Poll: Oklahoma Voters Strongly Oppose Horse Slaughter

Contact us

Poll: Oklahoma Voters Strongly Oppose Horse Slaughter

on Mar 23, 13 • by Bill Shapard • with 25 Comments

A strong majority (66 percent) of Oklahoma likely voters opposes passage of proposed legislation allowing for the slaughter of horses here in Oklahoma, and of those that oppose, 88 percent strongly oppose the legislation, according to a new poll. The Oklahoma legislature is currently considering two bills, House Bill...

4

Home » Featured, Statewide » Poll: Oklahoma Voters Strongly Oppose Horse Slaughter

A strong majority (66 percent) of Oklahoma likely voters opposes passage of proposed legislation allowing for the slaughter of horses here in Oklahoma, and of those that oppose, 88 percent strongly oppose the legislation, according to a new poll.
The Oklahoma legislature is currently considering two bills, House Bill 1999 and Senate Bill 375, which would allow for slaughter of horses here in Oklahoma for human consumption in other countries but would maintain a ban on the sale of horsemeat in the state.
A strong majority, 65.1 percent, of respondents in rural counties opposes the legislation, despite claims by the horse slaughter proponents that rural communities support it. Counties within the Tulsa MSA, 69.6 percent, and counties within the Oklahoma City MSA, 64.3 percent, also have high levels of opposition to horse slaughter.

Complete question wording and topline results

Significant majorities of all political parties also oppose horse slaughter: 72.5 percent of Independents oppose this legislation, followed by 67.6 percent of Democrats and 63.4 percent of Republicans. Another strong majority, 60.5 percent, of conservative respondents, who make up more than half of all likely voters, is opposed to the horse slaughter legislation, as well as 74.7 percent of moderates.
When asked about having a horse slaughter operation in their community, an overwhelming majority, 72.3 percent, of likely voters is opposed, with 91.9 percent of these likely voters in strong opposition. Sixty-eight percent of rural likely voters oppose having a horse slaughter facility in their local community, followed by 74.6 percent of likely voters in the Tulsa metro area and 75.8 percent in the Oklahoma City metro.
A majority of likely voters, 54.1 percent, would be unlikely to vote to re-elect their senator or house representative if he or she voted in favor of this horse slaughter legislation regardless of whether or not it becomes law.
Voters were also asked about particular organizations. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and The Humane Society of the United States, two groups opposed to horse slaughter, received combined favorability (strongly and somewhat favorable) of 69.5 percent and 64.4 percent, respectively, from likely voters. The Oklahoma Farm Bureau, a group advocating for horse slaughter, had combined favorability among 63.4 percent of respondents.

Horse slaughter bill appears unstoppable

By World's Editorials Writers
Published: 3/25/2013 2:23 AM
Last Modified: 3/25/2013 9:47 AM

The horse-slaughter train is roaring down the track and it appears there will be no stopping it.

House Bill 1999 would allow the slaughtering of horses in Oklahoma and shipment of the meat to other countries. Horse meat is not consumed as food in the United States.

The measure has passed the House, cleared committee in the Senate and might be taken up on the Senate floor as early as Tuesday.

There is something about the rush to pass this misconceived legislation that doesn't smell right. The measure passed a Senate committee last week on a unanimous vote, with no discussion or debate. It is ludicrous to think that an issue as controversial as this would not prompt debate, or at least a few questions raised.

What this suggests is that lawmakers know that many, perhaps most, of their constituents oppose the horse slaughterhouse bill but the word has come down from the leadership that the bill is to be passed regardless, and with as little fuss as possible.

On Thursday, Senate President Pro Tem Brian Bingman lent his support to HB 1999, an unsurprising but still disappointing development.

Bingman doesn't see slaughtering horses as an embarrassment to the state. He sees allowing slaughterhouses as a humane alternative for dealing with old, feeble or sick horses. That's been the constant refrain on the horse-slaughter advocates.

The idea that humane care for old, feeble and sick horses is the primary motivation for permitting a practice that as of now is not permitted by any other state is laughable. There is no way that there are enough such animals to profitably operate a slaughterhouse. Healthy animals will have to be imported from other states and ultimately horses will have to be bred and raised for slaughter.

The pro-slaughter crowd touts the economic benefits but in fact the practice will be of minimal economic benefit, with most of that accruing to the state's horse auctioneers, including the family of Rep. Skye McNiel, R-Bristow, author of HB 1999.

