Say no to slaughtering horses

I am writing about Missouri HB 1747 that will encourage, sanction and promote the building of horse slaughter plants in our state.

This bill benefits only the greedy interests of slaughter-plant operators and foreign specialty food markets. We do not eat horse meat in the U.S. There is no reason to subject any horses to this slaughter process, which is cruel and unnecessary.

I Googled "horse slaughter facts" and learned a lot about the horse slaughter process. This is not something you want to put horses through. It is horrible. This bill would never have passed in the House had state representatives been better educated.

We do not need slaughter houses in our state, nor do people want this. I mentioned this to people I work with who were unaware of this bill. They were dumbfounded that our legislators would even consider such a bill.

There are hundreds of organizations that rescue abused, neglected and abandoned horses. They find homes for horses that people can no longer afford to keep. If need be, they end the suffering of horses with euthanasia.

My hope is that state Sen. Jason Crowell and other senators will say no to this bill.

LORENE C. ROLAND, Cape Girardeau