Senator Robert Byrd Dies Before Horse Cruelty Act Becomes Law
Written by Vegetarian Star on June 28th, 2010 in Animal Issues, Politicians.
West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd has died at the age of 92, after a brief hospitalization.
According to PETA’s blog, the Democratic congressman was a voice for animals as well as people. He helped convince the Senate Appropriations Committee to put $5 million toward enforcing the Humane Slaughter Act, and just a year earlier, had given a speech about the horrors he saw in factory farms.
“Our inhumane treatment of livestock is becoming widespread and more and more barbaric. Six-hundred-pound hogs—they were pigs at one time—raised in 2-foot-wide metal cages called gestation crates, in which the poor beasts are unable to turn around or lie down in natural positions, and this way they live for months at a time. … These creatures feel; they know pain. They suffer pain just as we humans suffer pain.”
Senator Byrd co-authored the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act in 2005, which would have prevented the transport, sale and purchase of horses for human consumption. The act has been re-introduced as The Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act every year, but has yet to become law.
It was believed he suffered from heat exhaustion and dehydration, but he also had several other medical conditions. Senator Byrd holds a special place in Congressional history for animal lovers, along with Ted Kennedy.
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