WE'RE ON OUR WAY TO WASHINGTON!
In just 8 short days, we will be there, in Lafayette
Park, in Washington, D.C., for the horses! After a long year of hard
work, words just don't exist to describe how excited the Organization
Committee and the many, many HOPE supporters feel on the eve of the
first annual national demonstration against horse slaughter!
As we gather in the Park on Monday, September 18, we
will all know that Monday is a significant day in slaughter. It is the
day when the largest number of horses are killed each week. As the
minutes pass, and we listen to the voices of the speakers, and the
crowd, we will also be hearing in our minds the awful sound of the stun
device striking flesh and bone, and hear the scrabbling of hooves as the
horse tries to escape it's fate, and the dreadful thud of its body
hitting the floor of the stun chute. We will feel the terror, and pain
of the wound from which there can be no recovery. We will hear the
rattle of the shackle as it is attached to a leg, and see in our minds
the knife cutting through soft, warm hide to the vital arteries, and the
spill of the lifegiving blood as the heart pumps it out to the drains.
What we will show in the undercover videos taken in
horse slaughterhouses will actually be happening to horses at that very
moment.
WE HAVE A NEW NAME!
Due to technicalities in the incorporation of HOPE, we
have changed our formal name from Humane Organization to Protect Equines
(H.O.P.E.) to HOPE for Horses! We like the new name, and feel it really
represents what we are doing - providing HOPE for the horses that might
otherwise end up at the slaughterhouse in the future. We HOPE you like
it, too!
TRAVEL PLANS:
If you will be joining us in Washington, please take a
minute to visit our travel and directions pages! Two of our wonderful
HOPE supporters in the D.C. area have spent a great deal of time
gathering information and maps that will be invaluable to the Rally
attendees in getting around Washington.
All the
information you need is there, and you are free to print any of the
pages to carry with you. Please visit:
http://hoperally.end-horse-slaughter.com/Travel
HELP HOPE!
PayPal will donate $5.00 to HOPE when you sign up for a
PayPal account!
PayPal is the fast and easy way to pay for internet purchases and
auction buys without giving out your credit card numbers, and without
the hassle of mailing out checks. Visit our HOPE website, and just
follow the PayPal Sign Up! link.
http://hoperally.end-horse-slaughter.com
RALLY PROGRAM:
The full Rally program, with times, will be up on our
website on Thursday, and will also be sent to each of you as a special
supplement to this newsletter.
TRAILER CARAVAN:
If you are coming to Washington on Sunday, September
17th, join us in Rock Creek Park for the trailer decorating! We will be
gathering there at 2 p.m. to put the posters and cards on the trailers
for the Caravan. If you are bringing your own vehicle, and want to
participate in the Caravan, we will give you posters to put on the doors
of your car or truck. Directions to Rock Creek Park are on our Travel
site. We look forward to seeing you there.
ON RALLY DAY:
The Rally will begin at 11 a.m. Please plan to be at the
park shortly before 11. Due to Park Service rules and regulations, only
the set up crews will be allowed in the Park any earlier. If you are
bringing signs to carry, please remember that Park Service rules require
that all signs be hand carried, and cannot be mounted on sticks. Please
also remember that HOPE's goal is a peaceful, educational event, and we
ask that no one wear costumes, or act in any extreme manner while at the
Rally.
PMU FOALS, PREMARIN, AND CENESTIN, THE ALTERNATIVE THAT
SAVES LIVES:
September is also a month that has special significance
in horse slaughter, because August and September are the time of year
when the babies from the pregnant mare urine production farms are
auctioned. Most of these babies, only four to six months old, are bought
by killer buyers for the slaughterhouses. Some of these babies may be
being forced into the stun chute, their little heads taking the horrible
blow, as we stand in Lafayette Park protesting this senseless slaughter.
Desiccated urine from pregnant mares is used in the
manufacture of Premarin, a conjugated estrogen used in hormone
replacement therapy for menopausal women, and is also prescribed for
dogs with urinary incontinence. The urine is collected through bags
attached to the mares, who stand in straight stalls during their
pregnancy so every drop of the estrogen-laden urine can be collected.
Each year these mares are bred only to produce the estrogen-rich urine.
The foals resulting from these breedings are a by-product, "industrial
waste" of a billion-dollar hormone replacement drug industry, to be
disposed of as quickly as possible. Best estimates show that there are
as many as 80,000 mares being used this way, producing nearly that many
foals each and every year. These babies are only born to die.
Now there is an alternative, that doesn't bear the cost
of foals' lives. Duramed Pharmaceuticals has received FDA approval for
an equivalent hormone replacement drug that is derived completely from
plants. HOPE supports and applauds Duramed for their intensive efforts
in bringing to market a replacement drug that will save the lives of
thousands of foals.
If you, or someone in your family is taking Premarin or
another PMU product, please visit the Duramed site for more information
on Cenestin! Talk with your doctor about switching from Premarin to
Cenestin, and save lives.
http://www.cenestin.com/index1.cfm
And please watch the HOPE site for our Premarin flyer that will be
coming out soon, and help HOPE educate doctors and women about the
alternatives to Premarin, and the hidden cost of foals lives, as we go
forward through the coming year to educate the public about the price
the HORSES pay for this drug.
THE COMING YEAR:
As we leave Washington on the 18th, we will leave
knowing that the close of this year's Rally is not the end of the work
that needs to be done before horse slaughter is over forever. The triad
of organizations that comprise the North American Alliance Against Horse
Slaughter, HOPE for Horses, HelpHorses in Canada, and the United States
Citizens Committee Against Horse Slaughter (USCCAES), will be moving
strongly forward with educational programs to help bring horse slaughter
into national awareness, and moving steadily towards the most important
phase of our work -- introducing and passing legislation that will
outlaw horse slaughter throughout the United States and Canada.
The HOPE Organization Committee
Go on to Thoughts
On Life & Death
Return to 13 September 2000 Issue
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