The horse-slaughter crowd claims that there is no difference between slaughtering horses and cattle, but that's not really true. Cattle are raised to be food. The slaughter of any animal can be a difficult process, but it is the nature of horses to resist, to escape or even fight back when threatened. Horses, at least in this country, are not raised to be food. They are bred and trained to be work mates and companions for people.

It's probable that a majority of Oklahomans find the slaughter of horses for exported meat repugnant. But it's full steam ahead for the Legislature. If HB 1999 passes the Senate the only roadblock remaining is the scant hope that Gov. Mary Fallin would veto it.

Get ready. If you liked cockfighting you'll love horse slaughter.

Fallin supports making horse slaughter legal

Gov. Mary Fallin has offered general support for a bill to legalize horse slaughter in the state.

“I think it’s a bill I can support,” Fallin told the Oklahoma Farm Report, a syndicated radio agriculture report, concerning House Bill 1999.

The bill, currently awaiting consideration by the state Senate, would strike a decades-own state prohibition of horse slaughter but would continue the ban of horse meat sales for domestic consumption.

The meat would be exported outside the United States, under the proposal, which Senate President Pro Tem Brian Bingman, R-Sapulpa, has predicted could be on the governor’s desk this week.

Speaking after an appearance at the Oklahoma Youth Expo, Fallin said: “It is important that we have a humane way to be able to take care of abandoned horses and those that are getting older and that have been turned out and abandoned in our state. We’re glad we’ve been able to see some legislation going through that will help address that issue.”

Fallin said horse slaughter is “certainly an issue I know is very important to people in the agricultural sector and one that’s had a lot of debate in the state of Oklahoma.”

After Fallin spoke, a statewide poll from SoonerPoll.com of 452 likely voters was released showing strong voter opposition to the horse slaughter proposal.

The scientific telephone survey asked respondents for their position on HB 1999 and the similarly worded Senate Bill 375. Respondents were asked about the two measures near the beginning of the survey and again at the end after they had been asked a series of questions about claims made by supporters and opponents of HB 1999.

At the beginning, 53 percent strongly opposed HB 1999 and 11 percent somewhat opposed it. At the end, 58 percent were strongly opposed and 8 percent were somewhat opposed. In both cases, about 25 percent strongly or somewhat supported allowing horse processing in Oklahoma.

The survey was commissioned by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Humane Society of the United States.

By WAYNE GREENE World Senior Writer

Copyright 2013 Tulsa World. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed

Horse slaughter opponents spur last-minute efforts to kill Oklahoma legislation

Passage of a bill that would allow the slaughter of horses in Oklahoma is expected to be taken up this week. Senate President Pro Tem Brian Bingman, R-Sapulpa, says the measure should pass, and if no changes are made the bill would be sent to Gov. Mary Fallin for her consideration

By Michael McNutt | Published: March 25, 2013 Oklahoman 7

• email

With legislation that would allow the slaughter of horses in Oklahoma heading down the stretch, opponents mounted up last-minute efforts Sunday to rein in the legislation's momentum.

Paula Bacon

Multimedia

Photoview all photos

Article Gallery: Horse slaughter opponents spur last-minute efforts to kill Oklahoma legislation

Poll finds voter opposition
to horse slaughter proposal

Bill Shapard, chief executive officer of SoonerPoll.com, said his poll showed 66 percent of Oklahoma likely voters oppose passage of legislation allowing the slaughter of horses. When asked about having a horse slaughter operation in their community, 72.3 percent opposed the idea. The poll was commissioned by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Humane Society of the United States. It was conducted March 16-21 with 452 likely voters in Oklahoma selected to participate at random, Shapard said. The margin error is 4.6 percent.

