[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 3 (Thursday, January 8, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E42]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                HORSE TRANSPORTATION SAFETY ACT OF 2009

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. MARK STEVEN KIRK

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, January 8, 2009

  Mr. KIRK. Madam Speaker, today Representative Steve Cohen and I 
introduced the Horse Transportation Safety Act of 2009.
  In Wadsworth, IL, on Saturday, October 27, 2007, a double decker 
cattle truck carrying 59 Belgian draft horses overturned when the 
driver ran a red light and hit another vehicle.
  Residents at the scene could hear the animals kicking and screaming, 
panicked by their inability to escape. Eight horses died on the scene 
while another ten had to be euthanized. After the crash, Wayne Pacelle, 
president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States said, 
``What a gory mess we saw
recently in Illinois. It must never happen
again . . .''
  It is time that we heed these words by putting an end to using double 
decker trucks to transport horses. This legislation, endorsed by the 
Humane Society, Animal Welfare Institute, Hooved Animal Rescue and 
Protection Society, and the Communication Alliance to Network 
Thoroughbred Ex-Racehorses would take steps toward preventing this 
disaster from occurring again.
  This bill prohibits the interstate transport of horses in a motor 
vehicle containing two or more levels stacked on top of one another as 
well as creates civil penalties between $100 and $500 for each horse 
involved.
  In my own State of Illinois, the State General Assembly has already 
moved forward and passed similar legislation. I urge my colleagues to 
become a cosponsor of this bipartisan commonsense legislation.

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