[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 67 (Thursday, May 13, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H3011-H3013]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HORSE SLAUGHTER PREVENTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Pearce). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Whitfield) 
is recognized for 60 minutes.
  Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, any visitor to the Kentucky Horse Park in 
Lexington, Kentucky, upon leaving that park, would have to be impressed 
with its tranquility, with its beauty, and really with the inspiration 
of the place. Kentuckians are particularly impressed with the Horse 
Park because it pays tribute to an animal which has meant so much to 
our State in the past, which means a lot to our State today, and will 
mean a great deal to our State tomorrow. As a matter of fact, the 
economic impact of the horse industry in the State of Kentucky is equal 
to $3.4 billion a year and the horse industry provides 52,000 direct 
and indirect jobs in Kentucky. And, of course, Kentucky is very proud 
of the fact that they produce 29 percent of all the thoroughbreds born 
in North America.
  Two weeks ago we had the 130th running of the Kentucky Derby in 
Louisville, Kentucky. It is on the first Saturday of May in each year. 
Two weeks later, which happens to be this coming Saturday, will be the 
129th running of the Preakness over in Maryland, and then soon after 
that will be the running of the Belmont Stakes up in New York. And that 
is referred to as the Triple Crown in the racing industry.
  I happened to have been at the Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday 
in May, and there was, of course, great excitement when the chestnut 
horse Smarty Jones won the Derby and the Chapman family, the owners of 
that horse, and the trainer and all of the supporters and even the 
Governor of Kentucky who is a former Member of this House, Ernie 
Fletcher, there in the winners circle, and they were all excited and 
enthusiastic. And I know the winner of the Preakness on this coming 
Saturday will see the same excitement and enthusiasm and great joy.
  But I also want to talk about another side of the horse industry 
tonight, and I would like to go back to 1986 when another beautiful 
chestnut horse named Ferdinand won the Derby in 1986. The owners of 
Ferdinand were Howard Keck and his wife, of California. The trainer was 
Charlie Whittingham. And the jockey was Bill Shoemaker, a famous jockey 
that, by the way, this House passed a resolution in his honor less than 
2 months ago.
  When Ferdinand was retired, he at that time was the fourth-most money 
winner of all time in the United States. He had over $3.8 million in 
earnings. And upon the death of Howard Keck, Ferdinand was sent to 
Japan. He was purchased by the J.S. Company, was sent to Arrow Stud 
Farm on the Island of Hokkaido, Japan. And the family of Howard Keck, 
specifically his daughter-in-law Dessie Keck and her son Brighton and 
her daughter Charisse, made an effort to bring Ferdinand back. They 
wanted to locate Ferdinand in Japan and bring him back to their ranch 
in California. And after a while, after searching and talking to 
Japanese officials in the Jockey Club of Japan and others, it came to 
light that Ferdinand, the winner of the 1986 Kentucky Derby, the winner 
of the 1987 Breeders Cup, Horse of the Year in 1987, had been 
slaughtered in Japan. Arrow Stud Farm evidently either sold, gave to a 
horse trader in Japan named Watanabe, and either with their knowledge 
or without their knowledge, Ferdinand, this spectacular horse, was 
slaughtered.
  That could have been a very sad ending to a story, and it certainly 
made the press throughout the world. It was covered in practically 
every newspaper in the world about what happened to Ferdinand. But 
there has been some good that has come from it, because as a result of 
the death of Ferdinand, it has come to the attention of the American 
people that horses are still being slaughtered in the U.S. for human 
consumption; not human consumption in America but human consumption in 
Europe, even though horses have never been a part of the food chain in 
America.
  And I go back to that Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky, and there is 
an inscription there and it says ``Civilization was built on the back 
of a horse.'' And in the history of our country, pioneers, riding 
horses, horses pulling wagons of material, pulling stage coaches, 
pulling covered wagons, horses have been a part of our civilization, in 
racing, entertaining us, work on ranches, dressage. In all sorts of 
ways they have been a partner with

