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ASPCA calls for a ban on slaughtering horses from US

by Nancy Perry, senior vice president of ASPCA Government Relations - 05/11/15 6:28 PM ET

Each year, approximately 150,000 American horses are trucked to Canada and Mexico to be slaughtered and shipped overseas for human consumption — a practice that 80 percent of Americans oppose. As The Hill’s April 23 article “Bill would ban slaughter of horses for food” pointed out, more than 90 percent of these horses are in good condition and could go on to lead productive lives. Instead, they are subjected to the inherently brutal and inhumane methods of slaughter.

Horses are skittish by nature, making them difficult to render unconscious before slaughter. They often endure repeated blows and sometimes are still conscious during dismemberment. Horse slaughter is not a form of euthanasia, and it is time to end this barbaric practice.

Thankfully, Reps. Frank Guinta (R-N.H.), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) and Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.) have introduced the Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act, H.R. 1942, bipartisan legislation that would prevent the introduction of horse slaughterhouses in the U.S. and end the current export of American horses for slaughter over the border. Regardless of whether horses are slaughtered in the U.S. or abroad, they suffer shocking abuse, even before they arrive at the slaughterhouse, as some are injured or killed in transit.

The SAFE Act will also protect consumers from toxic horsemeat. American horses are not raised as food animals. As such, they are routinely given medications and other substances that are expressly forbidden for use in animals intended for human consumption because of their toxicity to humans. Horse slaughter is bad for horses and bad for people.

The ASPCA is committed to passing legislation to permanently ban horse slaughter within the U.S. and prohibit the export of American horses for that purpose. Help prevent the unnecessary, cruel deaths of thousands of horses by urging your federal legislators to support the SAFE Act to permanently ban horse slaughter. America’s horses are counting on us.

From Nancy Perry, senior vice president of ASPCA Government Relations, New York, N.Y.

Qualifications matter when choosing the next US president

In the April 29 edition of The Hill, a reader named Jim Eschrich wrote in a letter to the editor that to elect a president out of the desire to make history is misguided and that he felt it was odd that billionaire investor Warren Buffett supported then-Sen. Obama, an “untested” Illinois politician. I agree with Mr. Eschrich on the point of doing something solely out of the desire to make history, but I also believe that he may have carried this even a bit further.

Perhaps Mr. Buffett did not believe that Mr. Obama, though he apparently lacked the assumed requisite qualifications to be elected president, was not qualified for office. Also, perhaps Mr. Eschrich should think about a time, not so long ago, when we elected (or some may say our Supreme Court “selected”) another politician whom many deemed as lacking the requisite qualifications to be president as well: George W. Bush.

Mr. Eschrich is dead-on correct that we cannot afford to elect our next leader on the basis of making history. I would add that we also cannot afford to elect (or select) the next leader of the free world if they are not deemed qualified, based on history, intellect, political skill and ability, to hold the highest office in the land.

From William R. McLean Jr., Capitol Heights, Md.