Documentary - “What About the Horse?” Questions Public Awareness

Voluntary Instinct Productions’ documentary entitled “What About the Horse?” explores Land Development and the fate and exploitation of wild and domestic Horses in North America.

New York, NY (Web.com/PRWEB ) January 23, 2008 — Voluntary Instinct Productions - To recap on a long standing issue; ‘NPR’s All Things Considered’ reported Oct.16, 2007 that approximately 60,000 horses were slaughtered annually at the Belgian-owned Carvel International Horse Slaughter plant in Dekalb, Illinois. Carvel was the third and final of three foreign owned horse slaughter plants to be closed in the US in fall 2007, somewhat affecting this $20,000,000 export business. This is a sore subject in the equine circles, but why has it primarily remained there? Voluntary Instinct’s three part documentary series entitled “What About the Horse?” http://www.voluntaryinstinct.org/index.html, will explore the fate and exploitation of our wild and domestic horses, to unveil the core issues of how this situation has gotten so out of hand and why so few people know anything about it.

Despite legislation obtained by the Humane Society lobbying to ban horse slaughter within the US, we continue to export horses to Mexico and Canada for slaughter, and onto Europe and Asia for consumption. The export business continues, but unfortunately the horses don’t fair as well with the live transport. The conditions are very difficult and cruel to the animals. Some are transported by aircraft, but usually traveling days overseas in uncommonly tight quarters, without food or water, in a mad rush to their immediate demise. The fear and abuse these animals withstand is immense. Compounded by the brutal conditions in which they are now slaughtered (without FDA regulations). Sometimes selling for less 15 cent per pound. Race and Show horses, former pets and protected wild horses among others are bought very inexpensively at auctions, unbeknownst to the seller, specifically for slaughter purposes.American’s don’t typically eat horse meat. This could be associated with the connotation that US freedom was built on the backs of these creatures. Wars were fought, livestock managed, transportation provided, hunting accelerated, mail delivered, sports enhanced, races won and ponies given to little girls while emotional attachments were made for life.Yet the current economic mantra appears to be that few things are sacred and everything has a price. Therefore, why shouldn’t the very animal that this country’s freedom was built on the backs of, be sold for consumption over seas? Have horses completely served their purpose since the advent of the automobile and impending demise of the cowboy? Are they now just an economic drain? Perhaps any other purpose is purely sport and human indulgence?Adding to the problem, agricultural areas are being sold and over developed, with little regard to grazing and roaming needs for wild and domestic horses among other animals. And these resources are only further stressed by over zealous horse breeders.But still, Wythe Pharmaceuticals of New Jersey continues to reproduce horses at an alarming rate in Canada since PMU farms were banned in the US in 2002. These PMU farms are apparently necessary to produce Premarin, in order to keep the hormonal nightmare of Menopause at bay. Unfortunately many Premarin users have no idea how this drug is produced or the long suffering inflicted upon the equine.Just as most manufacturing companies aren’t interested in accommodating the bi-products of their productivity, we now have a surplus of unwanted foals, with most going on to slaughter.        However, there is an upside to all this equine drama. In some countries these American horses obviously bring a pretty penny and look very nice on a plate with a sprig of parsley. Could this equine export be just another necessary bi- product of capitalism, which we have somehow managed to exploit even further? Read the full article at http://www.prnewsnow.com/Public_Release/Art_And_Entertainment/177338.html