Horse processing is a private property issue, Stenholm says

[MrsSmith]

The Straight Story  (1000+ posts)        Thu Dec-25-08 08:10 PM
Original message

Horse processing is a private property issue, Stenholm says

 Advertisements [?]Horse processing is a private property issue, Stenholm says

By Doug Rich

Former Congressman Charles Stenholm said the horse slaughter issue is a private property issue. Stenholm spoke on the horse processing issue at the Kansas Livestock Association annual convention held Dec. 4 and 5 in Wichita, Kan. No matter how a person feels about horse processing, Stenholm said no one has the right to tell another person what to do with their private property.

The horse slaughter issue is a private property issue according to former U.S. Rep. Charles Stenholm, D-TX, who was a featured speaker at the 96th annual Kansas Livestock Association convention held Dec. 4 and 5 in Wichita, Kan.

Stenholm said he has become the unofficial spokesperson for this controversial issue after working with over 200 horse and livestock associations. Stenholm said most people in the livestock industry know that horses are livestock and that something has to be done with unwanted horses.

"We have tried to make it clear to those horse owners that do not believe their horses should be processed and consumed in another country--for human consumption--that we agree with them that their horse is private property," Stenholm said. "No one should tell you what to do with your private property, other than treat it humanely," Stenholm said.

...

"We need to at least counter the Humane Society and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) with their view of the world, which is perfectly honest from their point of view, and I accept that," Stenholm said. "I respect the right of people to differ with my opinion."

...

Stenholm said if people want to classify horses as pets then they should be ready for Congress to take away the tax deductions for horses as livestock. If horses are no longer livestock, what is the basis for a tax deduction as a business expense?

When Congress passed the ban that closed the last three horse processing plants in this country, Stenholm said they were warned about the problem of what to do with all of the unwanted horses. There are 120,000 unwanted horses in this country and that number grows by 4,000 to 5,000 head a year, according to Stenholm. It is costing taxpayers $50 million a year to maintain feedlots full of unwanted horses. Even horse sanctuaries are full and running out of money.

http://www.hpj.com//archives/2008/dec08/dec22/Horseproc...

 

flvegan  (1000+ posts)        Thu Dec-25-08 08:13 PM
Response to Original message
1. Guess he'd advocate dog "processing" and slaughter for meat
 to export to other countries. He should try taking that one up.
 
==============

 sandnsea  (1000+ posts)      Thu Dec-25-08 08:17 PM
Response to Reply #1
3. But you know what
 Maybe we should, when you think that 6 million children a year die from starvation.

=============


 
 LeftyMom  (1000+ posts)        Thu Dec-25-08 08:24 PM
Response to Reply #3
4. By that token, maybe you should quit eating meat. 
 It takes many pounds of corn/soy/wheat to grow one pound of edible animal flesh, so if you cared about starving kids you'd go vegan and free up some food. See how that works?

Actually it's bullshit either way, there's already more than enough food, the problem is poor distribution due to a ****ed up economic system. 

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LWolf  (1000+ posts)        Thu Dec-25-08 08:27 PM
Response to Reply #1
5. That's EXACTLY what I was about to post, 
 until I read your response.

The horses out in my barn aren't "livestock." They aren't "pets."

They are partners, and family members...

>>>
I'd process Stenholm to feed the rare and endangered cats in breeding programs before I'd process horses to feed anyone.

===============


LWolf  (1000+ posts)        Thu Dec-25-08 08:57 PM
Response to Reply #8
9. The older I get,
 the harder it becomes to justify eating creatures even when I present myself as predator.

It seems like making sure that your food is not your friend is the first ethical line in the sand. We can evolve further, and I hope we do.

I live rurally, and am surrounded by people who raise their own meat. None of them attempt to bond in any way with a creature they will eat. And, of course, those creatures, while short-lived, have a better quality of life out in a pasture than those who exist in factory farms do.

In the big picture, feeding 6+billion people, the vast majority who cannot raise their own food, indicates a need to leave meat behind.

=================

 
 
 flvegan  (1000+ posts)        Thu Dec-25-08 09:06 PM
Response to Reply #9
10. Agreed.
 Part of why I'm vegan.
 

