(August 10, 2006) - Just days after a committee of the
U.S. House of Representatives tried to kill legislation aimed at
curtailing commercial horse slaughter in the United States, a
Mississippi man hauling 19 horses to a Texas slaughterhouse has
been charged with animal cruelty involving horses in Arkansas.
Bryan Morgan of Belmont, MS was charged with five counts of
animal cruelty under Arkansas state law in Texarkana this week
after eyewitness testimony, photographs and video showed 19
horses being transported in a single trailer to the BelTex
slaughterhouse in Fort Worth were badly injured and abused.
"This only further demonstrates the immediate need for my
legislation to be passed and signed into law,” said Rep. John
Sweeney (R-NY), who with Rep. John Spratt (D-SC) and Rep. Ed
Whitfield (R-KY) is leading the fight to outlaw horse slaughter.
“This is a perfect example of why I am so committed to seeing an
end to this brutal practice as quickly as possible."
Although it is what one congressional witness, Texas oilman
T. Boone Pickens, called “America’s dirty little secret,” some
90,000 horses are hauled to three U.S. slaughterhouses in Texas
and Illinois each year and butchered for human consumption, with
the meat exported to Europe and Asia and sold as a delicacy in
high end restaurants.
“If there were any doubt that the horse
slaughter industry leads to cruelty and abuse of horses, this
erases it with graphic reality,” said Chris Heyde, deputy
legislative director of the Society
for Animal Protective Legislation (SAPL), based in Washington,
D.C. The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (H.R.
503) is scheduled to be voted on by the House of Representatives
in early September.
In the Arkansas case, Morgan picked up the horses in
Mississippi and was driving to Fort Worth when the trailer he
was pulling blew two tires and forced him to stop in Texarkana
for repairs. Employees at the shop called local police
after noticing several horses had abrasions and marks across
their faces and bodies, including one with facial gashes and
swollen eyes.
“It looked like someone took a baseball bat and beat the hell
out of the horse,” said Greg Fett, manager of GCR Tires in
Texarkana.
Twenty citations for animal cruelty were initially written by
local police, after which Morgan was allowed to drive the horses
on to the slaughterhouse. This incident illustrates how
woefully inadequate the regulations of the United States
Department of Agriculture (USDA) are in ensuring the humane
treatment of horses being transported to slaughter facilities.
“The local police in Texarkana were particularly diligent in
this situation,” said SAPL legal counsel Tracy Silverman.
“Often we just never hear about these cases and thankfully
responsible citizens alerted authorities to the severely injured
animals.”
At a hearing before the House Agriculture Committee on July
28, Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) condemned the legislation that
would stop commercial horse slaughter as an unwarranted
intrusion on the rights of horse owners. The committee
allowed the bill to go to the House floor for a vote, but only
after deriding it as unnecessary and unfair to horse owners.
SAPL will assist in the prosecution of Morgan and is filing a
formal complaint with the USDA against Robbie Solomon of
Belmont, MS, the owner and shipper of the horses, for violating
several federal regulations regarding the commercial
transportation of horses to slaughter.
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For More Information or Photos Contact:
Alex Howe, Fenton Communications
(202) 822-5200
Chris Heyde, SAPL Deputy Legislative Director
(703) 836-4300
The Society for Animal Protective
Legislation, the Animal Welfare Institute's legislative arm, is
the unsurpassed leader in obtaining laws to benefit animals in
need, including the protection of domestic and wild horses. More
information is available at
http://www.saplonline.org/horses.htm
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