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Apr 8, 2008 11:39 pm US/Eastern
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Animal Rights Activists Fight For Legislation
PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ―
Animal rights activists are working to raise awareness
over the cruel and inhumane way more than 100,000 unwanted horses a year are driven to their deaths.
Some of the unwanted horses are killed and butchered for
horsemeat in Canada and Mexico,
but proposed legislation may change everything.
Horse racing is a big business in Maryland, where the Preakness is held every
year. More that 150,00 horses are involved in the industry in Maryland alone.
Horse activists are now speaking out over what happens to
these horses when they are no longer wanted.
"It's hard to watch a race and know that maybe 75 percent of those horses are
going to end up as horse meat," said actor and activist, Paul Sorvino.
Sorvino and his daughter own a horse rescue farm in Pennsylvania and they
are fighting for national legislation to protect horses from slaughter.
"I have watched them be beat on the truck with sticks and
whips and a cane actually. That's how they are transported and once they are at
the place they are off-loaded the same way," said horse activist, Jo Deibel.
Deibel is actively involved in horse rescue and she has
seen first hand what she calls a horrifying process.
The horses are lined up and forced into a narrow pen where
they are electrocuted, often numerous times, to render them unconscious.
Sometimes this process doesn't work.
"You have to whack it 4 to 5 times to get the horse down.
That's cruel and not a humane ending," said Deibel.
Then the horses are strung up by their legs and their throats
are slashed.
The proposed legislation also attacks the problem of cruelty
in the way the horses are hauled to slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico.
Buyers purchase them at auctions and one of the auction sites
is in New Holland, Pennsylvania.
"I think anything that smacks me as unnecessary is disturbing.
Cruelty is cruelty," said Sorvino.
The demand for horse meat usually comes from Europe and parts
of Asia.
(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)