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Issue: Stealth rider restoring funds for horse slaughter inspections draws an unprecedented reaction.
Priority: IMMEDIATE - TAKE ACTION
December 31, 2011
Brought together in part by an incredible motion picture, an amazing coalition of individuals and organizations are developing what may be the largest equine protection campaign since the Wild Free-roaming Horses and Burros Act. From billboards to "breakout ads" at the beginning of the Steven Spielberg movie, "War Horse," this coalition is informing the public as to what just happened in D.C. and who was responsible.
What occurred was that a stealth rider was inserted into the appropriations bill that restored funding for USDA horse slaughter inspectors even though Congress had expressly prohibited it.
How do stealth riders occur?
In Congress there are often differences in the House and Senate versions of bills that are being considered to be made into law. A committee called a Conference Committee is formed to reconcile the differences in the two versions, then the House and Senate vote on the reconciled bill. It is in this committee where the process is corrupted.
Typically stealth riders are slipped into large bills that have a deadline for passage. Favorite targets are appropriations bills that have to be passed by certain dates so that government agencies can continue to operate. People with excessive influence then have an opportunity to insert language into the bill that has never been considered or approved by either the House or the Senate. These riders usually get sneaked into law because our lawmakers are too pressed to get the bills passed by deadlines for them to parse out every little change or addition, and often there is not time to amend the bills to take the stealth riders out even when they are discovered. Stealth riders are the means of choice to get special interest legislation passed that would otherwise be voted down if properly heard.
In this instance Senators Herb Kohl (D-WI) and Roy Blunt (R-MO) along with Representative Jack Kingston (R-GA) engineered this bit of skullduggery.
There are two excellent articles on this subject so rather than repeat what has already been posted, we're providing links to the original articles.
Here's the scoop on how this all went down as presented in Forbes Magazine:
How many Congressmen does it take to screw a horse?
To get some sense of the public's outrage and amazing response to this "stealth rider" that was sneaked onto the recent appropriations bill, you need to read Horseback Magazine's
Equine Welfare Alliance Launches “War Horse” Assault on Three Troubled Political Careers.
Adding significantly to the public's awareness of horses has been the timely Christmas Day release of Stephen Speilberg's incredible movie, War Horse.
Huge kudos to the Equine Welfare Alliance, Angel Acres, Mr. Spielberg, Horseback Magazine and all the other "allies" who have organized an incredible public campaign. If you are among millions who oppose slaughter of American horses for table meat, or even if you simply believe that stealth riders shouldn't be allowed to subvert the will of Congress, you need to support this effort.
Additional links absolutely worth visiting are:
And the year wouldn't be complete without some observations by George Knapp.
What can you do?
Contacted your elected representatives in Congress and express your outrage over this stealth rider.
You can contact President Obama and insist on an Executive Order suspending USDA inspections for horse slaughter until the matter can be properly heard and debated in the House and Senate.
We will keep readers posted as this issue develops.
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