FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
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H.O.P.E. September 2000 - To protest the destruction and butchering of over four million US horses for human consumption overseas since 1980, and to prevent this slaughter from continuing, the Humane Organization for the Protection of Equines (H.O.P.E.) will hold a rally in Lafayette Park, in Washington, D.C., on September 18, 2000.

An average of 1,000 horses are cruelly slaughtered in the United States every week, and more horses are shipped weekly from this country, alive, to slaughterhouses in Canada, and by air to slaughterhouses in Japan.

Gathered by slaughter buyers at auctions, and sometimes stolen, these horses travel for days in crowded trailers, going from auction to auction until a full load is reached, then traveling up to 1,500 miles, often without food or water, in extreme heat or cold, to one of the four US slaughterhouses in Texas, Nebraska, and Illinois, or to one of the slaughterhouses in Canada.

Witnesses and former buyers report that stallions and unruly horses are often deliberately blinded to prevent trouble on the trailers, and that stallions often are castrated, without anesthesia or surgical cleanliness, by the buyers. A buyer was arrested in Pennsylvania for having two equines, in extreme pain from untreated broken legs, on his trailer, facing the long trip to the slaughterhouse.

At the slaughterhouse, the horses are struck with a stunning device, intended to cause unconsciousness, and hung up by one rear leg to bleed out. Undercover videos taken in the slaughterhouses show horses struggling frantically, while being struck again and again by the stunning devices.

Young and old, pregnant mares near term, are all fodder for slaughter, looked upon by that industry only for their value as meat.

The goal of the Rally is to educate the public about horse slaughter, and to educate women about the hormonal replacement therapy products which are made from pregnant mare urine, an industry which causes thousands of young foals to be slaughtered each year.

The Rally will be held in the Southeast Quadrant of Lafayette Park, Washington, D.C. on September 18, 2000, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. There will be speeches on slaughter, on the transportation to slaughter, and on the pregnant mare urine industry.

The H.O.P.E. web site is at http://hoperally.end-horse-slaughter.com, and digital cards supporting the Rally may be sent from that site. Anyone interested in attending the Rally may contact H.O.P.E. by e-mail at info-hoperally@end-horse-slaughter.com. Regular postcards in support of the Rally, or requests for further information, may be sent by regular mail to H.O.P.E., P.O. BOX 59, Morris, CT 06763.

To download and print out the official press release for sending to media outlets, you will need to have the Adobe Acrobat Reader®. If you do not have it, the Reader can be downloaded by clicking on the Adobe button below. After you have downloaded and installed the Acrobat Reader, simply come back to this page and download the official press release!

If you already have Adobe Acrobat Reader on your system, simply click on the Official Press Release link below. The official press release has been approved by the H.O.P.E. Organization Committee for approval, and should be used exactly as written, and not altered in any way. Once the Release has been downloaded, it will open in Adobe Acrobat Reader within your browser. Click on "File" and save the file to a convenient location on your printer. You may then print it out by opening it in Acrobat Reader, and using the "print" function.

Please keep a list of the media outlets you sent the Release to, and send the list to H.O.P.E. at the H.O.P.E e-mail address, or by regular mail to:
P.O. Box 59, Morris, CT 06763.

Thank you for helping to distribute the release!

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