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Kevin B. Blackistone is a sports columnist for The Dallas Morning News.
E-mail: kblackistone@dallasnews.com (please thank him!)
First step finally taken toward abolishing horse slaughter in U.S. Saturday, November 12, 2005
Another Breeders' Cup passed by late last month in New York, pushing Lone Star Park's hosting of
horse racing's Super Bowl of sorts in 2004 further into the recess of history. It won't be long
before Ghostzapper's exciting romp to victory against a loaded field in the Classic last November
is all but forgotten. The first Breeders' Cup held in Texas may not, however, wind up without a
legacy that outlives every Breeders' Cup that came before it and all those that come after it.
That became a very real possibility Thursday, when President Bush signed the 2006 Agriculture
Appropriations bill HR2744.
Among the amendments in the bill was one that could shut down in the United States the absolutely
sickening business of slaughtering horses ? including some that once were raced for our entertainment
for human consumption. "It's a great thing," trainer Nick Zito rejoiced on Friday. "Even in the Good
Book it says, 'Hold back those from slaughter.' Right?" What makes the practice especially despicable
is that the three U.S. plants that butcher horses for human dinner plates, two of which are in this
area's back yard (in Kaufman and Fort Worth; the third plant is in Illinois), do so for overseas markets
in which horsemeat is considered a delicacy. Eating horsemeat in the U.S. is taboo. But a dedicated group
of true horse lovers in North Texas, led by Dallas oilman and thoroughbred owner John Murrell, refused
last year to let the Breeders' Cup come and go from Lone Star Park without race and track officials
acknowledging the appalling activity in their midst that threatened to give horse racing, the marquee
of the equine industry, a black eye. They persuaded organizers to hold a news conference denouncing
the horse slaughter industry and promoting thoroughbred retirement associations. They persuaded the
park to give them space on race day for a kiosk that dispensed information on saving horses from a
horrific end. Despite saying that they were against horse slaughter, a lot of people associated with
Lone Star didn't care for the protesters and people like me who supported their cause. They felt this
ugly little matter should've been kept in the trailer until the grand event they'd worked so hard to
get left town. Indeed, Grand Prairie Mayor Charles England suggested in a letter to The Dallas Morning
News that he didn't see the connection between the race at a park, sandwiched between two of the country's
three horse slaughter plants, and the issue of horse slaughter. Of course, it only made for the perfect
platform for those truly concerned about the welfare of animals at which we marvel and celebrate in
history, folklore and beyond. It was a message not lost on such significant politicians as Republican
Senator John Ensign of Nevada, Republican Congressman John Sweeney of New York, Democratic Senator
Robert Byrd of West Virginia and Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, among others, all of
whom picked up the battle cry to save horses, nothing less than national icons, from butchering. What
wound up on the president's desk this week wasn't the ban forevermore on horse slaughter for which so
many concerned people hoped. The amendment merely stripped the U.S. Department of Agriculture of funding
to inspect the three slaughterhouses and only for the next year. Without inspections, however, the
slaughterhouses can't do business. And the amendment survived only after Texas Republican Congressman
Henry Bonilla in San Antonio, going against bipartisan support and public revulsion, managed to get a
120-day grace period included, giving the slaughterhouses time to respond. As a result, the amendment
won't go into effect until February. But with most everyone in Washington signed off on it, including the
president, the path is clear for passage of the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, which would
permanently abolish any aspect in this country of producing horsemeat for human consumption. It would
outlaw transporting, possessing, purchasing or selling of horses for human food. "A 120-day delay to
the amendment's enactment is a nasty curveball thrown by Representative Henry Bonilla and other conferees
who didn't have the backbone to vote on the record by name," Trina Bellak, the American Horse Defense
Fund founder and president, charged in a prepared statement. "Despite the efforts by the opposition,
the ... killing will end March 10th. The American Horse Defense Fund is going to make that the Day of
the Horse." An appropriate stage for that announcement would be Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, the
springboard for change.
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