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October 2008 
Good citizens of Kaufman, Texas
Posted on Mar 9th, 2006
by 
Harmony
Harmony
I almost felt the way the early Americans felt when rumorings of a revolution and separation from England felt - like a true Patriot, fighting for something bigger than...
Tonight Almir and I drove some 40 miles out to Kaufman, Texas, a small community of about 7,000 people. It would be quite a picturesque, charming little town, only if it weren't for the HORSE SLAUGHTERING PLANT - a Belgian-owned subsidiary of a company by the name of Waldo. Where is Waldo? Noone knows its location, but their subsidiary - Dallas Crown - is located in Kaufman.
Here is a link to the City of Kaufman. http://www.kaufmantx.com/
Let me get to the point. Some 40 people were all cramped into City Hall of Kaufman, as the city decided them to be a nuisance. Not only were they not giving back to the small community, but they violated every single city ordinance code and were deemed a nuisance by the city and its citizens. Of course, they hired legal counsel, to enable them to "recoup" some of their "investment" into the plant - some alleged 5.4 million dollars. Their attorney was an arrogant ass, who never set foot into the city except for this hearing, so he insulted the honorable councilwoman, who lives in Kaufman and who is daily having to live with the smell, foul water, and screaming of horses being butchered.
The scene was surreal - there were a few workers from the plant waiting in the hallways, all looking quite confused and not used to such an environment. They didn't even come into the room, but were hanging around the entrance. To make a long story short, the City Council issued a vote re-declaring them a nuisance and ordering them to shut down their operations by end of September 2006.
The Dallas Crown (Belgian corporation) even had their President there, who gave a weak-ass attempt of defending the corporate citizenship efforts of Dallas Crown..
I felt like I was a part of a townhall meeting, just waiting for our founding fathers to show up out of somewhere...it was very intense, with passions flaring everywhere.
Imagine the neighbors of this nasty plant - they are having to endure the smells, the hatred, the fear of horses....and humans.
This plant is a sore spot anywwhere it goes...and I hope it doesn't go anywhere but under.
Tonight Almir and I drove some 40 miles out to Kaufman, Texas, a small community of about 7,000 people. It would be quite a picturesque, charming little town, only if it weren't for the HORSE SLAUGHTERING PLANT - a Belgian-owned subsidiary of a company by the name of Waldo. Where is Waldo? Noone knows its location, but their subsidiary - Dallas Crown - is located in Kaufman.
Here is a link to the City of Kaufman. http://www.kaufmantx.com/
Let me get to the point. Some 40 people were all cramped into City Hall of Kaufman, as the city decided them to be a nuisance. Not only were they not giving back to the small community, but they violated every single city ordinance code and were deemed a nuisance by the city and its citizens. Of course, they hired legal counsel, to enable them to "recoup" some of their "investment" into the plant - some alleged 5.4 million dollars. Their attorney was an arrogant ass, who never set foot into the city except for this hearing, so he insulted the honorable councilwoman, who lives in Kaufman and who is daily having to live with the smell, foul water, and screaming of horses being butchered.
The scene was surreal - there were a few workers from the plant waiting in the hallways, all looking quite confused and not used to such an environment. They didn't even come into the room, but were hanging around the entrance. To make a long story short, the City Council issued a vote re-declaring them a nuisance and ordering them to shut down their operations by end of September 2006.
The Dallas Crown (Belgian corporation) even had their President there, who gave a weak-ass attempt of defending the corporate citizenship efforts of Dallas Crown..
I felt like I was a part of a townhall meeting, just waiting for our founding fathers to show up out of somewhere...it was very intense, with passions flaring everywhere.
Imagine the neighbors of this nasty plant - they are having to endure the smells, the hatred, the fear of horses....and humans.
This plant is a sore spot anywwhere it goes...and I hope it doesn't go anywhere but under.
Access: Public
Thank you Harmony (and Anil) for driving all that way and lending support for this very important cause. September….3000ish more horses die….not ideal….but better than never. And thank you for taking the time to keep us posted. You may want to permalink and tag this so that others can find their way to it.
I pray for the workers of these plants who have become numb from the inhumanities that they have performed because they beleive they have to in order that they can feed their families. I pray that they find work that they love in a field that inspires them and payes them very well.
Did you happen to notice if any of the bigguns showed up in support? HSUS, ASPCA, Equine Fund, etc.?
Their attorneys made comments about the people present in the audience not being from Kaufman, Texas, but neither were they. He claimed that the rest of the people were here from other places. We had news coverage from both Dallas and Houston, and there were people present from other organizations supporting the ban on horse slaughter, but couldn’t speak up, given that this was about the plant being a “nuisance”, and not to stop slaughter.
The attorneys threatened to sue on that basis. What a bunch of horses…
The workers present were very reflective of the types who can do such a job. I am not going to go into furhter detail, because we are all people, and I shouldn’t judge anyone, but needless to say, they were in their own little world.
Mr. Eldredge, a gentleman whos back yard this slaughter place operates in, has an idea of building a retirement community there - for people. In that way, the place would still be occupied, but with a whole different activity. He is gathering supporters and financial backers. I wish him best of luck.
WOW…awesome! How did you find out about this? I would love to witness something like this in LA, but not sure where to look. They don’t put things like that on the cover ot LA Times..sadly.
People will surely find other (more-fulfilling and more more humane) jobs in Kaufman, Texas after the departure of these greedy bastard$. They should make a call to other sustainable companies.
Sixth Sense, there are 3 existing horse slaughter plants in the United States. This one is about to be shut down, as the neighbors are complaining of the foul smells, disgusting sounds and generally of the plant being a major nuisance in their neighborhood. Kaufman is a town of some 7,000 people, but the facilty neighbors have a strong voice. There is a hospital in the neighborhood, which is also unhappy about the smell and sounds.
California and its fine Senator, Dianne Feinstein, has lead the rest of the country in outlawing the horse slaughter all together. How have they done it? I am not sure, but maybe you can help us figure it out.
What is in the favor of anti-horse-slaughter is that Americans DON’T eat horse meat. It might be a harder war to battle in Europe or Japan, where horse meat is a delicacy. However, it is a blasphemy to kill OUR horses here and export them to horse-meat-eating markets. Luckily, we should have the American public on our side, but the industry has been thriving on their little SECRET.
Help us unearth it, so people will know where their loving horse goes to - a Belgin plate.
A Secret no more thanks to folks like you Harmony.
Once we get the American slaughter houses shut down we can focus on going worldwide. There will have to be some options in place for the excess animals before we can do that. Those are conversations to be had in advance.
I intend to find ways that horses are thought of as useful even after they are crippled, old, deemed too slow at the track, etc. Such things might be rehabilitation such as what is taking place in prisons through TRF, (the prisoners are finding healing as much or more than the horses) or as therapuetic riding horses through NARHA, or even finding way to help horses pay for their own board without having to work. In this area I am playing with how to compost manure into a highly demanded organic fertilizer….. which will inturn help the horses, farmers and land. Then it may be “profitable” to have horses grazing on your land… which will cause man to want ot keep them alive and healthy so that they can produce a sustainable product. Just a thought.
I am starting a pod on the Ambassadors forum called A WORLD FREE OF ANIMAL SUFFERING. Horse injustice will be one topic of change. I invite you to co-create answers there with me.
There is a reason I got drawn to you and vice versa. We seem to be vibrating at a similar level. Where is the Ambassadors forum? Let me know how I can get involved and help, Shelly.