Earlier this month, a truck transporting 25 horses from Pennsylvania to Canada for slaughter was stopped and the driver arrested in New York thanks to the coordination between animal-rights activists, law enforcement, and a politician.
Their coordination led to the first-time enforcement of a New York State law banning the transportation in New York of horses being sent to a slaughterhouse. State Senator Dan Stec, whose district covers the counties north of Saratoga up to the Canadian border, played a key role in saving the horses.
Stec spoke with Bloodhorse to discuss his involvement, why it was important to get involved, and more.
The interview was edited for content and length.
BloodHorse: What was the timeline on this operation?
Dan Stec: The weekend before (the arrest) is when this started for me. I was brought in by Karin Spencer, and she's the founder of Horse Power. They're an advocacy group, and now Karin's day job, she happens to be a lobbyist in Albany, so that's how I know her. She works in this space as well. She does a lot of animal rights legislation and healthcare legislation, and she's an established lobbyist. But in addition to that, her outside passion and interest is horses. She's plugged in, and she was involved in passing this legislation three years ago. She called me that Thursday or Friday, the 27th or 28th (of August), and she said, "Hey, we are looking to finally have somebody enforce this law." She reminded me that we had passed it three years ago, and she said it's never been enforced. Their intel said that the buyer was going to be picking up horses in the Pennsylvania and southern tier part of New York. They were heading to this slaughterhouse in Quebec. She had everything spelled out in a document. They had people on the ground who were doing intel. They had eyes and ears. Their intel was that they were going to make their way up I-87, which runs from New York City straight up the eastern edge of the state and into Montreal. She knew that I would be receptive to trying to help her here, and especially since we thought this was going to be coming through my way.
Her ask of me was that they were having a hard time connecting with somebody in law enforcement who would engage on this. I think because it's a law (that's) never been enforced before. I'm sure there was apprehension amongst the bureaucracies. I called the (district attorney) in Warren County, which is the county that I live in, the county immediately to the north of Saratoga County. The DAs are always like, "We'll deal with whatever the cops send us." A lot of times, cops will say, "We're not gonna make arrests unless the DA is on board." It's like a chicken-and-egg thing. The cops and the DAs want to be on the same page with each other. I then call the major, Major Robert McConnell, and he's in charge of Troop G, which is the capital region. He brings this to the Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
READ: Truck Driver Accused of Shipping Horses for Slaughter
As it turns out, the truck did not make its way through I-87. It was coming in on Route 11, which is a west to east along the top of New York route. They were going to eventually catch up with I-87 up near the Canadian border, but they stopped them in St. Lawrence County, one town outside my district, in the middle of the night.
There have been animal cruelty cases, animal abuse cases in the past, typically not involving horses, and at the end of the day, though, it became very expensive for whoever was responsible, whether it was the local municipality or the sheriff's office or the state police, but that's always a factor, right? They're like, "We've got to feed them, we've got to board them, we've got medical treatment, veterinarian costs." It can get very expensive, which isn't a reason not to enforce the law, but it's a consideration that they all have. One of the things that also helped make this go is that Karin Spencer and her group thought it was coming through Saratoga County, so they had found a farm in Saratoga County that would be willing to take the horses, and they have some resources, so I suspect that may have helped.
It has been pointed out to me by law enforcement that federally, they did nothing wrong. This is not against the law federally. When they get to the border with a load of horses for slaughter for human consumption in Quebec, that's not an issue at the border. It's not an issue federally. This is against the law in New York now, and I think it is the first-of-its-kind law.
BH: You touched on some of the points, but you probably get people like Karin and other advocates for horses and animals asking you why is it difficult to get the enforcement of the law?
DS: I know about mandates from the state down to the local level, and it's really easy to say "You're going to do this, this, and this" when you're not paying for it. The law says this, but there's an expense involved here, and what's the best way to cover that expense? If horses are your No. 1 issue, you're going to say, "Hey, no matter what the cost, and cost is no issue," right? But cost has to always be a factor in what we do. And I'm going to have constituents saying, "Hey, why are you spending money on this when you could be spending over here on that?" I think it's fair. I don't think it should be the deciding factor, but the cost of enforcement and enforceability (matters). With that said, it's been three years. It's never been enforced before. So I think they're pushing for "Let's have a test of this." Because you put a law in the books and you don't enforce it, what are you doing? You're making a political statement, but you're not solving any problems. If it's a problem enough that we pass a law on it, then we should have an intention to enforce it.
BH: As you pointed out, there are a lot of other crimes that are taking place at any given moment, and you very easily could have just said, in the grand scheme of things, this may not be as important. But you didn't. Why was it important for you to take action?
DS: I'll tell you what struck me. We almost passed this law three years ago unanimously. So again, absolutely nonpartisan issue. Horses are not a Republican or Democrat thing; they're nonpartisan. Horses transcend partisan politics, so we passed this almost unanimously, but it hadn't been enforced yet, so that got my attention. No. 2 is I'm busy, but my phone doesn't ring off the hook saying, "Hey, Dan, can you help us enforce this law that's never been enforced before?" So that got my attention. I get a little emotional thinking, and it's embarrassing too, but some of the press that I've gotten or posts about "State Senator Saves 25 Horses." I'm not sure that that's fair. I think that's a little on the generous side, but you know what? My mom sure liked it, and I got a lump in my throat. I just thought it was the right thing to do.
BH: What challenges do you feel New York faces, and potentially other states, whether it's enacting similar laws or the enforcement of it?
DS: One of the areas that I get concerned with, not just about this law, but a lot of things we do in New York is (for example) we don't want a pipeline, and so we ban a pipeline. And guess what? So now we ban an activity on our roads like this, and you've got the interstate commerce clause, right? Some of this stuff is governed or superseded by federal law. I don't like to see New York go its own way because now you've got a patchwork. You've got no consistency state to state. I'm all about states' rights. Do I want to look like I'm just going to punt, pass the buck, and say this should be done at the federal level? Because again, in this case, there are no federal issues crossing that border into Canada with these horses. Now we're not enforcing that. We were enforcing that you can't transport them in our state for that purpose. But you know it would be nice if all the states' laws were more or less similar on this, or if there was an overarching federal law that covered this.
Because we are an island on this, maybe it's going to be harder to enforce again. If this was a New York business, and they were moving horses in New York, then I don't think they'd have any trouble going after the buyer. But this buyer isn't in New York. This buyer is in Pennsylvania, and he's going to be harder to get."
BH: What things can people in the horse industry do to help?
DS: If the horse industry wanted to say, "We really don't like slaughter of horses for human consumption, and we see what New York's trying to do here with this law," to advocate on behalf of it, in support of it, both in Albany and in other states. This could be a national story. Karin Spencer's going to Michigan in October to talk to legislators about this.
