A sanctuary for neglected, abandoned and abused horses, Horse Harbor Foundation, Inc. in Kitsap County, Washington State, is alerting the public about the "modernization" of a horse slaughter facility in Stanwood, Washington, with plans to begin slaughtering horses for export to Russia, China, and other Asian countries.
Horse slaughter in US, again?
Florence Packing plant in Stanwood, WA, is being reopened as a “modernized” facility for horse slaughter, 5 years after horse slaughter was banned in the country.
The Foundation is a forever home and sanctuary for abandoned, neglected, and abused horses, or those facing premature euthanasia or shipping to auction for slaughter. The members of its resident herd of from 25 to 30 horses at any one time are provided the finest possible care and keep to insure that their last years are their very best.
According to the Foundation's press release, the Florence Packing plant in Stanwood, WA, is being reopened as a “modernized” facility for horse slaughter, 5 years after horse slaughter was banned in the country on the grounds that horses are born and bred as companion and sports animals in America and not for the food chain.
Allen Warren of the Horse Harbor Foundation leads a group of horse rescue sanctuary operators, all aiming to convince Snohomish County commissioners to pass an ordinance banning equine slaughter and preventing the return of horse slaughter here.
Readers may not be surprised to learn about the name that is behind this impending butchery in the US. Bouvry Exports is the same horse meat provider whose shocking cruelty to horses, caught on tape, made news in 2010 and led to a call for wide public protest.
The Canadian company, based in Calgary, means to make big profit of American horses by cutting them into pieces and selling the meat to Russia, China, and other Asian nations where rules regarding animal cruelty are loose, or ineffective in spirit.
Taking advantage of the tradition of American people to love horses and live with them as friends, the Canadian pro-slaughter business entity now wants to capitalize the new ‘un-American’ law allowing horse slaughter.
The law is the result of a last-minute amendment to this year’s Congressional Appropriations Bill that reinstated funding for USDA meat inspections for horse meat, something that ended in 2007.
Stanwood, a small community north of Seattle has long been known to the region’s equestrian community as the Pacific Northwest’s “Death Row for Horses” because of its location near a major buying station, collection point and feedlot for U.S. horses destined to die and be butchered in one of Canada’s equine slaughterhouses for human consumption abroad.
The horse slaughter plant is situated on the banks of the Stillaguamish River, which has salmon hatcheries downstream. Horse advocacy groups are presenting evidence to the county commissioners of the environmental hazards such a plant creates based on experiences in communities in Texas and Illinois, which still suffer from the effects of equine slaughter years after plants there were closed.
Statistics show that 80 percent of Americans do not see horses as food but as companions of sports and recreation. That is why American horses, as many as a hundred thousand a year, have been shipped for years to Canada and other countries to be killed and devoured.
Bouvry Exports is said to have been completely unresponsive to all inquires from equine rescue groups and media.
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has already threatened to bring legal action against USDA unless a standing court order requiring environmental impact studies prior to the issuance of meat inspection approval to any new concerns applying for this service.