POSSIBLE APPROVAL OF NM HORSE SLAUGHTERHOUSE IN 50 DAYS
If this PASSES in New Mexico YOUR state could be NEXT
To Whom It May Concern:
I have learned that you are likely to approve a horse slaughtering plant in Roswell, New Mexico in the next two months and I do not set well with this. New Mexico has served for years as a gruesome funnel for horses going to slaughter in Mexico. A horse slaughter facility in Roswell, New Mexico, will only increase the traffic of horses coming into our state for slaughter.
In the midst of drought and economic difficulty, New Mexicans have rallied around humane solutions for horses, including an emergency feed assistance program, subsidized gelding program, and a humane euthanasia program. I understand 120,000 U.S. horses/year are sent to slaughter --- actually a number that we can do something about. With less breeding and more support for a basic infrastructure to support horses, America's horses will be provided with some basic compassion and decency, which they deserve.
I understand that the applicant for the Roswell license had previous USDA violations when they were operating as a cattle slaughterhouse. Documented evidence of egregious violations and a lack of enforcement by the USDA in U.S. slaughterhouses led to the defunding of USDA inspections in 2007, but in the absence of a federal ban on horse slaughter, America?s wild and domestic horses continue to be shipped across federal borders where they are slaughtered just as inhumanely to this very day. If horse slaughter plants are reopened in the U.S., horses will undoubtedly suffer torturous agony on U.S. soil again.
This is evidenced by cruelty violations and lack of enforcement of the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act that have been documented in GAO reports. U.S. undercover surveillance footage shows horses being whipped, beaten and electrically prodded and repeatedly bludgeoned, resulting in fully conscious horses being dragged, hung, bled out and dismembered alive. Established research indicates that there is no data to support the inflated number of horses reported as abandoned in the U.S. Countless unsubstantiated reports and articles are circulated by proponents which create the misconception that abandonment is out of control. ?s a crime to abandon, neglect or abuse a horse, and history clearly shows that crime rates increase during times of economic downturn.
The substantiated data shows there is an increase in horses in need that is tied to the worst economic recession since the Great Depression. Investigations have revealed some of the horses found abandoned were rejected for slaughter and were simply dumped by kill buyers. This would not have happened if slaughter was illegal. The ?unmanageable surplus horses? is an artificial crisis created by the proponents to justify slaughter as ?a necessary evil?, but slaughter is not driven by a surplus of horses; rather it is driven by a foreign market for horse meat.
On average, less than 1% of the 9 million horses that exist in the U.S. are ?surplus or unwanted?. This tiny fraction of the h
I have learned that you are likely to approve a horse slaughtering plant in Roswell, New Mexico in the next two months and I do not set well with this. New Mexico has served for years as a gruesome funnel for horses going to slaughter in Mexico. A horse slaughter facility in Roswell, New Mexico, will only increase the traffic of horses coming into our state for slaughter.
In the midst of drought and economic difficulty, New Mexicans have rallied around humane solutions for horses, including an emergency feed assistance program, subsidized gelding program, and a humane euthanasia program. I understand 120,000 U.S. horses/year are sent to slaughter --- actually a number that we can do something about. With less breeding and more support for a basic infrastructure to support horses, America's horses will be provided with some basic compassion and decency, which they deserve.
I understand that the applicant for the Roswell license had previous USDA violations when they were operating as a cattle slaughterhouse. Documented evidence of egregious violations and a lack of enforcement by the USDA in U.S. slaughterhouses led to the defunding of USDA inspections in 2007, but in the absence of a federal ban on horse slaughter, America?s wild and domestic horses continue to be shipped across federal borders where they are slaughtered just as inhumanely to this very day. If horse slaughter plants are reopened in the U.S., horses will undoubtedly suffer torturous agony on U.S. soil again.
This is evidenced by cruelty violations and lack of enforcement of the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act that have been documented in GAO reports. U.S. undercover surveillance footage shows horses being whipped, beaten and electrically prodded and repeatedly bludgeoned, resulting in fully conscious horses being dragged, hung, bled out and dismembered alive. Established research indicates that there is no data to support the inflated number of horses reported as abandoned in the U.S. Countless unsubstantiated reports and articles are circulated by proponents which create the misconception that abandonment is out of control. ?s a crime to abandon, neglect or abuse a horse, and history clearly shows that crime rates increase during times of economic downturn.
The substantiated data shows there is an increase in horses in need that is tied to the worst economic recession since the Great Depression. Investigations have revealed some of the horses found abandoned were rejected for slaughter and were simply dumped by kill buyers. This would not have happened if slaughter was illegal. The ?unmanageable surplus horses? is an artificial crisis created by the proponents to justify slaughter as ?a necessary evil?, but slaughter is not driven by a surplus of horses; rather it is driven by a foreign market for horse meat.
On average, less than 1% of the 9 million horses that exist in the U.S. are ?surplus or unwanted?. This tiny fraction of the h
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