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Blood in the Streets
In the middle of today's show about whether or not we should kill (and eat) horses, Scott Beckstead from the Humane Society of Oregon encouraged folks to call the mayor of Kaufman, Texas, which until recently had a Belgian-owned horse slaughterhouse there. Talk to her, he said:
There was horse blood backing up in people's toilets. There was horse blood running down the street. There were piles and piles of animal waste, basically offal, from the carcasses, that there was no market for and there was nothing to do with. And so it made the entire town completely uninhabitable — almost — because of the stench. Business refused to come to Kaufman not just because of the unclean and unhealthy conditions there, but also because people found it so distasteful that the town very quickly took on a very negative stigma.... That's the place that horses go to die.
I figured I'd take his suggestion. I'm still trying to get in touch with the head of the Chamber of Commerce, along with the former mayor, Paula Bacon, both of whom are mentioned in this article from 2006.
But I was able to talk to Richard Underwood, the director of Public Works. I figured if blood were burbling up from toilets in Kaufman, Texas, he'd be the one to know.
So, I asked, was there blood in toilets? "It could be possible but I didn't witness anything on anyone's personal property," he replied. But there was blood in the street. Here's our conversation (mp3) from this afternoon.
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Dave Duquette has repeated a lie here first told by Ed Butcher of Montana. Paula Bacon owns no such land and has requested Butcher to retract his claim.
The claim makes no sense since if her goal was financial, and she had owned land next to the plant, she would have no reason to carry the issue further since the plant has been closed two years.
More interestingly, while Ed Butcher in Montana was pushing his law to keep Montanan's from being able to sue over the building of a horse slaughter plant on environmental issues, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency was ordering the plant owned by Butcher's Belgian friends closed over health issues.
More over, the Cavel plant in Illinois was rebuilt in 2004 with the latest technology and never had a single month of operation in which it was in compliance with its sewer discharge.
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Thanks for looking into that.
There are very good and reasonable arguments for humane treatment of animals (and people) and I can admire the Humane Society for their advocacy and passion, but sometimes they and PETA bring distrust on themselves by using wildly exagerated fear-mongering.
I wish they would just tell the straight truth and let their views be held up by actual facts on the ground.
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your view is very strong i like it very much you clear the human treatment of animals and people this is impressive.Thanks
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A great show concerning a major problem.
David made mention concerning a slaughterhouse in Texas that apparently had no controls in place. Texas must be a lot different than Oregon. How long do you think something like this would be allowed to happen in Oregon? Wouldn't you think that before anyone started a slaughterhouse of any kind, they would have a sale for their bones, blood and any unused products? We have so many state agencies inspecting everything, I doubt this would ever happen here. Most businesses have left Oregon because this state has too many regulations. How many slaughterhouses are left in Oregon? No major companies are here, only very small operations. Thirty years ago I can remember four large meat packing operations just in the Portland area alone, now there are none.
It is unbelievable that there are no slaughterhouses in the USA with the amount of horses that are here. All unwanted, old or crippled horses have to be transported out of the US to either Mexico or Canada for slaughter. Imagine the shape those horses are in when they reach their destination. For the amount of horses in the US there should be a packing facility in every state. Of course all facilites should be inspected for the safe and humane treatment of the animals. No slaughterhouse operation is pretty, be it hogs, cattle or sheep, but the operation can be carried out in a safe and humane way,,, if the operation chooses to do so. What do you expect people to do with their horses when the time comes?
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Dick, I agree. Yes..I raise horses and I have several. I also have mares due next spring. I waited three years before breeding them again. It was a stupid mistake for the Government to shut down the houses. In our area in the past two years people have left their gates open to just let their horses run free or put them in other peoples pasture in the middle of the night unwanted. One horse was actually attacked by a wild cat in a ladies pasture who didn't even own horses. She went out one morning to find horses on her property and one had massive attack damage to it's head and neck.
