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Community Corner

U.S. Rep Rosa DeLauro: Real Concern about the Threat to American Horses Requires Action

U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro says she cares about horses and the issue of horse slaughter but she refuses to do the one thing that could prevent it. Representative DeLauro will not co-sponsor the SAFE Act, the bill that would outlaw interstate transportation of horses for human consumption. As I understand it from speaking with her staffers on multiple occasions, she will support the Bill if it passes, but will not co-sponsor the Bill to help ensure the SAFE Act will successfully pass through the House, to the Senate and be signed by President Obama. Representative DeLauro evidently has a problem with “the language” of the Bill, which is in Committee at this point. No clarification regarding what the specific problem is has been forthcoming regardless of my requests.  Stepping up to support the Bill after/if it passes is rather like closing the barn door after the horse has gotten out, so to speak.

On August 29th a Federal Court judge will present a final ruling on the law suit brought by the Humane Society of the United States and other animal welfare groups that are trying to block the opening of two slaughter plants, one in New Mexico and the other in Iowa. As it has not yet become law, the SAFE Act will not be able to protect the horses should the ruling be against the HSUS.  Anti-horse slaughter advocates continue to fight the battle to prevent horse slaughter in the U.S. and continue to work to persuade members of Congress to support the SAFE ACT, the real powerhouse of a bill, and to move the process of the Bill becoming law along as quickly as possible.

It is the Safe Act that will prevent horses being transported to Canada and Mexico, as they are now. Representative DeLauro's refusal to co-sponsor the SAFE Act means that one less person has shown support for the Bill at a time when increasing support is crucial to the Bill’s passage. She is the sole U.S. Representative from Connecticut who has not done so. Nor for that matter has Senator Chris Murphy co-sponsored. The Senator could join Senator Blumenthal and other Senators in showing their support in advance of the Bill reaching the Senate floor. Thus, two CT elected officials purport to be against the horrific, inhumane slaughter of the American Icon yet have failed to do the right thing, the constructive thing, to save their lives.

I will not go into graphic detail concerning what horse slaughter involves -- the slaughter of camp ponies, foals, the neighborhood horse, failed racehorses and on and on.  Kill buyers are not particularly interested in the old and infirmed horses. They prefer young, healthy horses to sell to the slaughter plants. It should suffice to say that it is not uncommon for a horse to go through stages of the slaughter process completely conscious. It is indeed a horror beyond one’s worst nightmares and one that should not be inflicted upon what most consider a companion animal. A companion animal that has served man well over hundreds of years in wars, on farms, in equine therapy, etc.

Representative DeLauro needs to hear from her constituents. She needs to learn that people do not support her apparent plan of championing the Bill after it has been signed. If all of the Representatives who have co-sponsored had taken that approach, I would not be writing this opinion piece since, there would have been no co-sponsors at all.  Please Support the Safe Act. Save the American Horses and support the State of Connecticut’s presenting a united front against horse slaughter.

 

Representative Rosa DeLauro’s CT office: 203 562 3718

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Senator Chris Murphy’s CT office: 860 549 8463

 

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