(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 Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), 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 AWI general 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.
AWI 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.
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For More Information or Photos
Contact:
Chris Heyde, AWI Deputy Legislative Director (703)
836-4300
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