Speakers criticized the legislation during a news conference at a horse ranch in northeastern Oklahoma City and released poll results showing a majority of Oklahomans oppose the two measures that would overturn a 50-year ban on horse slaughter.
The Senate is expected to vote early this week on House Bill 1999, which would allow horse slaughter but would continue the existing ban on the sale of horse meat for consumption in the state.
A House of Representatives committee is scheduled Wednesday to hear Senate Bill 375, which would revoke the state's 1963 law banning the sale of horse meat and would end the prohibition on horse slaughtering or the sale of horse meat.
No comment
Senate President Pro Tem Brian Bingman, R-Sapulpa, said he expects HB 1999 will win Senate approval.
“If you fully understand what they're doing, it's humane, it's better off for the horses,” Bingman said last week.
If it passes without any amendments being added, it would go the governor for her consideration.
Gov. Mary Fallin has a policy of not commenting on whether she will support legislation until she has an opportunity to review the final version.
Paula Bacon, who served as mayor of Kaufman, Texas, when a horse processing plant was operating in her community, talked Sunday about the environmental dangers and the stigma that Oklahoma would face if a similar plant operated in the state.
She said the city filed legal action against the operators of the plant; still, she said the plant caused environmental and economic havoc in her community until it closed in 2007.
“It stigmatizes your community,” she said. “Good development does not want to come there.
“You would be better served to have a lead-smeltering plant and sexually oriented businesses all up and down your main drag than to have a horse slaughter plant in your community,” Bacon said.
Horseman speaks
John Murrell, a thoroughbred horse owner and breeder and a former board member of the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, talked of the inhumane treatment horses face being taken to processing plants and the cruel fate that awaits them when they arrive.
“Our horses deserve a much kinder end to their life … than to be sent to a horrific, terrible scary death at a slaughterhouse,” said Murrell, of Dallas.
“We as Americans do not raise horses for food. The slaughter process is cruel and inhumane. From the time the horses arrive at the livestock auction and during their transport to slaughter, which in many cases can be horrific and lengthy, the horses endure unspeakable atrocities, including multiple injuries.”
Offering an option
Mike Spradling, president of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau, said a processing plant is an alternative for horse owners who can't afford them and are now turning them out on roads, abandoning them on other people's pastures or simply allowing them to starve.
Contacted Sunday, Spradling said a processing plant is only an option for horse owners.
He said he expected about one third of Oklahoma horse owners would sell their unwanted horses to the plant.
“This is a private property rights issue,” said Spradling, of Tulsa. “Those are our animals.
“We are in the business of producing food and fiber,” Spradling said. “Is it better just to dispose of the animal, euthanize it and put it in a hole … or if there is an option for it ... to go to humans?

Confessions of an Ex-Kill Buyer

Donny
15/03/2013 at 9:50 pm
I hope that this passes and horses are protected. The horse followers of the Duquette and Wallis and McNeil troupe are misguided and have never walked through a slaughterhouse. I have, its the most grossly malicious thing you could EVER witness, a neighbors stolen horse went into the plant and I was told to stay out-but adrenaline never slows you down, I was a killer buyer, I know the fear in the horses eyes, he was gentle, I didnt find out he was stolen from a neighbors house until I was told by a car who followed me two hundred miles, when I got inside the plant I saw him get beaten, prodded, his head bloodly terrified, the guy had already started bolting his head, I saw them detroy this animal, the stories they are all true. Another man killed a day old filly with a baseball bat to her head. Do you really think that this is the way for the horses to die? I was a killer buyer I know what goes on, I quit that day after 10 years of doing it, I realized that this is not the line of work I could be proud of and I want Americans to know-anything goes just get the horses there, dead half dead, fully alive, just get them there, and no one worries about the condition, broken bones, whatever, because they just dont care.

The worst part is that the USDA and other organizations knew the laws and so did we, we know in or through the state of Illinois that it was against the law to transport a sick or injured or dying or diseased horse to slaughter, we knew that their laws state NO one can move these animals and that aged horses have to be euthanized and that all injured animals even in transport through Illinois and many other states have to be removed from the trailer, travel alone and have to be vetted, thats why when people photograph their trailers the killer buyers and myself carried guns, baseball bats, busted windshield out of their cars, broke camera’s or just beat the people up, because we knew one way or the other we were going to jail, and the more injured or diseased animals or even aged dying animals that we were caught with the more jail time and fines were going to add up. Not to mention we were running with no logs and going from state to state picking up animals and couldnt chance that we would get stopped running too many hours or no proof of where our loads came from.
So paranoid drivers became violent, some resorted to stealing horses to make more profit and some just hired people who did it for them, some of those people even would up with attempted murder charges when people caught them stealing their horses and would try to save the animals. ITs a dirty business, we buy a horse at auction and then tell the people who really wanted it a higher price and then we laugh when they won't pay for it. Trust me its a sad life-I saw the conditions those animals were in I dont need a antislaughter group to tell me this is stupid. Cheval employees told me they were unlikely to have 5 or 6 horses a week that actually got stunned on the first blow they did hundreds a week and only 5 or 6 would let them do it humanely-so thats a really bad thing. I was a cattleman before that-I saw cattle being butchered I never saw this type of abuse and hatred. I saw things but this appalled me so much I cant do it ever again. As for my neighbor I lost a friend, it doesnt matter I didnt know that was her horse, it will never be repaired, I cant go back and unload him for her-I destroyed her life, I know that.

