Paula Bacon receives prestigious award for her work to end horse slaughter in Texas and the United States

SACRAMENTO, CA (September 5, 2007) – United Animal Nations (UAN), a national animal protection organization, today issued its prestigious Animals’ Choice Award to Paula Bacon, former mayor of Kaufman, Texas, for her work to end horse slaughter in her town and the nation.

UAN presents the Animals’ Choice Award annually to an individual who advocates for animals beyond the scope of his or her profession. Mayor from 2003 to May 2007, Bacon has been an outspoken opponent of the horse slaughterhouse located in Kaufman, which has faced numerous violations and citizen complaints in 27 years of operation.

When she became mayor, Bacon fought hard to rid the town of the slaughterhouse and spoke out for Boggy Bottom, a predominantly African-American neighborhood near the slaughterhouse, whose residents’ pleas for relief had long been ignored.

She also made five trips to Washington, D.C. to lobby for the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (AHSPA) now being considered in Congress. Her report illustrating that the slaughterhouse only paid $5 in federal income tax on its $12 million in sales disproved claims of its fiscal importance to the community and attracted essential support for the AHSPA.

UAN president and CEO Nicole Forsyth said that Bacon demonstrates an exceptional devotion to animal welfare and to her community’s well-being.

“Paula has recognized for a long time that both animals and her town’s residents are being exploited by the foreign-owned slaughterhouse in Kaufman,” said Forsyth. “Her attention to this issue has put the image of horse slaughter in front of not only residents of Kaufmann, but of the whole country.”

“I can’t think of anyone who is more deserving of this award, especially as horses are being threatened in so many ways,” Forsyth added.

Americans do not eat horsemeat, but it is considered a delicacy in Europe and Asia. In 2006, more than 104,000 horses were slaughtered at three foreign owned slaughterhouses in the United States, their meat shipped abroad for human consumption or sold to domestic zoos. In January, the Texas legislature upheld a 1949 law prohibiting horse slaughter for human consumption in the state; as a result, the Kaufman slaughterhouse has not slaughtered any horses since March. The U.S. Congress has yet to vote on the AHSPA. 

MEDIA CONTACT: Alexis Raymond, (916) 429-2457.

Founded in 1987, United Animal Nations is North America ’s leading provider of emergency animal sheltering and disaster relief services and a key advocate for the critical needs of animals.

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