18 March 2007 - Vol. # 20
Volunteers
Needed **
Help Mayor **
Horse Slaughter
**
Horse-Carriage Accident in S. C.
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
tabling and research
Our
tabling efforts on Sunday were very successful. We got a lot of
signatures on our petitions -- it is good to be back. Besides the
core group, several new people joined the effort. Thanks to all of
you. Next week we will be tabling on Saturday, March 24th. We
need volunteers to help us get signatures on petitions to the Mayor
and City Council -- and to hold posters. This is not a demonstration
but an educational event. It is an excellent opportunity to help the
horses and get to see how supportive both tourists and New Yorkers
are. You can volunteer for one hour or four. We need to know when
you will be there so we are sure to have coverage. Please contact
Teresa at verush@aol.com if you can volunteer.
WHEN: Saturday, March 24, 2007 WHERE: near Central
Park South - information will be given to volunteers. TIME:
1-5 PM
RESEARCH NEEDED: If you cannot make it to our tabling
events, we also need help with research - with some of the city
agencies such as the Department of Buildings - and general Internet
research on specific topics. You will need a computer and a few
hours to spare per week. If this sounds like something that
interests you, please contact me at coalitionbanhdc@gmail.com
HELP TEXAS MAYOR
IN HORSE SLAUGHTER TOWN
Opinion Piece by Steve Rei, Esq.*
Dear
Friends Against Horse Slaughter: Mayor Paula Bacon of Kaufman,
Texas has been one of the true leaders opposing horse slaughter. Her
term will expire in May, but she knows her work is not finished and
is working hard on her re-election campaign. Supporters of the horse
slaughter plant funded efforts to defeat her in her last
re-election. She needs our financial help.
Mayor Bacon has been on a number of national news networks and
numerous radio and TV stations telling of the horror of horse
slaughter and the stigma it has brought to her town. Instead of
growing in prosperity as many communities surrounding Dallas are
doing, Kaufman is simply known as, "That place where they kill
horses." Mayor Bacon has led the city in repeated efforts to stop
the horse slaughter plant's numerous violations to the expensive
sewer system, and to control the plant's stench that falls over the
town. When the plant ignored these efforts, she asked the City
Council to declare Dallas Crown a "nuisance," to, in effect, close
them down. These efforts, as so many other efforts, have been
stopped by a myriad of lawyers throwing paper at the court system
Mayor Bacon has fought beside us for years. As an elected
official, she is perhaps the most powerful voice we have coming from
one of the three communities where horse slaughter plants exist in
the United States. It has taken a lot of courage, but she has taken
a strong stance against the shame that horse slaughter represents.
Now it's time to give her our support for all she has done and
continues to do. We need her in office, to continue her fight
against Dallas Crown and to support our battle in Washington DC as
the Federal Bills come to the floor for a final victory. Your
contribution, no matter how small, will ensure that her strong voice
will continue in our battle. Please visit
Mayor
Paula Bacon's web site to make a contribution. Or you can send
it to Mayor Paula Bacon, 1504 South Houston Street, Kaufman, TX
75142. Steve Rei, Esq. is president of the
National Equine
Rescue Coalition.
HORSE
SLAUGHTER
Our dirty little secret
There
is no question that more than any other animal, the horse has helped
to make America what it is today ... in settling our vast country;
in wars; agriculture; transportation; even the US mail depended on
the horse. Before the car and train, the horse was the prime means
of land transportation. We owe this gentle giant a lot - at the very
least a life with dignity without the threat of being slaughtered
for human consumption - the ultimate insult.
Read Mayor Bacon's letter to the editor in the February 2007 issue
of
Texas Monthly Magazine in which she lists some interesting facts
about Dallas Crown Inc., the Belgian owned horse slaughter plant in
Kaufman, Texas. She refers to the fact that this corporation only
pays a paltry $5 in federal income tax, but generates $12 million in
sales. She also points out that millions of our federal tax dollars
is spent to provide oversight for an industry that employs a total
of fewer than 200 people at all three plants.
