Union (EU) report on drug residues in horses. It then sites the wrong report as proof. The sited report was for drug residues found in European raised horses under their strict micro-chip based “passport” system for tracking medications. The High Price of Horse SlaughterChicago (EWA) – The Equine Welfare Alliance and Animal Law Coalition applaud Rep. Jim Moran and House of Representatives Appropriations Committee members who stood up for the horses this week. Rep. Moran introduced an amendment to the proposed agriculture appropriations bill to make sure commercial horse slaughter in the U.S. remains illegal. The amendment was accepted by the Committee on a vote of 24 to 21 and it’s now on to a vote by the full House on the agriculture appropriations bill on June 15. The amendment de-funds (prohibits funds from being spent on) ante-mortem inspections of horses to be slaughtered for human consumption. Without these inspections required by federal law, horses cannot be commercially slaughtered for human consumption in the U.S. The inspections have been de-funded since 2006. http://www.animallawcoalition.com/horse-slaughter/article/1809 The next step must be a ban on exports of U.S. horses for slaughter for human consumption. More than two thirds of Americans support a ban on horse slaughter. Proponents have avoided discussing what is clear to most Americans – the inherent cruelty of horse slaughter. As Dr. Lester Friedlander, DVM & former Chief USDA Inspector, told Congress in 2008, “The captive bolt is not a proper instrument for the slaughter of equids, these animals regain consciousness 30 seconds after being struck, they are fully aware they are being vivisected.” Horse Advocates Call Foul on Food NetworkChicago (EWA) – Equine Welfare Alliance (EWA) joins its Canadian partner, Canadian Horse Defence Coalition (CHDC), in calling for the withdrawal of an episode scheduled to air Monday, May 16 on the Food Network’s program Top Chef Canada. The program features “French Cuisine” including horse meat and foie gras, angering both horse advocates and animal welfare groups across the globe. The timing of this episode coincides with CHDC’s May Equine Awareness campaign. In choosing these menu items, the program has completely ignored the cruelty involved in their production. Foie gras is diseased duck liver produced by force feeding ducks using a feeding tube thrust down their throats several times a day until they are too fat to even stand up. The liver becomes hugely swollen in an attempt to deal with the process. Horse meat in Canada comes from horses that often suffer incredible abuse even before they arrive at slaughter. Beyond this, horse meat is likely to contain drugs that are illegal in food animals. Extremist Horse Slaughter Group Encourages Horse Cruelty in NevadaMarch 21, 2011 – Chicago (EWA) – United Horsemen (UH), a 501c3 non-profit organization that promotes horse slaughter, is taking its fight against the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) to a new extreme. Not only does this group oppose every piece of legislation that benefits the welfare of horses but tries to garner support with bogus scare tactics. The latest attack, made under the guise of a property rights issue, is against a proposed ban on “horse tripping” in Nevada. Horse tripping is a deadly and sadistic event which has found its way into the US from third world “Charro” rodeos and involves roping the legs of a running horse. The event commonly causes fatal injuries or permanent lameness to the animal. “They are misleading the public with false information and trying to scare people into opposing the legislation. This is not an attack on rodeos or a first step to anything. It is a bill designed to end the cruel, dangerous treatment of horses as was the ban on horse soring,” stated Vicki Tobin of the Equine Welfare Alliance (EWA). In its latest email to its supporters, UH provides a list of invalid talking points that are an insult to the public’s intelligence and a disservice to American rodeos. The group claims that the Charro Rodeo Association voluntary banned horse tripping in 1995 when in fact, they were forced to do so by a 1994 law, AB 49x – a law that was not spearheaded by the HSUS. BLM Chief to Speak at “Summit” of Horse Slaughter ProponentsDecember 1, 2010 – Chicago (EWA) – Event organizer Sue Wallis, a vocal proponent of sending America’s wild horses to slaughter, has announced that BLM Chief Bob Abbey is a confirmed speaker at her organization’s upcoming Summit of the Horse. The event’s Master of Ceremonies, Trent Loos, has proposed solving the mustang issue by making America’s wild horse a big game animal and the published list of speakers is a virtual who’s who of horse slaughter proponents, including lobbyists, slaughter auctioneers, horse breeders, fake welfare front organizations and even a few convicts. Abbey has come under criticism in the past year for a greatly accelerated program of removing wild horses and burros from public land. As the number of horses the BLM is holding increases and budgets tighten, a crisis is inevitable. In 2009 it was discovered that the BLM was considering sending mustangs to slaughter, igniting a firestorm of controversy. Abbey’s participation in this event will certainly add fuel to that fire. Wyoming Horse Slaughter Plant Not PlausibleNovember 30, 2010 – Chicago (EWA) – In a detailed article published in Horseback Magazine titled ”Numbers won’t work in proposed processing plant”, EWA president John Holland lays out the reasons that a much hyped horse slaughter plant proposed for Wyoming is in fact not going to become a reality any time soon. The article begins by detailing some of the business misadventures of Sue Wallis, the plant’s chief promoter, and goes on to enumerate the many reasons such a plant would not be economically viable under present conditions. In a statement about the article, Holland said, “It is amazing how people will believe anything they read in print, and how many publications will regurgitate blatantly unfounded pieces as if they were newsworthy stories.” |
September 7, 2011 – Chicago (EWA) – The long awaited Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on horse welfare fell far short of the respectable reporting we have come to expect from the GAO, even raising questions as to the agency’s credibility.
Chicago (EWA) – A coalition of animal welfare groups including the Equine Welfare Alliance (EWA) and the Animal Law Coalition has announced the first International Equine Conference (IEC) to be held September 26-28 at the Marriott Residence Inn, Old Town Alexandria, Va.
