Horse Abuse in Transport to Slaughter

MAN HAULING HORSES TO SLAUGHTER CHARGED
WITH ANIMAL CRUELTY
Badly beaten, abused horses stopped in Arkansas
Congress to act on bill to stop horse slaughter in September ©Dixie Wilson/ARTEX

One of the horses with severe
facial and head injuries.
(additional photos - Warning Graphic)


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(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.
http://www.saplonline.org/news/texarkana.htm

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Horses
• Beaten
• before
• transport
• to
• slaughter

[xxgamexmomxx]

What I would liek to know is WHY do we slaughter horses??? Do people eat them or something?? I thought we have new ways of making glue! So why slaughter them? They are too beautiful to slaughter!!!!

[dougsgirl63]

They sell our American horses to the French and Belgium companies who sell their meat to people in Asia,Japan and the UK as horse flesh is a delecasy over there.People eat it.....

[logiko22]

im sorry 2 say but im from norway and i do eat horses some time but i try not 2 but if i knew that those 1 i bougth it from was doing that then i wud not buy any thing from them

[dougsgirl63]

Is you horse meat from America?I only ask because i would love to show you what the USDA approves for you to eat.Our horses are allowed to have cofggins possitive,strangles etc and they still approve the meat for over seas human consumtion.Coggins is our version of H.I.V.

[hopehunter101]

I hate those F***ING people that do that to them......!!!!!!!!!!Maybe WE should just Cram all the horse abusers and the pepole that kill them all into a horse float and beat them like they did those helpless horses.i live for horses and hate to see what they do to them.Fuck u dicks.HORSES CANT SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES SO LETS SPEACK FOR THEM WHOEVERS AGAINST HORSE ABUSE AND SLAUGHTER

[appaloosa720]

Thats horrible.well at least these days in america..people that get charged for animal abuse and cruelty have worser consequences than that if they murdered someone.More and more people are finally,slowly but finally being aware of the abuse that horses like these are getting and the law is finally doing something about it!

[abbyevelyn]

@JessicaLovesZayne Amen!!!!!!!!

[JessicaLovesZayne]

Okay that man needs to be beaten too, thats so sad, and we need to stop slaughter there is no pointtt. This made me cry, i feel like slaping all of these people in the face as hard as i can

[billfunky]

thats the way she goes

[gamblinjranch]

We should just drop all the un wanted horses off in the peoples yards that think that horses should not be killed. It's better than standing in someone back yard and straving to death. They all can't be saved and now horses that are sick or hurt, take the place of a horse that could have made a differnce in someones life.

[charmed6057]

I completely agree. But like any other animal, humans need to be the predator sometimes toward cows and what not. I'm not trying to say anything bad here, I completely disagree with slaughter, and people should be aware of the cruelty that goes through factories. (vegetarian here) But sometimes I have to remind myself humans are omnivores who need other resources rather than just leaves and dairy. But, yeah, I agree with you nonetheless.

[charmed6057]

How dare you write something like that. Americans probably have a better understanding of horses then anywhere else. The "man" who did this to these magnificent creatures should not even be on this planet.

Many Americans love horses(I love horses)and would kill anyone who hurt an innocent life. So how dare you come along and discriminate against thousands of Americans who actually care. I admit America really doesn't have that much compassion a lot of times, but there are good people here to.

[appaloosa720]

Thats horrible.well at least these days in america..people that get charged for animal abuse and cruelty have worser consequences than that if they murdered someone.More and more people are finally,slowly but finally being aware of the abuse that horses like these are getting and the law is finally doing something about it!

[HorsesAndNatiee]

Thats so bad i couldnt even watch the rest that 'man' that did that to those poor horses should have his head hooked to the back of a speeding car.