Manes & Tails Organization
Summer 2007 Newsletter
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'Willow' is our latest rescue.
She is an 8 year old registered Thoroughbred mare who raced
once, was a broodmare for a few seasons, then went out into
the world. Willow's board is being sponsored by some of the
Fans of Barbaro, members of the National Equine Rescue
Coalition, and a good friend.
Willow has been
schooled in both Dressage and Hunter/Jumper and she will be
free
leased according to what her preference is regarding
disciplines. Willow will choose her 'new' person, and her new
person
will be very happy with her. Willow will not leave the state of
New Jersey per our free lease
contract.
Section 123 of the 2007
Farm Bill Section 123 of the 2007 Farm bill
essentially takes away state's rights regarding all things
considered Agriculture. That includes horse slaughter. An
excerpt
from a report by The Center for Food Safety. "Forty consumer,
environmental, farmer and animal welfare groups today
announced their opposition to a sweeping provision in the 2007
Farm Bill that wipes out critical state and local authority to
protect food safety, the environment, and humane animal
treatment. The provision, Section 123 of Title I, was quietly
inserted in the House bill several weeks ago by the Livestock,
Dairy, and Poultry Subcommittee.
"At a time when we have seen repeated food safety failures at
FDA and USDA, we need more food safety protection, not
less," states Jean Halloran, Director of Food Policy Initiatives at
Consumers Union (publisher of Consumer Reports). "This
clause would tie the hands of states on meat, poultry and
genetically engineered food," she said.
Section 123 would prevent states and localities from passing
any laws prohibiting commercial use of USDA-inspected
products. "This could prevent a local health inspector at a
supermarket from condemning rodent-contaminated meat or
poultry that has begun to go bad," states Jean Halloran.
"Section 123 will subvert the principles of federalism and
states' rights," states Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the
Humane Society of the United States. "If this appalling and
outrageous measure is approved, agribusiness will accomplish
what it could not achieve in state legislatures - the
evisceration of state laws to protect horses from
slaughter and a
raft of other democratically approved animal welfare
reforms."
"This poorly conceived provision should be dropped
immediately," states Mendelson. "Just in the last several months
we
have seen problems with melamine in animal feed and ground
beef contaminated with E. coli. Section 123 takes us
backwards by removing existing protections we have at the state
and local level. We need increased, not decreased food
safety efforts," he said."
In addition to calling your
members of Congress (once please), you may engage in a bit of
'slactivism' by signing the petition located on this page of the Organic
Consumers Association. This page has the names and
contact information for the sub-committee members for calls and
faxing, and click on the 'take action' link to sign the
petition.
Of course the reason there is such a strong pro-slaughter
movement for all equids is due to Mad Cow disease and
countries
such as Japan being loathe to accept American beef. Horses and
their cousins do not develop such diseases, however, they
are loaded with drugs the labels of which are clearly marked
'Not for use on animals intended for human consumption.'
USDA does not care about that. Neither does Cavel
International.
Cavel Lawsuit
U.S. District Judge Frederick J.
Kapala
Source: The News
Journal
Excerpt: On June 1, U.S. District Judge Frederick J.
Kapala granted Cavel International Inc., of DeKalb, Ill., a
temporary restraining order, keeping the horse slaughterhouse's
doors open as it challenges a new state law that would put
the company out of business for good.
In his ruling, the judge said the plaintiffs stood "a better than
negligible likelihood of success" -- which falls short of a good
chance -- of sustaining its claim that restricting the export of
horse meat would violate the Foreign Commerce Clause of the
U.S. Constitution.
The judge was moved by Cavel's notice that in the five days
after the law became effective on May 24, the slaughterhouse
laid off 54 of its 63 employees and lost more than $350,000 in
revenue. The company's payroll exceeds $2 million per year,
and it pays more than $200,000 in annual taxes. End of
excerpt.
On June 28, 2007 Judge Kapela denied Cavel's motion to extend the temporary restraing order:
Source: The Daily Chronicle
"On June 1, 2007, this court found that plaintiffs demonstrated a
likelihood of success on the merits under the “better than
negligible chance of succeeding” standard. Since that time,
however, the court has conducted a trial on the merits, and
considered the arguments and briefs of the parties and amici.
Having done so, this court no longer believes that plaintiffs have
shown a strong or even negligible likelihood of succeeding on
the merits of the action pending before this court. Therefore,
plaintiffs have not satisfied the first part of the applicable four
part test and their motion is denied."
Lobbying 101
We do not endear ourselves to Congressional
aides or their bosses with faxing campaigns and call in days.
The Senate, where we need the most support to get horse
slaughter banned, absolutely detests these tactics. At least one
lobbyist who
went to DC this past week, was literally thrown out of the
House and Senate buildings. Such behavior is detrimental to the
horses and those engaged in calling and faxing ad nauseum are
simply wasting their time and money.
If anyone
thinks that the congressional aides are not aware of when these
campaigns are going to transpire, think again. Not one single
horse protection forum has not been infiltrated by the pro-
slaughter faction. The aides simply turn the fax machines off and
the party answering the phone never relays the messages -
especially when their Senator or Representative does not
support
the bill.
Additionally, Senators and Representatives whom have already
co-sponsored the legislation do NOT need to be contacted
again. You can check if your one Representative and two
Senators have co-sponsored their bills by clicking here for HR 503 and here for S.311.
For a change of
pace, enjoy some beautiful videos of 'Rags to
Riches' Belmont victory, the incredible Australian horse 'Phar
Lap', British champions 'Red Rum' and 'Desert Orchid' among
others. Videos can be downloaded by right clicking on the
link,or viewed locally by clicking on the link. Depending upon
your internet connection, the videos will not play until they are
downloaded. Just click 'play' on your media player. All files
are mpgs. Enjoy!
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