News Briefs...

HORSE LOVER INTERACTS WITH FOALS ON THEIR OWN TERMS--By LAUREL EDDY-The Daily Astorian

LORI ASSA — The Daily Astorian file
Horses rescued by Alder Hill Farm stand soon after their arrival. Some of the horses have been adopted, while others wait for a new home.

Couple nurtures 64 horses back to health after rescue
SEASIDE — When Leslie Maxwell trains her 58 equine “babies,” it isn’t by cracking a whip or digging her spurs in. Instead, she encourages them to see her as a horse. One tactic is to touch their backs as another horse would...

She has brought home strays before, although nothing compares to the experience she and her husband Craig Maxwell have had rescuing 64 foals in December from slaughter or drug testing. The foals were a byproduct of a Premarin operation, which uses pregnant mare’s urine as an ingredient in a drug for women going through menopause...(READ MORE)

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CAVEL FINED FOR VIOLATING CITY WASTEWATER RULES--By Chris Rickert - City Editor

DeKALB - A horse-slaughtering plant targeted last year by animal rights activists and some state lawmakers has been fined by the DeKalb Sanitary District for consistently exceeding a wastewater discharge guideline.

Sanitary District Manager Mike Zima said the violations at Cavel International on DeKalb's south side do not pose a public health hazard, but they do put pressure on the district's sanitary treatment processes.

"There's too much animal residue in that wastewater," Zima said. "It can unfairly take space out of the treatment plant..." (READ MORE)

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AAEP OPPOSES SLAUGHTER BILL AGAIN;BILL MOVED FROM AGRICULTURE COMMITTEE

Just two weeks before its “Summit on Unwanted Horses” April 19 in Washington, D.C., the American Association of Equine Practitioners issued a position paper explaining its opposition to H.R. 503, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act presently before the United States House of Representatives.

"While H.R. 503 and its supporters are well intentioned, the passage of this legislation, without adequate funding or an infrastructure in place to care for unwanted horses, will create a series of unintended consequences that negatively impact the health and welfare of the horse," the paper states. "Therefore, the AAEP opposes H.R. 503 as it is currently written..."

...Supporters of H.R. 503 maintain that humane euthenasia means a painless death by lethal injection and not the captive bolt gun used in horse slaughterhouses. The captive bolt gun was originally designed for cattle and frequently does not kill a horse with one shot because horses have a different skull shape and neck length than cattle. Those horses hot killed with the first shot suffer a torturous death.

"It’s clear they continue to misunderstand the issue," said Chris Heyde, executive director of the National Horse Protection Coalition.

According to the USDA, 65,976 horses were slaughtered in the U.S. in 2004 at the three slaughterhouses, which in addition to the two in Texas includes another in Illinois.—Bill Heller (READ ENTIRE ARTICLE)