Court Upholds Illinois Horse Slaughter Ban

 by Jeff Apel

 The United States Court of Appeals for the seventh circuit on Friday upheld a decision by the state of Illinois to ban the slaughter of horses for human consumption.

 The ruling could end all slaughtering of horses at Cavel International Inc. in DeKalb, Illinois, the last remaining horse plant in the United States where horses are slaughtered for human consumption Horse meat is consumed by humans in France, Belgium, Holland, Japan, and Italy.

“Today’s court decision marks the end of the line for the foreign-owned horse slaughter industry in the United States,” said Wayne Pacelle, president and chief executive officer of the Humane Society of the United States. “Now it’s up to Congress to finish the job and protect American horses from being exported to foreign abattoirs in Canada and Mexico for human consumption overseas.” According to the United States Department of Agriculture, 100,800 horses were slaughtered in 2006 in three plants, two of which were previously located in Texas. Another 30,000 horses were sent to Mexico or Canada for slaughter. In a unanimous ruling, a three-judge panel from the United States Court of Appeals rejected legal claims by Cavel International, which was forced to close after Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich signed H.B. 1711, a bill that bans horse slaughter in Illinois, on May 24. Cavel International filed suit to block the law, and slaughter operations were allowed to temporarily resume pending the outcome of an appeal.

Earlier this year, the Fifth Circuit of Court Appeals rejected an effort by the horse slaughter industry to overturn a Texas law that bans the possession of horse meat for human consumption. In July, the federal district court in Rockford, Illinois, upheld the Illinois state law. Cavel appealed the decision to the seventh circuit court. “This ruling should make the people of Illinois proud to stop the last remaining slaughterhouse in the country,” said Illinois Representative Bob Molaro (D-Illinois), one of the key sponsors of the Illinois bill. “This was a hard-won fight for the legislature, but the right is now over. I applaud U.S. Representative Janice Schakowsky [D-Illinois] for her federal leadership on this issue, and hope that this decision will spur the passage of federal legislation to prevent American horses from being shipped to Mexico or Canada for butchering.” Schakowsky, along with Representatives Ed Whitfield (R-Kentucky), Nick Rahall (D-West Virginia), John Spratt (D-South Carolina), and 58 additional cosponsors in January reintroduced the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act in the United States House of Representatives. The National Thoroughbred Racing Association and Humane Society support the measure, which is currently before the House of Representatives subcommittee on livestock, dairy, and poultry and prohibits shipping, receiving, possessing, purchasing, selling, or donating of horses to be slaughtered for human consumption.

“The slaughter of horses is both cruel and inhumane, and it is our responsibility to ensure that it no longer occurs,” said Senator Mary Landrieu (D-Louisiana), who reintroduced the measure in the Senate. “I was proud of cosponsor legislation to ban slaughter in the 109th Congress and I am proud to be the lead sponsor of the legislation in the 110th.” Last year, the House of Representatives voted 263-146 in favor of a bill that banned horse slaughter. But the Senate did not vote on the measure before the 109th Congressional session concluded in December.

 47,867 human babies were intentionally (and legally)  pulled apart in Illinois in 2007.

 Molaro, Shakowsky and Blagojevich had no comment.

 

I'm back. While I was gone I learned that airbags make it snow in your car, bone doctors are the devil, and you know that your kids really love you when they snap your bra for you because you're broken and can't do it yourself.

Two weeks ago a tipsy woman in a giant van ran into me and then threw my car into a light pole. I've never seen a Grand Marquis without a front end... it's a sight. I've been a little bit ooshey since then and haven't spent much time near the computer.

The accident happened right after Biggie, Marc and Chanda were too-close-for-comfort- to the Atlanta storms. I remember thinking after reading about it, "Yeah.. it's a mess out there, but God's still in charge of it." He really is. We'd just dropped Alayna and Jennifer off before the crash, and Carrie didn't move up to the front seat when Jen got out of the car. She and I were heading home when we were hit. The van hit so hard and was moving so fast that the impact (the first one, that is) unbolted the passenger side of the front seat and threw it toward the windshield. When we went to the tow yard a couple of days later to get things out of it, nobody could sit there because it was so scrunched. Talk about grace... when I think that one of my girls could have been in that seat it makes me cry.

Carrie and I are banged and bruised from seat belts and airbags, and I have a fracture in my leg and my elbow... the car is totaled, but we're feeling pretty lucky.

And meanwhile, I get to drive a brand new Charger until the tipsy lady's insurance settles. So yay!

Missed you all.. I'll be checking out your blogs soon.


And now for something completely different.
(Seems like a good day for some Monty Phython)

“Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government!”

“-She turned me into a newt!

“It's funny, isn't it? How your best friend can just blow up like that?”

“There's nothing an agnostic can't do if he doesn't know whether he believes in anything or not”

“First you must find... another shrubbery! (dramatic chord) Then, when you have found the shrubbery, you must place it here, beside this shrubbery, only slightly higher so you get a two layer effect with a little path running down the middle. ("A path! A path!") Then, you must cut down the mightiest tree in the forrest... with... a herring!”

“I think that all good, right thinking people in this country are sick and tired of being told that all good, right thinking people in this country are fed up with being told that all good, right thinking people in this country are fed up with being sick and tired. I'm certainly not, and I'm sick and tired of being told that I am”

“Dinsdale, He was a nice boy...... He nailed my head to a coffee table.”

“This morning, shortly after 11 o’clock, comedy struck this little house in Dibbley road. Sudden, violent comedy.”

Isn't she getting big?!

I love the way that Alayna wakes up! She always seems so happy, and so excited that the world is still here where she left it the night before. I want to wake up like a one-year-old every day (sans soggy pants). With some practice, I'm sure that I can do it.

"Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This day is all that is good and fair. It is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on yesterdays."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

As for me, I know nothing else but miracles,
Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,
Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky,
Or wade with naked feet along the beach just in the edge of the water,
Or stand under the trees in the woods,
Or talk by day with any one I love,
Or sleep in bed at night with any one I love,
Or watch honey bees busy around the hive of a summer forenoon...
Or the wonderfulness of the sundown,
Or of stars shining so quiet and bright,
Or the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon in spring...
What stranger miracles are there?
~Walt Whitman

Something Beautiful



Million Pieces (Kissin’ Your Cares Goodbye)



Wherever We Go



Love Liberty Disco