I have done things I wish I had never done, I have done things I wish I never knew. Those slaughter people they just get crazy over time and you hear them talk about how they would like to cut people up and do weird things-but until you have been in the plant you cant understand why they are getting so whacked out. Trust me this is not a subject that pro slaughter people will understand until they expirience it. The smell-could never get it out of my nose, seeing all the rotting horses lying dead-the USDA said we cannot stand for this and wham the govenment closed it all down, thank God, now it has to happen again, Permanent. The smell never leaves you. The USDA has tons of information about the trade and none of it is good because it wasnt good. I may be an old man, but I am not a stupid old man-I know whats good for America and its horses and slaughter houses are NOT it.

5 Horse Slaughter Applications Under Consideration in the U.S.

There is a battle going on, mostly behind the scenes, to open the first horse slaughterhouse in the United States.
Front Range Equine Rescue, an anti-slaughter group from Larkspur, Colorado, has revealed four names of horse slaughter applicants vying right along with Valley Meat. These five have filed applications on Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) forms with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
These five companies want to operate horse slaughtering plants in the United States:
Valley Meat, Roswell, New Mexico (population 48,386)
Filed application December 13, 2011. Opposed since then by Front Range Equine Rescue. Company has gone to court to get a federal judge to order FSIS to provide inspections. Company owned by Sarah and Ricardo de los Santos. Slaughterhouse was previously a beef plant that ran into financial problems.

Five applications under consideration for horse slaughter facilities in US. If only our lawmakers would listen to their American majority

Photo credit:

EPN

Rains Natural Meats, Gallatin, Missouri (population 1,791)
Division of Pro Show Enterprises Inc., wrote January 15, 2013 cover letter signed by manager David Rains. Letter states company is starting changes in their HACCP Plan to address drug residue in horses.
Trail South Meat Processing in Woodbury, Tennessee (population 2,681)
Application is dated June 1, 2012. Known in foreign trade directory as a supplier of boxed frozen horse meat to Asia and Europe. Was started in 2012. Chief executive officer is Stanley Dobson.
Oklahoma Meat Company, Washington, Oklahoma (population 520)
Owner and manager listed on May 18, 2012 application is Ahsan Amil. This location in Oklahoma is very close to Norman and the University of Oklahoma.
Responsible Transportation, Sigourney, Iowa (population 2,059)
Company apparently turning Louis Rich plant into horse slaughterhouse. Want to be up and running by late spring or early summer 2013 to commence killing. Company is supported by Sigourney News-Review. President and chief executive officer is Keaton Walker. Des Moines office of USDA wrote company on December 26, 2012 that they cannot start operations until a “Conditional Grant of Inspection is issued, and provided a worksheet was completed “before or during” a walk-through.
As we know, Oklahoma has introduced legislation intended to lift its ban on horse slaughter with the caveat that the meat is processed exclusively for export only.

Originally, USDA declined to provide copies of the applications outside of the formal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) process, but since the request filed by the Colorado horse rescue group was approved, FSIS opted to provide them to Food Safety News.

Per some experts, the consequences of having stopped horse meat inspections several years ago have resulted in more cruelty to animals that before. Per Food Safety News source, “The Government Accountability Office (GAO) of Congress documented those concerns in a report two years ago, and the Obama Administration and Congress opted to lift the ban a year later.”

Pardner's Training

Pardner's training took an unexpected turn and I rarely had a chance to see him nor could I get in touch with the trainer. When I did speak with him he was elusive at best. I finally had to call his wife at work, when he did call I told him my horse was to be home that day or their would be consequences.
The trainer, Joestes Wyatt, brought my horse home that afternoon. Let me say I allowed a well fed, sleek, beautiful horse go to this trainer, what came back was an emaciated, frightened shell of a horse. I will never allow any horse to leave this property unless I am along to supervise their care, never.

It is now April and Pardner is 'lookin' good'!

Please, if you care for your horses, do not use Joestes Wyatt, known as The Horse Teacher.