story by Vickery Eckhoff of Forbes
Only three. This is the number it took to remove language from an agriculture appropriations spending bill on November 18, reversing a five-year ban on horsemeat inspections. The culprits? Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI), Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA). Their strategy? The old closed-door-session-on-Capitol-Hill trick.
This was of course executed at the last moment, allowing Kohl, Blunt and Kingston to hold up the appropriations bill until a government shutdown loomed. The tactic worked as planned, forcing President Obama to sign, despite a 2008 campaign promise to ban horse slaughter and the export of horses for slaughter. And the best part: hardly a word of media coverage was leaked for a good ten days.
Consider the more than 70% of Americans opposed to horse slaughter who awoke on November 29, 2011, to learn that they were now on the hook for funding USDA inspections of horsemeat from the nation’s Quarter Horses (70% of those slaughtered in 2010), Thoroughbreds (16%—many, right off the track) and other hard-working, revenue-producing and well-loved breeds.
Let’s also not forget the more than 5,000 Americans who recently signed a “We The People” petition calling on the President to sign the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act of 2011. Also worthy of sympathy are the four sponsors and 175 co-sponsors of this bipartisan legislation.
Media Promotes Horse Slaughter
The short burst of media attention that finally exploded on Nov. 28th and 29th was notable for what it did and didn’t say. No mention of the President getting screwed, the 70% of Americans and taxpayers getting screwed, the other members of Congress getting screwed, the “We the People” getting screwed.
Instead, respected, supposedly unbiased publications like The Christian Science Monitor offered-up coverage with a distinct, horse-meaty flavor. An article by the Monitor’s Atlanta-bureau reporter, Patrik Jonsson, identified only “the animal-rights community” as being “outraged.”
The article went on to explain how the 2007 closure of slaughterhouses had led to an “unwanted horse problem,” and quoted Jack Kingston expressing humanitarian concern over the U.S.’ inability to “monitor horse slaughter in a plant in Mexico or Canada … so we don’t know if it’s being done humanely or not because the USDA obviously doesn’t have any jurisdiction there.”
It all made Kohl, Blunt and Kingston’s closed-door horse-meat-inspection caper seem unexpectedly well-intentioned. This was even more true when Patrik Jonsson’s second article appeared the next morning, dumbfounding everyone with the announcement that PETA had endorsed the move. “It’s quite an unpopular position we’ve taken,” PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said understatedly.
All this was cleverly synched up with a PETA event planned later that evening at New York City’s 92nd Street Y. Calling it an “Exciting Celebrity Panel in NYC!”, PETA Senior Vice President Dan Matthews described how it would put him “in the hot seat at a public debate about PETA’s tactics.”
Matthews went on to explain how “the panel discussion, called ‘Extreme Marketing for a Cause,’ will feature New York Times ad critic Stuart Elliott and Newsweek celebrity columnist Lloyd Grove. I will answer questions from the panel and the audience about how far PETA is willing to go to keep animal rights issues in the public eye.”
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Categories: Horse News, Horse Slaughter
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
First of all, and most importantly; thank you for your post R.T., and for your continued, ceaseless and relentless support of all of our noble equine and burro friends. On a micro level wanted to make a small point and say that I disagree with this one remark; “The tactic worked as planned, forcing President Obama to sign, despite a 2008 campaign promise to ban horse slaughter and the export of horses for slaughter.” From my simple perspective as the President, he could have refused to sign for a few days and taken some additional actions to draw attention to what was taking place. He has refused to sign many other bill’s and taken his position public on many occasions, has he has done with the recent payroll tax issue. To him, this issue was not simply not important enough or politically powerful enough to make an issue of it. Making excuses for Obama or any “politico” serves no purpose. At the macro level, we all know that Ken Salazar was appointed by Obama. Furthermore, the land grabs that are taking place or planned which are the underlying reason for some of the HMA’s being zeroed out, are part of Obama’s “greening” agenda, and Ken’s leasing of BLM Federal Lands for water, gas, solar, thermal, and gold and mineral extraction projects all across the West (particularly in Nevada, with the full support of Harry Reid.) Be well R.T. and please accept all my best for a wonderful Christmas sir.
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Salazar was hired by Obama because of his ties to BIG Cattle and oil. Obama knew he could bring home the goods even though he was a Republican.
And you are right that Obama did not feel the horse issue was big enough to worry about. I think in the next election he just might be sorry. Just hope he changes his mind before then and signs that executive order..
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I can’t wait till Obama is out of the White House. What a travesty he is as a “leader”. The fact that he does not see this as a relevant issue proves how blind and apathetic he truly is to our horses. Not only in the wild, but domestically as well.
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Salazar is a Democrat.
