browser icon
You are using an insecure version of your web browser. Please update your browser!
Using an outdated browser makes your computer unsafe. For a safer, faster, more enjoyable user experience, please update your browser today or try a newer browser.

Horse Meat Processing Advocate Admits Defeat

Posted by on June 26, 2013

Processing Advocate Admits Defeat, For Now June 24, 2013 Dusty and Bay Play 2 4 inchesBy Steven Long HOUSTON, (Horseback) – In a statement to supporters, horse slaughter gadfly Dave Duquette all but admitted defeat after committees in both houses of Congress stripped funding from bills that would pay federal meat inspectors in horse slaughterhouses.

An evidently forlorn Duquette, president of the pro slaughter United Horsemen, wrote: “Last week was a legislative roller coaster ride for the horse industry. While we were successful in preventing an amendment to the Farm Bill banning horse slaughter, the next day the Senate Appropriations Committee voted for Senator Mary Landrieu’s (D-LA) slaughter ban as Amendment to the Agriculture Appropriations Bill (FY14).” Duquette’s longtime associate in the fight to bring legal horse slaughter back to the domestic meat business, Wyoming Rep. Sue Wallis, didn’t issue a companion statement and has been quiet on the issue for weeks.

“This means that there are Amendments banning horse slaughter on both the House and Senate Appropriations Bill,” Duquette continued. Horseback has learned that equine welfare advocates mounted a quiet campaign to include the funding prohibition in this year’s agriculture legislation. The campaign to prevent slaughterhouses from opening allegedly reached inside the Oval Office. “

Horse owners and the Horse Industry did speak up and their voices were heard loud and clear in both Congressional Committees,” said Vicki Tobin, vice president of the Chicago based Equine Welfare Alliance in a posting to Horseback late Monday. The vote was in both Senate and House appropriations committees with Duquette understating the disaster to his side saying, “The vote in the Senate Appropriations Committee did not go as we had planned or hoped…”

The Oregon horseman continued saying, “but all is not lost. There are strategies for Congress currently being planned with our horse industry team, and we all need to bear in mind that a change in the political climate is forthcoming in 2014…” Duquette claims he speaks for the entire horse industry, a claim countered by his opponents. The small, secretive, group closes its Facebook page to outside comment. It does not reveal either its financial position or names of contributors. “United Horsemen plans make certain that those changes mean that we have representation in Washington, D.C. that votes with the horse industry, not against the horse industry,” Duquette said. “The Anti-Horse/Pro-Slaughter side continues to blur reality and misrepresent the truth as they beat the “horse industry” drum in their efforts to slaughter American horses. Horse slaughter has nothing to do with the horse industry but instead everything to do with the meat industry,” said author and wild horse advocate R.T. Fitch. He also serves as founder and President of the Wild Horse Freedom Federation.

A decade of polling on the issue of horse slaughter for human consumption consistently reveals American public opinion has gone overwhelmingly against what Duquette claims is his “industry.” In the most recent poll by the respected Washington political polling firm headed by Celinda Lake, 80 percent were opposed. Duquette admitted the perilous position his side now finds themselves in. “Right now it feels like we are in a tight spot. Surrounded, if you will,” he wrote. Duquette ruefully acknowledged he and his colleague Wyoming State Representative Sue Wallis face a long and lonely fight if they choose to continue. “

This campaign to restore the viability of the horse industry, as well as the welfare of horses, is a campaign we need to view as a marathon, not a sprint. We will probably be in the battle against the activists for the rest of our lives.” Throughout the long and bitter fight between proponents of horse slaughter and equine advocates, both Duquette and Wallis have painted their opponents as affluent, elitist, and largely vegan.

In a final effort to perpetuate the impression that the diverse unorganized groups that make up his opposition, he added, “When truth is on your side, you don’t need $150 million a year to make a difference.” Anti slaughter advocates consist of many small groups and the vast animal welfare agencies, the Humane Society of the United States and the ASPCA.

Comments are closed.