Reply #70: Funny you should bring this up.

[John Holland]

The horses have been subjected to some of the dirtiest politics you can find anywhere.

You are probably thinking of the amendment to the 2006 Agriculture budget last year that was supposed to stop horse slaughter by removing the funding for federal inspections of horse meat at the three slaughter plants. It passed overwhelmingly, but Bonilla (R-TX) was the chair of the conference committee. He put a 120 day delay on its implementation. Then, the head of the USDA (appointed by President Bush R-TX) devised a plan by which the slaughter houses could pay for their inspections. This of course was not the intent of congress!

Before all this, Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) blocked the bill in his Agriculture committee for years. He also has strong ties to Texas and the Republican ruling elite. His Ag minority leader during the 108th Congress was Charles Stenholm (D-TX). He coauthored a letter pleading that his colleagues block the bill. It had an unprecedented 225 cosponsors when the 108th ended but never got passed Goodlatte. Stenholm then lost his seat due to redistricting and became a paid lobbyist for the horse slaughter industry!

Yes, the bills all had Republican sponsors, but the ruling elite always found a way to block the will of the people through key gate keepers. Another one of these was Conrad Burns (R=MT), the man who sent the mustangs to slaughter by slipping language into his conference report on the omnibus spending bill.

I know many horse owners who were staunch Republicans a few years ago and are now voting Democratic simply because of what has been done to the horses. This is a great chance for the Democratic party to show America that it is not owned by the cattlemen and special interests and listens to what Americans are saying.