To protest the destruction and butchering of over four
million US horses for human consumption overseas since 1980, and to
prevent this slaughter from continuing, the Humane Organization for the
Protection of Equines (H.O.P.E.) will hold a rally in Lafayette Park, in
Washington, D.C., on September 18, 2000.
An average of 1,000 horses are cruelly slaughtered in
the United States every week, and more horses are shipped weekly from
this country, alive, to slaughterhouses in Canada, and by air to
slaughterhouses in Japan.
Gathered by slaughter buyers at auctions, and sometimes
stolen, these horses travel for days in crowded trailers, going from
auction to auction until a full load is reached, then traveling up to
1,500 miles, often without food or water, in extreme heat or cold, to
one of the four US slaughterhouses in Texas, Nebraska, and Illinois, or
to one of the slaughterhouses in Canada.
Witnesses and former buyers report that stallions and
unruly horses are often deliberately blinded to prevent trouble on the
trailers, and that stallions often are castrated, without anesthesia or
surgical cleanliness, by the buyers. A buyer was arrested in
Pennsylvania for having two equines, in extreme pain from untreated
broken legs, on his trailer, facing the long trip to the slaughterhouse.
At the slaughterhouse, the horses are struck with a
stunning device, intended to cause unconsciousness, and hung up by one
rear leg to bleed out. Undercover videos taken in the slaughterhouses
show horses struggling frantically, while being struck again and again
by the stunning devices.
Young and old, pregnant mares near term, are all fodder
for slaughter, looked upon by that industry only for their value as
meat.
The goal of the Rally is to educate the public about
horse slaughter, and to educate women about the hormonal replacement
therapy products which are made from pregnant mare urine, an industry
which causes thousands of young foals to be slaughtered each year.
The Rally will be held in the Southeast Quadrant of
Lafayette Park, Washington, D.C. on September 18, 2000, from 11 a.m. to
2 p.m. There will be speeches on slaughter, on the transportation to
slaughter, and on the pregnant mare urine industry.
The H.O.P.E. website is at http://hoperally.end-horse-slaughter.com,
and digital cards supporting the Rally may be sent from that site.
Anyone interested in attending the Rally may contact H.O.P.E. by e-mail
at:
[email protected]
Regular postcards in support of the Rally, or requests for further
information, may be sent by regular mail to
H.O.P.E.
P.O. BOX 59
Morris, CT 06763
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