It took three years for Animals' Angels (animal welfare org based in Maryland) to get a Freedom of Information Act request released to them regarding the now closed Beltex horse slaughter plant in Texas. Belgian owned Beltex currently owns a horse slaughtering plant in Mexico, as well as the second largest horse feedlot in the US... a holding place for thousands of horses until the trucks come and transports them to slaughter.
With over 80,000 horse having been shipped to Canada since the beginning of the year (and no figures in yet for the last 2 months) the chances of them looking like these doomed horses ( in the links below) after 1-3 days jammed into a truck with no food/water is a likely occurance!
"Animals' Angels received over 900 pages of documents and photographs from the United States Department of Agriculture taken during 2005 at the Beltex horse slaughter plant in Texas. Hundreds of photographs graphically show horses with open fractures, legs missing, battered and bloody faces, eyeballs dangling and what appears to be horses left bleeding to death. The document provides unimpeachable evidence for the immediate ban on the slaughter of American horses."
Press release
http://www.kaufmanzoning.net/nov24/pressrelease.pdf
Video http://www.youtube.com/user/AnimalsAngelsUSA
What has been recently observed here in Canada.. including the banned double decker trucks unloading horses.
http://www.animals-angels.com/index.php?pageID=598&synlink:docID=h8281&synlink:linkID=
If you have a minute.. send an email to the address listed below. Please forward if you can. You can modify the template if you want.. to say you are in BC.. Canadian.. horse owner.. animal lover... what have you!
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Everyone, feel free to copy and modify the template email below. Please send a message to the Washington Post, National Bureau. In addition to blanketing state papers with requests, we think a focussed blitz of requests to the Washington Post might work. An investigation and report by a paper with the stature of the Washington Post would be very effective. It takes 1 minute to do this. Hundreds, thousands of emails could end in the desired result. Please consider emailing this to other friends and family.
Email to: national@washpost.com
Dear Colleagues at the Washington Post,
I urge you to consider an investigative report on the treatment of horses en route to slaughter. Although horse slaughterhouses have been shuttered in this country, each year thousands of horses continue to be shipped to Canada and Mexico to be slaughtered for meat that is sent to European markets.
The mistreatment of these animals during the series of shipments and feedlot layovers is well documented and in violation of the law. Under the Freedom of Information Act, on October 29, 2008 Animal Angels obtained USDA investigative reports documenting the horrific and illegal treatment of horses in transport to slaughter. See:
http://www.animals-angels.com/index.php?pageID=675&synlink:docID=i8386&synlink:linkID=48
The inhumane and illegal treatment of horses in transport to slaughter continues to this day. While Americans may disagree on the necessity of horse slaughter, I think there would be no disagreement on how these beautiful animals should be treated en route to it. A journalistic investigation by the Washington Post would reveal this issue to millions.
Sincerely,
Your Name
Your Address