Mike Conaway: “I want to thank Mr. Peterson for allowing me to speak today. To set the record straight, I love horses. I own a horse.…”

“I want to thank Mr. Peterson for allowing me to speak today. To set the record straight, I love horses. I own a horse. In fact, my horse, Skychief Poco, and I won the 1997 SandHills Rodeo and quarter horse show team penning championship. I have got the wherewithal to let him live out his days in the pasture behind my house. But if you notice, I have used the possessive pronoun ``my'' each time I describe my horse. At its core, this isn't about people who love horses. This isn't about the American icon. This isn't about the kid who rides a carousel and wants to own a pony. This is about personal property rights. I have personal property that is a horse. He is not a pet necessarily. He is never going to be eaten, but that is not the issue here. The title of the bill on the other side makes constant reference to the Slaughter Prevention Act or Slaughter Protection Act. Nothing in the bill has anything to do with the actual slaughter of the horses, the euthanasia of the horse, not the methods. Because if we are talking about methods that need to do it better, let's do that. But this is an attack on the personal property rights of all horse owners out there in America. At its core, this is also about what happens to the carcass of a dead horse, whether it is an affront to the icon of America to process that horse carcass into food or whether to chop that horse up and put it in a landfill, or chop that horse up and bury it in your back yard.…”