The
September 4, 2006 issue of
USA Today, "Texas Mayor Wants Slaughter Plant Closed " addresses
further the problems many in the town have with Dallas Crown -- how
the "stale smell of offal and blood" permeate the air - even a mile
away. Bacon blames Dallas Crown for the odor, horseflies, blood
runoff, vultures and strain on the Kaufman sewage system.
The horse pictured here senses his
doom as he is forced off a trailer truck on the way to slaughter. It
does not matter if the horses are weak or in pain from their long
haul. Money talks.
MORE ON HORSE SLAUGHTER
Visit Save da Horses Web Site
Although
it is graphic and may be upsetting, please visit the web site
Save da Horses to get a more
visual understanding of what happens to horses in a horse slaughter
plant.
The Live Stock receipt pictured here shows that of the 30 horses
received, "0" fell into the category of "deads, cripples, bruises or
downers" meaning that they were all apparently healthy. This flies
in the face of claims by the opposition that horses going to
slaughter are mostly sick and old.
CARRIAGE HORSE
SPOOKS IN SOUTH CAROLINA
Driver run over & hospitalized
BEAUFORT
GAZETTE - "Downtown Carriage Driver Run Over by Runaway Buggy" by
Lori Yount - March 15, 2007 -- A carriage tour driver was run over
by a buggy Wednesday after the horse got spooked, leaving the woman
in fair condition at Beaufort Memorial Hospital, according to
authorities.
The 20-year-old Sea Island Carriage
Co. driver was on the ground walking and leading the horse and buggy
with two passengers in it past a large Coca-Cola truck on Craven
Street from the Old Point neighborhood and was about to cross
Carteret Street shortly after noon.
Authorities say the horse was spooked
as the driver was trying to get back on the buggy. The horse bolted
and pulled the carriage over the driver, according to Beaufort
police. The two out-of-town visitors were taken for a wild ride down
Craven Street until the male passenger took the reins and stopped
the horse and carriage in a parking lot near the intersection of
Craven and Charles streets, Beaufort Deputy Chief of Police Maj.
Matt Clancy said. No injuries were reported to the couple or the
horse, he said. The driver was taken by Beaufort County EMS to the
hospital. Her name wasn't being released because of confusion over
her last name since she was recently married.
Though rare, incidents involving
horse-drawn carriages have resulted in injuries in the past. In
2003, a Pennsylvania woman received minor injuries after being
dragged more than 100 feet by a spooked horse pulling a SouthurnRose
Buggy Tours carriage near the Downtown Marina parking lot. Sea
Island Carriage Co., owned by Walter Gay, is in its first year of
operation after winning a city bid to operate one of the two
buggy-tour companies in downtown Beaufort. The city only allows two
carriage companies to operate downtown and last year awarded new
contracts that will run through 2011. SouthurnRose Buggy Tours won
the other contract. Gay said the driver and General Lee, the 4
1/2-year-old Belgian draft horse, did a "good job" and no one is at
fault. The company will resume tours once the driver has recovered,
he said. "She appears in good spirits," said Gay, who visited her in
the hospital and said her injuries seemed to be mostly bruises. No
charges are expected in the case, Clancy said. "We're not going to
lock the horse up," he said.
PICTURES: 1st - tabling
near Central Park; 2nd - Mayor Paula Bacon in front of Dallas Crown,
the slaughter plant; 3rd - horses corralled at Dallas Crown; 4th -
resistant horse at slaughter plant; 5th - carriage horse
*The Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn
Carriages endorses the opinions of the authors invited to write for
this newsletter. If you have an interesting idea for a small piece,
please contact us at coalitionbanhdc@gmail.com.
| Thank you for caring about the horses, Elizabeth
Forel - Coalition for NYC Animals, Inc. for the
Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages |