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Will, the horses aren’t even mentioned in the final budget. There was no time – wasn’t it only one or two days before the deadline? Many congressman and senators had no choice but to vote its passage to avert a shutdown. Obama can still make it right with an executive order.
They did it to us again, just like the language Reid had Burns slip in. Always a must pass bill that doesn’t have full senate and house debate. The delay of the GAO report so they had a cover – it was all carefully orchestrated.
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Thank you Mr LeRoy for standing firm on principle. I noticed the same slip and wondered how I would phrase my comment but see you have handled a proper prospective with grace. Obama has no excuse – he failed us and to regain any credibility, the least he can do now is order an Executive Order be prepared for his signature. He has adequate support in the House and Senate to justify cutting to the chase. Again, thank you for your integrity.
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IT IS A GREAT Informative article. well worth putting in the file to save and also to send far and wide. I just love FACTS!!!!
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This fact bears repeating…ONLY THE SECOND TIME THE AUTOPEN WAS USED…..HOW INTERSTING:
Obama, Congress restore U.S. horse-slaughter industry
By Stephen Dinan
The Washington Times
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Mr. Obama signed the spending bill by AUTOPEN Nov. 18. He was traveling in Asia at the time the bill was presented to him, so he used the automated signature machine for the SECOND TIME in his presidency.
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NOW, link those three congressman to the horrific pictures that the rest of us can barely stand to watch. Ferret out the REAL culprits and expose them to the World. If slaughter is EVER resumed on American soil, they should be forced to live next door to a slaughter plant.
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No Louie– those three should have to live IN the slaughterhouse. Right next to the knock box.
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PETA sucks. I have had many an opportunity to deal with PETA. The latest was when Santa Anita racetrack in California was shooting cats with a 22. The news came to our attention through the grapevine beginning with an employee over hearing a phone conversation of the backside security laughing on the phone describing him shooting a kitty. The word got back to us to check the large trash bins. We found 2 bodies in 2 different bins. I called PETA, the Arcadia P.D. and spoke with the Chief of Police, Pasadena Animal control and spoke with the Director, and met with the mayor. PETA did absolutely nothing. The Arcadia PD started a month long investigation but nothing became of it. PETA made a big deal when the Thoroughbred filly, Eight Belles, broke down in a race.Peta wanted an investigation.
I have a request from anybody who will, contact a reporter named Phil Willon from the Los Angeles Times. His email is phil.willon@latimes.com. He wrote an article on December 11, 2011 about horse slaughter. The title of the article is “Horses, once prized, falling on dire times.” To me, I believe it is biased to slaughter . The auction is @ 30 miles from me and the largest kill buyer in Ca lives next door to the auction. In 1998 Californians passed a law making it unlawful to buy,sell, give away, accept, or transport a horse for slaughter for human consumption. The law is not enforced and horses are regularly transported to Texas and Arizona then to Mexico. The USDA looks the other way and says they don’t have the funds to enforse the law.
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Denise – I have been writing to Sen Feinstein and had a conversation with one of her office staff today on this very problem. Please send your info to her. I am asking her to follow up on law enforcement. She is a firm anti-slaughter elected official. Keep talking. There are many advocates here in CA and we need to band together.
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I find it interesting that the USDA doesn’t have time for this issue, but they can take on a job which will cost the tax payers about $5 million dollars. If President Obama fails to act on this issue he’s going to lose more votes than he realizes. The Dems will also be in trouble too. We speak of the 3 votes cast against our horses, but there was 1 lone supporter from California by the name of Sam Farr who supported our horses by his vote. We all know that the media is controlled by big business so I am not supprised that they take the slant. But how many of them actually have ever been near a horse and had actual contact. I think that changes things. I only wish that organizer of the last protest in Washington would do it again. There were trailers and trailers of people and some even walked or rode their Wild Horses not sure if there were any burros. But the point was well made and it did receive media coverage.
This has been the problem for some many of the issues. Unless it relates to the stock market, big business, murders of humans or abductions we never hear about it. I know Chris Hyde of the Animal Welfare Institute has been so instramental on the slaughter issue. There is also a flip side to this. No one will call a vote once it is out of committee unless they have the votes to carry it home. But everyone is exactly right..Obama could change everything with the swipe of pen just as the others did. So what is Obama waiting for?
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There are a number of reasons that could explain President Obama’s silence. He has chosen the path he is on. He had no history with animals prior to being President, so I am not sure why we were so ready to trust him. Everything he has done has been choreographed for him, so that he can be where he is today and we can be where we are. Not cynical. Much.
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I cannot call them press.
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… and one Big Screwdriver to sign it into effect. Great going Mr. O. I will remember this next year–and perhaps after you go home you will have a “Not In My Back Yard” situation to fight– one can only hope. Chinese curse “May you live in interesting times”.
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