This thoughtful thread is brought to you by the "loving and tolerant" folks who support the murder of over a million US children every year.

 
 

sandnsea  (1000+ posts)      Thu Dec-25-08 08:16 PM
Response to Original message
2. Privacy rights don't extend to animal abuse 
 They don't extend to my uterus either, according to these asshats, but I don't expect them to get the irony any time soon.

 

Speaking of  irony...   

[thundley4]

LWolf  (1000+ posts)        Thu Dec-25-08 08:27 PM
Response to Reply #1
5. That's EXACTLY what I was about to post, 
 until I read your response.

The horses out in my barn aren't "livestock." They aren't "pets."

They are partners, and family members...

We knew that gay marriage thing was a slippery slope, but who knew that some DUmmies had slid to the bottom and bestiality already. 

[DumbAss Tanker]

Well, what Stenhom said was perfectly sound.  The idea that killing an animal quickly and cleanly is "abuse" because we don't like the reason or the particular means is a retarded feature of our culture.  For instance, shooting rats or pigeons that are nuisances has been prosecuted as "abuse" in NJ, but in the same jurisdictions it's perfectly okay to poison the little buggers.  Go figure.

[BlueStateSaint]

Well, what Stenhom said was perfectly sound.  The idea that killing an animal quickly and cleanly is "abuse" because we don't like the reason or the particular means is a retarded feature of our culture.  For instance, shooting rats or pigeons that are nuisances has been prosecuted as "abuse" in NJ, but in the same jurisdictions it's perfectly okay to poison the little buggers.  Go figure.

I've posed this question to anti-hunters . . .

Deer are going to die, no matter what's done.  Which is a more humane way of dying--having a bullet fly through your lungs and bleeding to death in about a minute; having most of your major bones in your body broken by a speeding truck, then crawling away to bleed to death an hour later; being ripped apart and eaten alive by a pack of coyote-wolf-dog animals over the course of a few hours; starving to death over the course of several weeks?  Choose wisely.

That pretty much ends the conversation, with said anti-hunter stammering.

[MrsSmith]

Well, what Stenhom said was perfectly sound.  The idea that killing an animal quickly and cleanly is "abuse" because we don't like the reason or the particular means is a retarded feature of our culture.  For instance, shooting rats or pigeons that are nuisances has been prosecuted as "abuse" in NJ, but in the same jurisdictions it's perfectly okay to poison the little buggers.  Go figure.

If unborn humans had a small portion of the protection horses, dogs, cats, cattle, etc. have in this country, there would be no abortion industry.  It never ceases to amaze me how these "people" place so much importance on animals.  I love my pets, and I'll go out of my way to help an injured or needy animal...but I'd do far more for ANY child. 

[Carl]

If unborn humans had a small portion of the protection horses, dogs, cats, cattle, etc. have in this country, there would be no abortion industry.  It never ceases to amaze me how these "people" place so much importance on animals.  I love my pets, and I'll go out of my way to help an injured or needy animal...but I'd do far more for ANY child. 

Genesis 1:26-28 (King James Version)


 26And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

 27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

 28And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.


Kind of understandable given the lord they choose to follow.

[BlueStateSaint]

If unborn humans had a small portion of the protection horses, dogs, cats, cattle, etc. have in this country, there would be no abortion industry.  It never ceases to amaze me how these "people" place so much importance on animals.  I love my pets, and I'll go out of my way to help an injured or needy animal...but I'd do far more for ANY child. 

Definitely H5-worthy.

[FlaGator]

sandnsea  (1000+ posts)      Thu Dec-25-08 08:16 PM
Response to Original message
2. Privacy rights don't extend to animal abuse 
 They don't extend to my uterus either, according to these asshats, but I don't expect them to get the irony any time soon.

If sandnsea finds the need for abortions perhaps her uterus isn't as private as she'd have us believe.

[TheSarge]

LWolf  (1000+ posts)        Thu Dec-25-08 08:27 PM
Response to Reply #1
5. That's EXACTLY what I was about to post, 
 until I read your response.

The horses out in my barn aren't "livestock." They aren't "pets."

They are partners, and family members...

