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Bo Derek's Washington Roundup
Actress Bo Derek has been on Capitol Hill drumming up support for an anti-horsemeat bill.
(By Jahi Chikwendiu -- The Washington Post)
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A dissenting voice from one senator, she says, can keep a bill from reaching the floor for an up or down vote. "One man can stop it," she says later. "Which is a shame."
For Derek, whose 2002 autobiography is titled "Riding Lessons: Everything That Matters in Life I Learned From Horses," this is a very personal issue. She oversees a 130-acre spread in Santa Ynez, Calif. At one time she owned more than 30 horses; now she has six. There is a difference, she says, between horses and cows. "Cattle aren't wild anymore. We breed them to be docile. Horses are bred to be feisty, flighty and responsive to our affection."
The history of this country, she says, is intertwined with a national affection for, and dependence on, horses.
As one of her sidekick lobbyists puts it, "Nobody's riding a cow on statues in America."
Derek says, "I am not a member of any animal rights organization. I am a big red-meat eater. I live in cattle country. I rope; I brand." To Derek, this is all just about horses.
Same with Charles Stenholm, a lobbyist for the horsemeat industry, a cotton planter and a former Texas congressman. "We do contend it's a private property rights issue," says Stenholm in a telephone interview. "A horse owner should have the right to dispose of his horse as he sees fit."
He agrees with the anti-slaughterhouse side that "all animals should be treated humanely, from birth to death."
But, he adds, "with all due sincerity to the naivete of Bo Derek, it is a horse welfare issue. Somebody has got to take care of unwanted horses. There are just not enough people who want to adopt horses."
For Derek and other horse aficionados, Stenholm says, "it is emotional. It is so easy to say that every horse will find a willing owner." He says that is just not the way it is.
When a horse reaches the end of its life, Stenholm says, it can cost $200 to $2,000 to have it disposed of. He says that a horse owner should be offered the chance to sell his horse to a processing plant. The three plants in the United States export 26 million pounds of horsemeat annually.
Stenholm doesn't understand why horse lovers believe that it's okay to have a horse euthanized or composted but not sent to a meatpacking operation. He says that eating is just another form of composting.
People like Derek, he says, "believe that horses are special and should not be processed for human consumption."
