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Please Reply to: Linda B. Merims dkfritz@xxxxxxx or ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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In 2001, the American Horse Council succeeded in getting
two US Congressman--Ernie Fletcher (R-KY, Lexington area:)
and Karen Thurman (D-FL: redistricted out of office in 2002
election) to create the first-ever Congressional Horse Caucus
whose members would specifically address issues related to
horses.

There was, and still is, no Senate Horse Caucus.

In the 107th Congress (2001-2002), these two Congresspeople
succeeded in getting 30 of their colleagues to sign up as
members of the Horse Caucus.  See:

http://www.horse-shows.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=000028

In 2003, Chairmanship of the Horse Caucus passed from
Ernie Fletcher (who resigned from Congress to become Governor
of Kentucky) to one John Sweeney, a Republican from New York's
20th district which encompasses the area around Saratoga Springs.
Sweeney sits on the powerful House Appropriations committee.
See:  http://www.house.gov/sweeney/

Since then, things have become very weird.

Sweeney appears to have been convinced to become the
Congressional point man for the coalition of organizations
who support a ban on horse slaughter, the so-called
"National Horse Protectional Coalition."
See:  http://www.horse-protection.org/

Also google "National Horse Protection Coalition" (include the
quotes).

For a large clip file of news stories on this legislative fight,
see:  http://www.crossedsabers.com/NEWS/Horse_News.htm

Opposition to the ban on horse slaughter is coming from
something called the "Horse Welfare Coalition".  See:
http://www.commonhorsesense.com/index.php


Whatever one's personal feelings are on the slaughter of
horses for food (I, myself, am ambivalent), the facts are:

- Many of the so-called "Horse Protection Coalition"'s members are PETA
  fronts and advocates, including the Coalition's  spokesperson,
  Bo Derek.

  See Rep. Sweeney's press releases:  
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ny20_sweeney/target_horse_slaughter_031604.html
  And:  
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ny20_sweeney/PR050608horseslaughter.html

 - This is the Horse Issue that has occupied the US House of
   Representative's precious floor debate time.

   I, myself, accidentally saw the House debate on Sweeney's
   amendment to the Agriculture appropriations  bill on CSPAN 
   and was utterly bewildered as to why this fringe issue
   was taking center stage, particularly since it seems
   to have gotten itself all entangled with the western wild
   horse issue.

Horse access to trails did not occupy the US House
of Representatives floor debate time.

Nor the US Forest Service's initiative to
restrict horses to designated trails under the cloak
of "Uncontrolled Recreation" (also in the Department
of Agriculture).

Nor funding for the Recreational Trail Program under the
Dept. of Transportation (a committee Sweeney also sits on).

Nor the paragraph in the Transportation Enhancements portion
of the TEA-21 reauthorization that would have explicitly
stated that horses are an allowed use on converted
rail-trails (which passed both houses, but which
mysteriously disappeared in the conference committee version
of the bill, and thus didn't make it to the final law).

Nor the Right-To-Ride bill.

Nor any other legislation germane to horse people in
general (animal ID requirements, zoning horses out of
nieghborhoods, animal transport regulations, etc.) or trails
in particular.

No.  As far as the Congress of these United States can
see, as evidenced by the actions of the Chairman of the
Horse Caucus--a Republican--the issue that most presses on the 
minds of America's horse owners is... <b>horse slaughter</b>.

Furthermore:

- The issue of what position to take on this issue occupied
  significant portions of the American Horse Council's
  2005 general meeting.  AHC decided to take "no position"
  since its own member organizations were divided.
  (The American Quarter Horse Association opposses the
  slaughter ban, the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders
  Association Supports it (maybe they havn't talked to
  any trainers lately...)).

- Bizaarely, this same issue seems to have captured the
  center stage of the Tennessee's Farm Bureau
  2005-2006 equine legislative agenda--as recommended to
  it by its Horse Subcommittee.

There's really no question of it, the public agenda of horse
people in the US has been taken over by the People for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals, recognizing and taking advantage
of the preponderance of horse owners whose very love of horses
is substantially based in their strong nurturing, protective
natures--and zeroing in on this emotion to organize a coalition
around this extremely divisive lightning rod issue.

PETA is deciding what we talk about.

PETA is deciding what the US Congress thinks we most care about.

PETA is deciding where the political resources and energy
of America's Equine constituency will go.

And PETA has decided to squander our political capitol
on Horse Slaughter.

Please, understand the point I'm making:

 I have no interest in debating horse slaughter.

 I am saying that we've been suckered into participating
   in a pissing contest over an issue that, in the real
   world, isn't high on *anybody's* real-life horse agenda
   except that of a tiny number of committed animal rights
   advocates.

And we need to wake up and stop letting John Sweeney, R-NY,
Chairman of the US House of Representatives Horse Caucus
pretend to the rest of the US Congress that PETA's game is
the game we're interested in playing.

The way to win this game is to refuse to play it.

Linda B. Merims
Norris, TN


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