Horse Meat Is Our Right

To:  US Federal and State Lawmakers

We believe that the federal and state laws in the United States of America prohibiting the transportation, sale and slaughter of horses for the purpose of human consumption under the guise of preventing "cruelty to animals" are counter-productive to the cause of preventing cruelty to these animals, misleading, classist, damaging to the American economy, racist and intolerant of other cultures for the following reasons:

Horses slaughtered legally in America would handled in the same fashion as cattle, accepted by the mainstream population as the most effective and humane fashion. Therefore, by mainstream standards, the slaughter of horses is not inhumane.

Following the ban of horse slaughter in America, the same horses are now sent to abattoirs in Mexico where the same humane processes are not followed, the inadvertent result to the law being that there is actually more cruelty to the animals than before. Therefore, the laws are counter-productive in preventing cruelty to horses.

Horse meat is a dietary staple in many cultures throughout the world, and is an important cultural symbol in a number of countries, including the Western European nations from which a large portion of the American population descend (including Italy as well as all the French and German speaking nations). Therefore, banning the production and consumption of horse meat is a racist action and intolerant of these cultures that make up our American society.

Horse meat is popularly considered to be only fit for consumption by animals such as dogs, and historically has been fed to people in semi-slave conditions such as the free African-Americans, Chinese and Irish who built America's railroads. This contributes to the American perception of horse meat not being appropriate for human consumption. Thereby placing Americans in a class superior to those who choose to eat horse meat.

Finally, the horse abattoirs that formerly operated in America were happy to purchase retired work horses that were too old and infirm to work any longer. Many horse meat eating cultures slaughtered their work animals when they were no longer useful, and so their culinary traditions for handling horse meat assumed a tough meat. In other words, Americas were able to sell their animals that had become a liability rather than an asset, where now they have to pay to have the animal euthanized and then disposed of. Therefore these laws put undue economic pressure on traditional American farmers such as the Amish that still depend on horse power.

Additionally, the closure of the horse slaughterhouses cost American jobs, that were subsequently moved to Mexico, further damaging the American economy.

Particularly in this dismal economy, we believe that these laws should be repealed as soon as possible so the horse abattoirs can resume operation, again providing employment to Americans. Additionally, we believe that regulations making it difficult for horse meat to be offered to the American public for human consumption be revised, so that the consumers may save money on this healthier, more affordable, delicious meat.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Horse Meat Is Our Right Petition to US Federal and State Lawmakers was created by and written by Joe Harris (joe@jlharris.net).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.