Illinois:URGENT:Please make 2 calls for the Horses

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Illinois residents, please make those calls, send faxes and emails asap. This is urgent. You need to contact the 2 reps. below and tell them in no uncertain terms, that as their constituents, you want them to support SB1921. They are supposed to represent YOU in congress! Be firm, but be respectful and polite.

 

Tell all politicians:

Animals can't vote, but the people who love them do!

 

Thanks!

 

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SharkIntl

Rita Fazio

Thursday, April 15, 2004 2:37 PM

Please make 2 calls for the Horses

Dear Friends, Due to some recent media, we are asking you to please call, fax and/or e-mail the following IL Representatives, and urge them to support the bill to ban horse slaughter. If they or their aides tell you there is no bill before them, please stress that if and when there is a vote to ban horse slaughter, you want them to support the ban. FYI - The letter to the editor below has some great talking points you can use, when making your calls, about why horse slaughter is so wrong. Please contact Lindner and Osmond in their district offices through April 19th. Rep. Patricia Lindner dstrct65 @ aol.com (remove 2 spaces)District Office 32 Main St. Suite A Sugar

Grove, IL 60554 Phone: (630) 466-9791 Fax: (630) 466-7124 Springfield Office 204 N. Stratton Springfield, IL 62706 Phone: (217) 782-1486 Fax: (217) 782-1873 ******************************** Rep. JoAnn Osmond osmondjoann @ aol.com (remove 2 spaces)District Office 976 Hillside Ave. Antioch, IL 60002 Phone: (847) 838-6200 Fax: (847) 395-9277 Springfield Office 201 N Stratton Springfield, IL 62706 Phone: (217) 782-8151 Fax: (217) 557-7207 The following is from the: Gurnee Review April 15, 2004 Angela Sykora Osmond voted against the ban and said she spoke with officials from the Department of Agriculture who had nothing but good things to say about the Cavel International, a

DeKalb-based slaughter house that ships horses overseas. The business burned to the ground and will reopen soon. Osmond added that while Americans choose not to eat horse meat, Europeans and Asians consider it a delicacy. ************************************************************************************************************************************* The following is a great letter to the editor that was in the Illinois Leader today. Constituent urges Rep. Lindner et al to reverse horse slaughter vote Thursday, April 15, 2004 I have been reviewing the pro and con arguments on SB1921 [ "11 letters skewering horse slaughter company," January 27, and "Protect companion animals," January 23] the bill that would ban horse slaughter

plants in Illinois for the purposes of producing horse meat for human consumption. I've learned that there are just three of these plants still operating in the United States. Two in Texas are in danger of closure because they are operating in defiance of state law as currently established. And the third, Cavel International in DeKalb, burned to the ground but has been rebuilt and wants to reopen its operations. Let's start with an important premise. The consumption of horse meat by humans is illegal in the United States. The horse is considered a companion animal, like a dog or a cat, and therefore, cannot be eaten on United States soil by anyone for any purpose. So why are there any horse slaughtering plants in the U.S. that produce horse meat for human consumption? There is a market in Japan and Europe, so the slaughter plants here export the meat. One advantage to exporting horse meat, rather than beef, is that the tariffs run approximately four times less. Since there are

willing buyers, why not allow a business to operate that meets individual wants? First, an argument like that justifies pornography, strip clubs, chicken fights, drug legalization, and many other "live and let live" ideas that most Americans find unseemly and worthy of banning, or at least, strictly regulating. Second, what are the social and humane costs of allowing these horse slaughtering plants? The idea of gentle and beautiful horses crammed into double decker trailers and hauled across the country with minimal food and water is cruel and inhumane. The idea of gallant horses standing in line waiting for a bolt to be shot into their heads and having their throats sliced in front of their kind is also repulsive. These are not animals raised and bred for food. They are raised and bred for service, sport, and companionship. It is sad that rather than absorb a $150-$200 cost of euthanizing and burial, owners would sell their horses to a killer buyer for $200-300. There is no problem

with rendering plants that handle dead horses for the purpose of reduction and recycling. The problem is killing otherwise viable horses for eating. By keeping the horse slaughtering business going, there is a profit motive to bandits stealing horses from private persons. How tragic for a young child to wake up and find their horse missing because someone wanted to make a quick buck. Anyone who has ever been around horses knows how smart and docile they are. They can smell the blood at the horse slaughter plant and hear the cries. Do we want DeKalb, Illinois to become the horse slaughter capital of the United States? For the price of 40 jobs, mostly gut sweepers? It's not worth it. The grassroots support for this type of legislation was tested in California in 1998. A voter initiative there has not received such a high percentage of support, before or since, than the 66% that voted for the ban on horse slaughter for human consumption. Public opinion polls have run as high as 85% in

other states. There are many horse adoption and horse therapy facilities that would gladly adopt an unwanted horse. That is the least that these innocent animals deserve in our humane society. The web site "Horse Protection Society" tells the whole story. I urge my State Representative Patricia Lindner to reverse her position on this issue when the bill comes back for another vote when the legislature returns to session. SB1921 received 55 yes votes and only 54 no votes the first time it was called. The high-powered lobbying of the pro-horse slaughter groups worked the first time. It won't happen again as regular folks mobilize and weigh in with their views. 60 votes are needed to pass it. A Federal ban on this practice, HR857, has 180 cosponsors in the US House and even more committed supporters. A majority vote of 218 is needed there to supercede state laws. But let's handle this right here at the state level. Jon A.

Zahm For the Animals, Jodie Wiederkehr SHARK sharkintl @ aol.com (remove 2 spaces)www.sharkonline.org

 

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