[[Page H3012]]

man, and they have never been a part of the food chain in America.
  And yet today there are two plants in the United States that are 
still slaughtering horses for human consumption. One of them is owned 
by a French family in Kaufman, Texas, and the other is owned by a 
Belgian family outside of Fort Worth, Texas.
  It is interesting that probably the biggest horse race in this 
country is the thoroughbred world championship referred to as the 
Breeders Cup, and the Breeders Cup will be held in Texas on October 30 
of this year. In fact, it is going to be held at Lone Star Park in the 
heart of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, as I said, on Saturday, 
October 30.
  And I happen to have a letter that was written to members of the 
Texas Delegation from the founder of the Breeders Cup who happens to 
live in Kentucky. His name is John Gaines. He is a renowned horse 
breeder, businessman, community leader, and when we think about people 
in the thoroughbred industry, there are very few people with greater 
respect than John Gaines. But in this letter that he wrote to the 
members of the Texas Delegation he said, ``As the founder of the 
Breeders Cup World Thoroughbred Championship, which will be held at 
Lone Star Park in the heart of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex on 
Saturday, October 30, 2004, I am appalled that a Belgian company will 
be slaughtering horses a few miles from this world-class event.

                              {time}  2030

  Horses are being slaughtered, as I said, in only two places in the 
United States, and both facilities are in Texas. The Belgian facility 
is located outside of Fort Worth, and a French company is slaughtering 
horses in Kaufman, Texas. These two facilities are slaughtering 
approximately 45,000 horses a year for human consumption in Europe. As 
you know, horses have never been a part of the food chain in America.
  Less than 2 years ago, U.S. Senator John Cornyn, while Attorney 
General of Texas, rendered a legal opinion that it was a criminal 
offense under section 149.002 of the Texas Agriculture Code for a 
person to sell horse meat as food for human consumption or to possess 
horse meat for the purpose of selling it as food for human consumption. 
So the Attorney General of Texas announced in a legal opinion that it 
was a violation of criminal law, it was a crime, to slaughter horses in 
Texas or possess them for slaughter. And yet horses are still being 
slaughtered in Texas today.
  Now, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Sweeney) and the gentleman from 
South Carolina (Mr. Spratt) have introduced House Resolution 857 in the 
United States Congress to prohibit the slaughter of horses for human 
consumption or to transport horses for the purpose of slaughter for 
human consumption. This legislation, as of today, although not all 
cosponsors are reflected on the record yet because they have not had 
time to get their names, but commitments are there; but as of today we 
have 230 cosponsors of this legislation in the House of 
Representatives.
  Anyone familiar with the House knows that if you get a bill to the 
floor, it only takes 218 to pass it. So we have enough cosponsors on 
this bill right now in the House to pass it and prohibit the slaughter 
of horses for human consumption. But we have a few problems as well, 
and before I talk about those, I want to mention that this same 
legislation has been introduced in the U.S. Senate. It was introduced 
about 8 days ago, and it already has seven cosponsors on the U.S. 
Senate side.
  The legislation was introduced there by Senator John Ensign of 
Nevada, who happens to be a veterinarian, and Senator Mary Landrieu of 
Louisiana.
  One would think that since horses have never been a part of the food 
chain in America, that they have the history with helping to build our 
civilization, that there would not be any opposition to this bill. That 
is true, there is not a lot of public opposition to it; but there are a 
lot of people in the back room, in the dark of night, opposing the 
bill.
  One of the organizations, the leadership, I must say, which is 
opposing this bill, is the American Quarter Horse Association of 
Amarillo, Texas. I say leadership of the American Quarter Horse 
Association because those of us involved in this effort, and, as I 
said, there are now over 230 Members of the House, have received lots 
of letters from quarter horse owners around the country who support 
this legislation. Even the American Quarter Horse Association says, oh, 
well, we do not support the slaughter of horses, but we are concerned 
that there is not a place in America to take care of all these horses 
if we do not slaughter them, and we are so concerned that they will be 
abused and mistreated and maybe even abandoned that they probably would 
be better off slaughtered than to let that happen to them.
  Well, I can tell you that I do not agree with that argument; and most 
of the cosponsors of this bill, in fact, I would say all of them, do 
not agree with that argument. And why do we not agree with it? We do 
not agree with it because we know there are in excess of 200 entities 
around America, farms in America, in which rescues are being made of 
horses, where unwanted horses are being taken in.
  Another interesting argument of the American Quarter Horse 
Association is they say, well, we do not want them abandoned, we do not 
want them mistreated, so we are opposing this bill because we are 
afraid they will be abandoned and mistreated. But they also say to us 
privately, your bill does not regulate these 204 entities out there who 
are taking these horses in that are unwanted. Yet that same group makes 
it very clear that they do not want any government intervention 
involved in anything that they do.
  So I find that argument not particularly strong, because these farms 
that are out there are raising money privately to take care of these 
horses so that they do not have to go to slaughter.
  So we have over 200 farms out across the country that are taking 
these horses in, and the Blood Horse Magazine, which is the official 
magazine of the thoroughbred industry, recently devoted an entire 
magazine talking about the proliferation of groups who are taking these 
horses in.
  I might also add that each year in America there are about 600,000 
horses that die, and those horses are disposed of in a lot of different 
ways. They do not go to slaughter. They are either euthanized by their 
owner, they are given to a renderer, or the owner shoots them for 
whatever reason. But that is the important part of this legislation, 
H.R. 857; it does not in any way interfere with an individual owner of 
a horse doing whatever he wants to with that horse. It simply says they 
cannot be slaughtered.

