Kinky Says “Save a Horse – Ride a Cowboy”

Horses are as much a part of our Texas heritage as the armadillo and the Alamo. But last year, 91,757 horses were slaughtered in this country. Their horse meat was sold to European companies for human consumption.

There are three surviving equine slaughter houses in the United States. Sadly, Texas is home to two of them – in Kaufman and in Fort Worth.

Kaufman’s mayor, Paula Bacon, recently spoke with Kinky about the slaughter house that treats her community “like a doormat.”

Mayor Bacon said her community has been lied to about the dirty business of horse slaughter. “We were told these horses were old and dying when, in fact, they are young, healthy colts in excellent condition,” Bacon said.

Although the practice of slaughtering horses for human consumption has been illegal in Texas since 1949, the slaughter houses in Kaufman and Fort Worth remain open for business.

Kinky is joining Mayor Bacon and others in their efforts to shut down the slaughter houses in Texas immediately.

“This ain’t the cowboy way,” Kinky says. “I’m going to be a governor for the people – and for the animals.”

The ugly trade of horsemeat is one that is hidden from most Americans – and the industry wants to keep it that way. Today, the American Horseslaughter Prevention Act, which would “prohibit the shipping, transporting, moving, delivering, receiving, possessing, purchasing, selling, or donation of horses and other equines to be slaughtered for human consumption,” is stuck in a Congressional committee. Its only hope for passage is to continue raising awareness of this issue.

Visit www.saplonline.org or www.habitatforhorses.org for more information.

The Kinky Friedman campaign