A Black guy from the city supports horse slaughter. From the Ft.Worth Star-Telegram...
Outrage over horse meat is perplexing and even hypocritical
BOB RAY SANDERS
In My Opinion
My high school band was always invited to march in the Fort Worth Stock Show parade. Of course, so were most other high school marching bands in the county, but we still thought it was special to have been asked.
Because the emphasis was on horses, every band except the lead-off group -- usually from Polytechnic or Paschal high school -- had to march behind mounted units.
And in those days, our all-black band from I.M. Terrell High School jockeyed with Dunbar High to be the last band onlookers would see and hear in the parade, which often had 100 or more units.
It's real tough to march in straight lines behind hundreds of horses. I couldn't avoid all the mess left by the horses, so at times I'd just have to take a deep breath and step in it.
It's just a coincidence that the Stock Show is in town, now that I'm about to step in it again, at least with horse lovers.
I'm on record in this column supporting the right of three U.S. plants to slaughter horses, including one in Fort Worth, and I am perplexed by the outrage expressed by people who insist that horse meat should not be sold for human consumption.
The three plants don't sell horse meat to be eaten in the United States, but they have a lucrative business selling to customers in other countries.
For several years, different groups have joined forces to try to shut down the slaughterhouses, mostly declaring that it's just inhumane to serve up an American horse steak, especially to foreigners. One tack they have taken has been to assert that the Texas plants violate a long-disregarded 1949 state law banning the possession or transport of horse meat for human consumption.
In 2002, an opinion by then-Attorney General John Cornyn held that the law was still enforceable, and Tarrant County District Attorney Tim Curry prepared to do just that. Even the Texas Legislature and Congress got into the act.
In a federal court case naming Curry as the defendant, the slaughterhouses contended that the 1949 law had been repealed by subsequent state law and also had been pre-empted by federal law.
A district judge here in Fort Worth sided with the slaughterhouses and issued a permanent injunction prohibiting Curry from prosecuting the companies under the state law.
Well, last week a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the lower court
The plaintiffs are likely to request a hearing before the entire 5th Circuit and, perhaps, take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
All of this is over horses, many of which are being abandoned and mistreated because their owners can't afford to take care of them.
Interestingly enough, leaders of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, who clearly understand the plight of many unwanted horses in this country, filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the federal suit siding with the slaughterhouses.
Fifth Circuit Judge Fortunato Benavides, who wrote what otherwise might be considered a reasoned opinion, obviously bought into the Western myth of the godly horse.
Here's the opening line of his opinion: "The lone cowboy riding his horse on a Texas trail is a cinematic icon. Not once in memory did the cowboy eat the horse, but film is an imperfect mirror for reality."
That last phrase is probably the most important: "Film is an imperfect mirror for reality."
When the issue was before Congress last year, the American Quarter Horse Association issued the following statement:
"Sending a horse to a processing facility is unthinkable to many. And we respect that view. But for others, it is the best option. AQHA recognizes that the processing of unwanted horses is currently a necessary aspect of the equine industry, because it provides a humane euthanasia alternative for horses that might otherwise continue a life of discomfort and pain, or inadequate care or abandonment."
You would never catch me eating meat from a horse, or a deer or a lamb for that matter, but it's not for me to say that no one else should.
Frankly, I think it is hypocritical for politicians and the public who support this country's booming business in slaughtering animals for food -- chickens, hogs and cows -- to try to shut down three companies because their product is the horse.
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/columnists/bob_ray_sanders/16533327.htm
Outrage over horse meat is perplexing and even hypocritical
BOB RAY SANDERS
In My Opinion
My high school band was always invited to march in the Fort Worth Stock Show parade. Of course, so were most other high school marching bands in the county, but we still thought it was special to have been asked.
Because the emphasis was on horses, every band except the lead-off group -- usually from Polytechnic or Paschal high school -- had to march behind mounted units.
And in those days, our all-black band from I.M. Terrell High School jockeyed with Dunbar High to be the last band onlookers would see and hear in the parade, which often had 100 or more units.
It's real tough to march in straight lines behind hundreds of horses. I couldn't avoid all the mess left by the horses, so at times I'd just have to take a deep breath and step in it.
It's just a coincidence that the Stock Show is in town, now that I'm about to step in it again, at least with horse lovers.
I'm on record in this column supporting the right of three U.S. plants to slaughter horses, including one in Fort Worth, and I am perplexed by the outrage expressed by people who insist that horse meat should not be sold for human consumption.
The three plants don't sell horse meat to be eaten in the United States, but they have a lucrative business selling to customers in other countries.
For several years, different groups have joined forces to try to shut down the slaughterhouses, mostly declaring that it's just inhumane to serve up an American horse steak, especially to foreigners. One tack they have taken has been to assert that the Texas plants violate a long-disregarded 1949 state law banning the possession or transport of horse meat for human consumption.
In 2002, an opinion by then-Attorney General John Cornyn held that the law was still enforceable, and Tarrant County District Attorney Tim Curry prepared to do just that. Even the Texas Legislature and Congress got into the act.
In a federal court case naming Curry as the defendant, the slaughterhouses contended that the 1949 law had been repealed by subsequent state law and also had been pre-empted by federal law.
A district judge here in Fort Worth sided with the slaughterhouses and issued a permanent injunction prohibiting Curry from prosecuting the companies under the state law.
Well, last week a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the lower court
The plaintiffs are likely to request a hearing before the entire 5th Circuit and, perhaps, take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
All of this is over horses, many of which are being abandoned and mistreated because their owners can't afford to take care of them.
Interestingly enough, leaders of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, who clearly understand the plight of many unwanted horses in this country, filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the federal suit siding with the slaughterhouses.
Fifth Circuit Judge Fortunato Benavides, who wrote what otherwise might be considered a reasoned opinion, obviously bought into the Western myth of the godly horse.
Here's the opening line of his opinion: "The lone cowboy riding his horse on a Texas trail is a cinematic icon. Not once in memory did the cowboy eat the horse, but film is an imperfect mirror for reality."
That last phrase is probably the most important: "Film is an imperfect mirror for reality."
When the issue was before Congress last year, the American Quarter Horse Association issued the following statement:
"Sending a horse to a processing facility is unthinkable to many. And we respect that view. But for others, it is the best option. AQHA recognizes that the processing of unwanted horses is currently a necessary aspect of the equine industry, because it provides a humane euthanasia alternative for horses that might otherwise continue a life of discomfort and pain, or inadequate care or abandonment."
You would never catch me eating meat from a horse, or a deer or a lamb for that matter, but it's not for me to say that no one else should.
Frankly, I think it is hypocritical for politicians and the public who support this country's booming business in slaughtering animals for food -- chickens, hogs and cows -- to try to shut down three companies because their product is the horse.
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/columnists/bob_ray_sanders/16533327.htm