Here are some of the National News Programs currently on TV, or JUMP to a State-by-State listing of newspapers and television stations.
ABC News
Prime Time Live
20/20
Good Morning America
NightLine
NBC News
Nightly News with Tom Brokaw
Dateline
CBS News
60 Minutes
48 Hours
CBS Evening News
Here's a sample letter you can copy (control C), then paste (control V) right into the feedback forms provided by the networks. Take all or part of it, and make it your own!
I am writing regarding the California horse slaughter
initiative. Your position, in reporting the news, is to be fair to both
sides. Please be sure to look deeply enough into the issue.
1. Most American slaughter houses are in Texas, though many of the east coast horses go to slaughterhouses in Canada. There is a regular "torture trail" through Pennsylvania and New York State that is almost unreported.
2. Many, many horses are still alive after 4 or 5 attempts with the nail gun to kill them. These horses are hoisted up, still living, and processed.
3. In many places in this country, slaughter-bound horses are crammed into double-decker cattle transports. Babies, cripples, old, young, ponies, mares (some pregnant) and stallions ride together, fighting and trampling each other.
4. Haulers will not feed and water the horses in their trucks, even if the journey takes up to five days. Water weight does not process well.
5. The "horses as food" business does little to benefit our country. The price of horses on the hoof is low because there are so many; the plants are owned by foreign corporations; the meat is sold outside the country to GOURMET markets, not to the starving masses or even to the tables of Americans. This needs to be emphasized much more.
5. There is a prevalent attitude in our country that horses are animals of convenience. If they become inconvenient, they are thrown away. This is true in pleasure owners as well as racers. Through greed, indifference or ignorance horses are lamed and then tossed aside in the search for another, sounder, animal. If this initiative does not pass, this attitude will not be curtailed.
6. On the surface it would seem that this initiative is not practical because of the inability to regulate it (How can you PROVE horses are being sold for HUMAN consumption, not pet food? How do you regulate an activity that is being carried on outside your state?) and the thorny question of what to do with all the throw-away horses.
As with our society's reluctance to eat surplus dogs and cats (what to do with unwanted puppies and kittens), and the abortion issue (what to do with unwanted babies) the problem is complex. None are endangered species that need to be protected from extinction. What do you do with a glut of unwanted horses. This initiative is the first step in curtailing that glut.
This initiative is important for several reasons:
1. It will force breeders to breed for quality not quantity because their resource for dumping unwanted horses will dry up.
2. It is a large brick in the wall of humane animal treatment. Please take the time to visit some of the websites on horse abuse to see for yourself the conditions of these animals. Visit http://geocities.datacellar.net/Heartland/Bluffs/4063 or http://geocities.datacellar.net/Heartland/Valley/2887 for a detailed description of the trip to the slaughterhouse, or http://members.tripod.com/~SueE for a wealth of information on the subject. There are many, many sites addressing this issue.
3. It sends a very loud and powerful message to those who abuse and torture animals, and to our society in general, that attitudes of indifference and greed are changing. Indifference violence and greed towards humans very often starts with animals.
4. It will add support to the humane societies in the state which often feel that their hands are tied by the apathy of lawmakers.
5. The horse industry is one of the largest in the country: 1 in 35 Americans are involved; it is second only to the wine industry in No.Cal and larger than the movie industry in So.Cal. Yet it is for the most part, unorganized. This initiative will help horse owners around the country understand the power they have as a group. It will help bring about much-needed limited liability laws that have been blocked time and again by the trial lawyers.
Contrary to the opinion of the sales barn owners (who profit handsomely from the sale of horses to killers), horses will not be turned loose. More horses will be humanely killed by veterinarians, and their bodies will go to the rendering plants. Then, the tide will turn, and there will be less and less horses killed, as fewer are being produced, people become responsible for the animals they contract to care for, and laws are developed and passed to prosecute abusers and reduce the liability of horseowners.
Please give this issue as much air time as possible. We all need to hear about it and fully understand it.
Thank you.
Slaughter