While the political campaign for Presidential elections is keeping an average American’s mind occupied, the blade of butchery has been raised at the horses in Washington, and it can fall any minute – against the will of the people of America. A press release from the Horse Harbor Foundation in Poulsbo informs that Stanwood, WA, soon might become the region's “Butcher Shop for Horses”.
Information in the aforementioned press release confirms what was leaked online in 2010, i.e., the Florence Packing plant on Florence Road, Stanwood, is being reopened as a “modernized” facility for horse slaughter, 5 years after horse slaughter was banned in the country on the grounds that horses are born and bred as companion and sports animals in America and not for the food chain.
Allen Warren of the Horse Harbor Foundation leads a group of horse rescue sanctuary operators, all aiming to convince Snohomish County commissioners to pass an ordinance banning equine slaughter and preventing the return of horse slaughter here.
Readers may not be surprised to learn about the name that is behind this impending butchery in the US. Bouvry Exports is the same horse meat provider whose shocking cruelty to horses, caught on tape, made news in 2010 and led to a call for wide public protest. The Canadian company, based in Calgary, means to make big profit of American horses by cutting them into pieces and selling the meat to Russia, China, and other Asian nations where rules regarding animal cruelty are loose, or ineffective in spirit.
Taking advantage of the tradition of American people to love horses and live with them as friends, the Canadian pro-slaughter business entity now wants to capitalize the new ‘un-American’ law allowing horse slaughter. Sneaky as it comes, the law is the result of a last-minute amendment to this year's Congressional Appropriations Bill that reinstated funding for USDA meat inspections for horse meat, something that ended in 2007.
In simple words, our equine companions who – after their lifelong loyalty and service to us – deserve from us great care and peace, will now be cut into pieces and shipped abroad while their blood stains the soil with a question mark – Why?
As Allen Warren notes, 80 percent Americans do not see horses as food but as companions of sports and recreation. That is why American horses, as many as a hundred thousand a year, have been shipped for years to Canada and other countries to be killed and devoured.
Of now, Bouvry Exports is said to have been completely unresponsive to any/all inquires from equine rescue groups and media. On the other hand, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has already threatened to bring legal action against USDA unless a standing court order requiring environmental impact studies prior to the issuance of meat inspection approval to any new concerns applying for this service is complied with.
For all the American pride, if the sly amendment in its law would not shake the nation out of its silence, perhaps the story of this young mother in Britain will do the work who exhausted herself, body and soul, in saving her equine family member from drowning. Angela Valianos is such an American mother who stood like an iron lady to protect the targeted horses in Illinois against the slaughter industry, invoking threat to her own safety and that of her family.
This land is home to horses, no matter what the butcher industry’s plans. As Washington faces the invasion of slaughterers, the red carpet of blood is close to reaching every American’s door with one question: Why?
Wake up America! It’s your call!
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Read the complete report from the Horse Harbor Foundation at http://staugnews.com/2012/03/07/washington-state-targeted-for-equine-slaughter.html.