My boyfriend always jokes that if God had not made animals tasty...he would have not made them meaty to eat.
Unfortunatly, horses througout the centuries have been bred to be a highly prided and beautiful animal. Used for trading in social standards or for items of use. Do people forget that technology has pushed the use of the horse back since cars were invented.
With the economy the way it is now it does make it harder to take care of these precious animals yes. But for what its worth I particularly don't want someone elses horses mingling in my pasture. Why not take them to the White House lawn?
Why don't they just open the houses for a couple months a year. Cull down the horses and regulate the breeding farms with only good registerd stock. Every county should have a rep that would go to each area and check on horse owners who have breeding stock. If you are a back yard breeder with no registered stud or mares you have to pay a fee to breed or have your stud cut. There are a ton of wonderful registered babies right now with papers you can get for next to nothing and still be able to show if that is the intention. Otherwise..Dont Breed!
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The captive bolt is not humane.
In fact, the captive bolt was tested for and meant to be
used for cattle and hogs, NOT HORSES. Horses are flight animals.
Just like the double deck trailers were built for hogs, sheep, and
cattle, not for horses.
All avenues are telling us we are not to be slaughtering
our horses or eating them.
Slaughter is not necessary. Euthanasia is a proper method when the time comes. It is the owners responsibility to prepare for
a horses end of the trail. Texas A & M reported back in 2006, the method of composting a horse. There are still render plants.
Dog food no longer has horse meat/ by products in it because of the unsafe meds that most horses are fed.
It is not the responsibility of our Government to find a solution to the horses the owners are having a hard time feeding in this economy.Horses are expensive animals to own.
The only way over breeding is going to stop, is to shut the gates so our horses no longer go for slaughter.
Isn't it strange the ones owning these horse slaughter plants were foreigners?
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I was born and raised around horses, tame and wild. I think it is appalling to think of using them for human consumption. I realize that something must be done. What about birth contorl. I know you can easily geld stallions , but it is to cost prohibitive to do surgery on mares, but why not the dreaded pill, or the equivalent. I believe we have caused this problem because we have taken any natural predators out of the picture. But mostly we have condensed their rangeland down so much that all they have to do is look across the field and they are bred. Before we ruined this picture the stallions were much fewer because of natural selection. Perhaps we humans should think more about birth control also.
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Want some photos to go with this story? You will find them at the link:
http://s38.photobucket.com/albums/e150/Hollandtech/NVF/
For those wondering if the problem was limited to Dallas Crown, you might find this video interesting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udbD6OeiUBY
It shows a Natural Valley Farms (horse slaughter plant in SK Canada) tanker truck dumping blood into the nearby river.
The above Photobucket album also shows piles of organs dumped in SK Canada near the Natural Valley Farms plant.
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Dick, you have fallen prey to pro slaughter propaganda. Over 94% of horses going to slaughter are young, fit and sound with an average age of 7. This can be verified with the USDA. It is illegal to send a crippled horse to slaughter. Think about the end product. They want healthy, meaty horses, not the old and sick. You asked what people should do. They should call their vet and have their animal humanely euthanized. Isn’t that all part of responsible ownership of any animal? Why on earth would you subject a sick animal to days or weeks of inhumane treatment?
Mr. Miller, I sent an email to Paula to let her know you are trying to contact her. The incidents did indeed occur and to this day, Dallas Crown still owes $180,000 in fines. I guess to some posters on here, the CONFIRMED blood running in the streets is misinformation but false information on land ownership is information. Go figure!
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Blood in the streets!
http://kaufmanzoning.net/Photos/102_0252.JPG (copy and paste in browser)
It was Mary Nash who owned property near the plant. A lot of the property has since been sold the the Babtist church.
Why is it that the pro horse killers tend to purposely get the facts wrong?
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My sister has lived in Richardson,Texas for many years.
She was ashamed of the horse slaughter plant in Kaufman.