  Now, why are we so emphatic about that? I have already pointed out 
that horses have never been part of the food chain in America. The only 
people benefiting from this are a French family and a Belgian family 
exporting this meat to Europe.
  But one thing that is important to understand is that there are so-
called self-described ``killer buyers'' around the country who go to 
auctions. They will pay a couple of hundred dollars for horses, and 
then they put them in double-decker trailer trucks, and they ship them 
all the way to Texas.
  The interesting thing about this transportation is that the 
Department of Agriculture's own regulations state, we know that horses 
are transported in double-decker trailers, and some of them are going 
to be killed, some of them are going to be injured, many of them are 
going to arrive in Texas in very bad condition, because we are going to 
allow them to be transported up to 28 to 30 hours without food, water 
or exercise. Any commercial transporter of horses will tell you they 
should not be moved over 6 or 7 hours without food, water and exercise.
  Now, the Department of Agriculture regulations also state that we are 
allowing them to be moved in double-decker trailers, even though we 
know that those on the top do not have enough room to stand up 
completely. But we are going to allow it because individuals have made 
economic investment in these trailers. So, despite the injury to the 
horse, we are going to allow it.
  Then these same regulations allow stallions to be put with other 
stallions, to be put with mares, to be put with foals, all in one. And 
anybody in the horse industry knows that stallions have to always be 
separated, and they

[[Page H3013]]

certainly should not be put with foals, they should not be put with 
mares, and they most certainly should not be put with other stallions, 
because they fight.
  So we have these horses being purchased by killer buyers, transported 
up to 30 hours, and many times longer than 30 hours, without food, 
water or exercise, in cramped trailers, fighting each other, kicking 
each other, biting each other, killing each other, all the way to 
Texas. So that is another reason that we want to stop this process.
  In addition to that, anyone that has actually seen the slaughter 
cannot help but be disgusted with the way it is done, because a captive 
bolt is used, in which the horse's head is really not restrained, and 
it is administered by untrained or unprofessional people. These horses 
have to be shot three or four times, frequently.
  I do not want to describe the scene, because it would make most 
people sick to see these animals being jolted, falling down, trying to 
get up.
  So it is an inhumane practice, it is against Texas State law, yet 
this French family and this Belgian family have filed a lawsuit in 
Federal Court, and they have got it tied up in court. That is another 
reason we decided to introduce this legislation is to help Texas 
enforce its own law.
  So we find ourselves with a situation of the Texas legislature saying 
you cannot slaughter horses in Texas, it is against our agricultural 
code and it is a crime, and yet it is being done today.
  One other group that I would like to point out, at least the 
political arm of this group, which has expressed its opposition to H.R. 
857, is the American Equine Practitioners. Their president is from 
Lexington, Kentucky, and he is a veterinarian. He has made the 
statement that using the captive bolt is a humane way to kill a horse.
  But we went over to the Senate and we had a meeting with Senator John 
Ensign, who is also a veterinarian. After hearing the debate, Mr. 
Ensign decided he was going to introduce legislation to prohibit the 
slaughter or transportation of horses to slaughter. So he is supporting 
H.R. 857.
  I might add, we have veterinarians from all over the country, we have 
veterinarians from all over the country who are writing in in support 
of this legislation.


                Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Chocola). Except as provided in clause 
1(b) of rule XVII, the gentleman will refrain from referencing 
individual Senators.
  Mr. WHITFIELD. I thank the Speaker.
  So we have veterinarians from all over the country that are writing 
in in support of this legislation. We have the owners of quarter horses 
writing in supporting this legislation, and we have their political arm 
opposed to it, but they do not like to talk about it publicly.
  So in conclusion tonight, I simply would like to make this statement: 
We are continuing our efforts to obtain cosponsors of this legislation. 
I am quite confident we are going to eventually attain the number of 
260 to 270 cosponsors. We are already at 230, and we have not made that 
big of an effort yet. We are hoping that when we get up to that number 
that the committee that has jurisdiction over this bill will allow it 
out.
  But I think it is important that we have this debate because it is 
the first time that I am aware of that we have had a debate in the 
United States Congress on whether or not we should allow foreign 
companies to slaughter our horses to export to Europe for human 
consumption, in a nonhumane way, I might add.
  Now, Matthew Scully is a former literary agent of the National Review 
and a part-time speech writer for President Bush; and he recently wrote 
a book entitled ``Dominion.'' In this book, Mr. Scully made some 
statements that I think all of us would benefit from just thinking 
about.

                              {time}  2045

  In his book, Mr. Scully affirms and I want to emphasize that word, 
``affirms,'' man's dominion over animals. But he also reminds us of our 
responsibility to animals.
  To quote Mr. Scully, ``The care of animals bring with it often 
complicated problems of economics, ecology, and science. But above all, 
it confronts us with questions of conscience. Many seem to have lost 
all sense of restraint toward animals, an understanding of natural 
boundaries, a respect for them as creatures with needs and wants and a 
place and purpose of their own. Too often, too casually, we assume that 
our interests always come first, and if it is profitable or if it is 
expedient, that is all we need to know. But sometimes we are called to 
treat animals with kindness, not because they have rights, not because 
they have power, not because they have any claim of equality, but in a 
sense because they do not have any of those things, because animals 
stand unequal and powerless before us.
  It is true that the welfare of animals is not high on most people's 
priority list, and it maybe should not be. ``But kindness to animals is 
among the humbler duties of human charity, though for just that reason 
it is among the more easily neglected. And it is true that there will 
always be enough injustice and human suffering in the world, and we are 
reminded of it every day, to make the wrong done to animals seem small 
and insignificant.
  And perhaps, Mr. Speaker, perhaps that is part of the animals' role 
among us, simply to awaken humility and compassion in human beings. We 
have the power, we have the rights, and we have dominion over animals. 
That is precisely why I believe that the bill of the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Sweeney), H.R. 857, is so important to our country. I look 
forward to this debate.
  In closing, I am reminded of a comment made by my friend Russell 
Williams, who owns one of the biggest standardbred farms in 
Pennsylvania. He said, the slaughter of horses in H.R. 857 is not so 
much about horses, but it is more about us as people.
  So I hope that the Members of this body will give some thought to 
this legislation. It has great momentum. It is moving on the other side 
of the Capitol in the Senate, and we have every expectation and hope 
that we can pass it and stop this sad part of our history as it relates 
to animals.

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