Uh-huh.  Sounds to me like the ASPCA needs to come out and check out what you're doing in that barn with the horses.

[BlueStateSaint]

Uh-huh.  Sounds to me like the ASPCA needs to come out and check out what you're doing in that barn with the horses.

It also sounds like a chapter of the NAHDLA (North American Horse-DUmb**** Love Association) is starting there.

[TheSarge]

It also sounds like a chapter of the NAHDLA (North American Horse-DUmb**** Love Association) is starting there.

Hi5

[USA4ME]

LWolf

The older I get, the harder it becomes to justify eating creatures even when I present myself as predator.

It seems like making sure that your food is not your friend is the first ethical line in the sand. We can evolve further, and I hope we do.

Yes comrades!!  It's time we evolve further!!!!

All products are symbols of oppression. Therefore, we should possess nothing and live in caves and eat plants even though they don't like to be eaten and not talk to each other because all oppression begins when two people communicate. We will then be pure and world peace will arrive.
 
Long live the revolution! Long live ideological purity. Long live those who refuse to sell out. We shall inherit the dirt of the earth and revert back to apes.
 
Oh, excuse me, "revert" is a politically incorrect term, an example of specie-ism gone amok. Hopefully, the apes will eat us and put an end to the human race which has done nothing but cause trouble.
 
Long live mass suicide! Long live the absolutely unfettered and pure liberalism that recognizes that life itself is an act of oppression since no creature can survive without eating another and freedom will not reign until the earth is a cold lifeless rock floating aimlessly through space.

.

[TheSarge]

LWolf

The older I get, the harder it becomes to justify eating creatures even when I present myself as predator.

*ahem*

Genesis 1:28-30


1:28  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

1:29  And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

1:30  And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.




Just sayin....

[jukin]

All of what a DUmmy believes relates to the fact that they are life's losers.  If there are no winners then they can feel better about living in mom & pop's basement while being the most talented and giftedest people to have ever walked the earth.

[EastFacingNorth]

I love my dogs more than I love most people.  They're definitely family members.  Outside of a starvation situation, I'd never eat them.  But the only thing that keeps me from eating other dogs is the prevailing notion that the meat of carnivores tastes awful.  That, plus availability issues.

Horseflesh, on the other hand, I already know to be absolutely delicious.  Now, if I had a horse, and if I were as close to that horse as I am to my mutts, I doubt I'd eat it other than by necessity - but any other horse is fine for my dinner table, IMO.

[Wineslob]

*ahem*

Genesis 1:28-30


1:28  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

1:29  And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

1:30  And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.[/b]




Just sayin....

Funnny how that works..........................

[BlueStateSaint]

Funnny how that works..........................

That's tofurkey! 

[JohnnyReb]

It is costing taxpayers $50 million a year to maintain feedlots full of unwanted horses.

The amount of money the Representatives and Senators spend to get a few bleeding heart votes is getting rediculous.

....and the bleeding hearts haven't stopped to think how much grain is used to feed the horses or how much meat there is on the hoof that the hungry could eat. ...or the methane gas damage to the atmosphere ......or damage done to runoff water from the pens. ....or how much oil is used to transport, feed and maintain those animals. .....or the cost of slaries, health ins. and retirements of those government employees. ......or the paper and electricity used to keep records etc.. ....or .....or.... ah hell! liberals just don't think. 

[morningAngel]

because people who had to be "cowboys" when they moved to NV bought expensive horses, found out how pricey hay, grain, vet bills, stable bills, etc are, have now started to let their horses "back to nature" in the valleys out here where the wild horses run.  The wild horses will NOT adopt a stray abandoned horse, and a grain fed stabled horse has NO clue how to live off mesquite and sagebrush, these horses are starving to death all across the valleys.     We can't ship them off to the slaughter house to have them put down quickly, instead they linger until some rancher checking his cattle has mercy enough to put them out of their misery.  But its just so much more freaking humane now that we don't allow horses to be slaughtered in the states.  As the coyotes tear at their hunger weakened limbs, their bodies so starved they cannot run or even kick back, only stand there and be torn alive, those horse are saved the indignity of having a bullet to the head in a slaughter house.