She often mentioned how hard the mayor ( at the time) worked
to get them to close the plant for the fines and also for the health conditions the slaughter plant created for the local area.
She would mention the smell, and the fact residents had horse
"sewage" coming up in their bath tubs, and all the sewage
problems they had to put up with.
She was not proud of the fact this plant continued, and that
a Senator there would be on a Political commercial with a horse
but the fact was this senator did not support the anti-horse
slaughter bills.
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This IS my understnding, that the slaughter plants in the US and Canada were shut down for environmental reasons. There IS no safe way to dispose of the blood, despite what regulations are in place, and there are gallons and gallons of it. It's not even fit for dog food because of all the drug residues in it. (http://copland.udel.edu/~kniel/VirtualFarm/Templates/horses.htm)
And people EAT the meat! I sure hope they say grace first.
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Horses are not raised for food in the United States. The non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) drug, phenylbutazone (bute), is the most popular drug used by horse owners for musculoskeletal injuries.
In a recent poll, horse owners were asked what they use for pain. The overwhelming response (85% with over 1,000 responders) was bute. This is understandable as bute is a powerful drug and it's CHEAP.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) bans bute in any horse sent to slaughter for human consumption because of the dangerous side effects. At this time, no agency of the Federal Government is removing horses given bute from the slaughter pipeline. So, contaminated horsemeat is being sent overseas as we speak.
Many people want the "govmint" to get off their backs. Well, the "govmint" has been off people's back but do horse owners send their horses to slaughter that have been given bute?
Here is what a pro-slaughter horse trainer said:
"As for bute, it leaves the system very quickly. Generally, for purposes of competition, and the drug testing that they do on horses for that, you can count on it being undetectable in 3 days, and always by 7 days, even when the horse has been on bute for a long time. As I understand it these tests are very precise and detect very minute amounts.
Clearly, the answer is yes.
Bute is a banned drug. There is NO withdrawal period. It doesn't matter whether the horses are held for 4 or 180 days, there is NO withdrawal period for bute because it is a banned drug.
Question: Would all of you who support horse slaughter in the US want to eat contaminated meat? Guess what? The Europeans and Asians who are eating horsemeat derived from horses from the US are eating bute (as we speak) and don't even know it.
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I gave up eating meat about seven years ago. I believe that the world is made up or things that fall into one of these three categories: animal, vegetable, or mineral. Therefore, humans would be classed as animal. Now killing and eating other animals, in my mind, constitutes murder and canabilism. ANY ANIMAL. It is THE SAME as killing and eating the flesh of any other animal, including that of another human. So stop eating animals!
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I present a weekly animal issues programme on 2NimFm Nimbin Australia. I gave up eating meat nearly seven years ago.
I believe that the world is made up of things falling into one of three categories: Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral. If this is the case then humans must be animals.
Eating HORSES? Isn't that the same as eating the flesh of ANY OTHER ANIMAL, INCLUDING EATING HUMANS?
I believe that eating flest is actually murder and canabalism. After all, we humans are just animals!!
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I present a weekly animal issues radio programme on 2NimFm Nimbin Australia. I stopped eating meat seven years ago.
Science puts the things on our planet into three categorys: Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral. Humans therefore would classify as animals. Just another animal!
Now, the eating of HORSE meat? If we are just another animal, doesn't that mean that eating the flesh of ANY ANIMAL is really MURDER and CANABALISM??? Is it right to eat any flesh? Isn't eating a horse, cow, or lamb the same as eating human flesh?
I believe that we ought to think about what we are doing, and cease flesh eating.
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Comments are now closed.
David,
Thank you very much for doing this. This shows the severity of the misinformation that the animal rights groups use. Also the former Mayor there has land that she wanted to develope right next to the plant. Buy low, put a campaign together to shut down an unpopular business, then develope and sell high? Thats my opinion of what happened.
The plant there was old, there should have been upgrades and new systems put in place, but there was a very strategic plan involved here with alot of money behind it.