John Block Reports from Washington

Hello everybody out there in farm country. This radio commentary is brought to you by the Renewable Fuels Association, Wal-Mart Stores, Monsanto, and John Deere. They are all friends, supporters, and allies of a healthy farm economy and prosperous rural America. Thank you. And now for today’s commentary— I grew up riding horses. I love horses. I also grew up raising 4-H calves and pigs. Yes, to me they were pets, but I also knew that they were property and were to be used for a period of time and would be sold some day. You are already wondering – “so what!” We have 9 million horses in the U.S. The question is – what to do with them? In 2002, the last 3 U.S. horse slaughter plants were closed. Animal rights activists and horse fanatics are to blame. With 100,000 unwanted, perhaps unaffordable horses each year, they must go somewhere. 72,000 are being crammed into trucks and shipped to Mexico and Canada for slaughter. At least that way the owners can get some money for their horses, although not nearly as much as if there was a slaughter plant closer to home. It is costly and cruel and wasteful to ship all those horses out of the country. Now, we have legislation in the Congress to stop the shipment of horses cross the border for slaughter and permanently ban horse slaughter in all states. What are we to do with 100,000 unwanted horses every year? They belong to someone. They are personal property. With hungry people in the world, what right do we have to deny them the meat? Many countries eat horse meat – France, Belgium, Italy, Japan, to name a few. We ate horse meat up until World War II. If our (know-it-all dictatorial) government follows through with this legislation, horse owners will be confronted with some very bad choices. 1. Pay $500 to have their horse euthanized. 2. Shoot the horse and bury it (no small task since it probably weighs 1,000 pounds). 3. Turn it loose along the road and hope it doesn’t get hit by a car. 4. And don’t even dream that the public will fund retirement homes for 100,000 horses. This is so wasteful. To just throw away a half ton of meat makes no sense. Those that object to horse slaughter try to make the case that it is inhumane. What do they know? Horses are and always have been property of the agriculture industry. We have too many people living in cities today and they just don’t get it. Our Congress is dominated by liberals and elitists from the cities. If rural America does not stand up and fight, we will continue to see our freedoms and property rights stolen from us. Until next week, I am John Block from Washington, D.C.