Rhonda Sedgwick Stearns wrote the note and letter below.  I could not agree with her more and with her consent I pass it on to all of you.

Rhonda is not just any cowgirl upset with PETA she carries very admirable credentials.  She was inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame in 1977 and in 2003 was named the top Female Poet by the Academy of Western Artists' (AWA) and that are just two of her awards.

Click here to learn more about Rhonda Sedgwick Stearns

Rhonda sent us the information she refers to in the below article. Click to read:

A Perspective on Equine Slaughter from the Field by:Temple Grandin, Ph.D.

PETA on Fox News (February 2006)
While eating a late lunch today I was watching Cavuto on Fox News and he had a gal from PETA on there complaining against the Kentucky Derby. He
couldn't get her corraled on any one subject and she was jumping from the
evils of wearing fur to horse racing to horse slaughter and knew absolutely
nothing about anything she was speaking of.

I got so mad I sat down and wrote him this letter. I was shocked to look on the web at the number of sites and the mass of misinformation that's on
there about horse slaughter. Never did find the protective laws I was
looking for, but am sure by law horses are sedated and then a stun gun is
used before they actually die.

Anyhow, if any of you are interested, here's the letter. We all need to get involved when lies are told about our industry.

Ride in the sunshine,
Rhonda

The Letter to Mr. Cavuto
Mr. Cavuto,

I respect your professionalism and fairness as a disseminator of news in
this land, as I respect the Fox News network for aiming at reality.

Please, if you're going to give a world forum to someone to tell a story, be

more careful that they know what they're talking about than the person
speaking for PETA against the Kentucky Derby today.

As per her contention that race horses are drugged to enable them to run
when injured, the industry has had sophisticated and rigorous preventive
measures against this for years. Even if it were not regulated, nobody who
has as much money invested in something as owners have in their top horses
would risk running them sore and injuring them further. Most of these horses

can go on to breeding careers if they're protected, and nobody in their
right mind will run an injured or hurting horse.

Additionally, research and efforts are strenuously being pursued to identify

and perfect therapeutic drugs and procedures to aid, comfort, heal, and
rehabilitate any horse that may have suffered injury.

As per her contention that horses should not run on hard surfaces, perhaps
she should talk to the Creator who placed them in some of the rockiest,
roughest environs worldwide. That is what actually toughens their feet and
develops their limbs so they are not susceptible to injury.
Well-intentioned, uninformed humans who insist on rearing them in unnatural
environs have done the entire species irreversible harm.

As per her contention that race horses count for a large percentage of
slaughter horses, she is obviously ignorant of such hardworking
organizations as Thoroughbred Charities of America
(www.thoroughbredcharities.org).

To give you minimal information, "TCA's sole mission is to raise money for
distribution to over 150 organizations involved Thoroughbred rescue,
retirement, rehabilitation, research, education, backstretch and therapeutic

riding programs." Their motto is ""To provide a better life for
Thoroughbreds, both during and after their racing careers by supporting
retirement, rescue and
research and by helping the people who work with them."

In just the last decade and a half this single group has issued more than
$10 million in grants to over 150 organizations in 34 states with the
support of the Thoroughbred industry. If people want to help horses, they
should donate their money to groups like this, not misinformed groups like
PETA!

Through these 150 organizations and hundreds of smaller sattelite groups,
homes are found for most horses that ever raced. The fact is, they are far
too valuable and have far too much to offer to be sent to slaughter!

In addition to TCA, there is the Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau,
Thoroughbred Owner's & Breeders Association, Thoroughbred Horsemen's
Association, National Thoroughbred Racing Association, American Association
of Equine Practitioners, American Horse Council, the Horsemen's Benevolent &

Protective Association, and a plethora of other groups working for the good
of race horses -- just race horses mind you. There are as many diligent
groups looking out for every other kind of horse imaginable.

The good thing about such groups is, they know horses; and when they do
something it is really productive and helpful . . . in stark contrast to the

do-gooder's (supported by everyone from Doris Day to Bo Derek) who have been

trying to stop horse slaughter in the US!

Thanks to their uninformed efforts, thousands of horses will now suffer the
pain of irreversible injury and disease, starvation, freezing, abandonment
and many other forms of hell because the owner's "last resort" of letting
them be mercifully killed is now seriously threatened if not altogether
lost.

There are many good laws in place governing the humane slaughter of horses,
even their humane transportation to slaughter plants. The government
monitors this, and enforces these laws.

Whatever medieval Machiavellian dream gave your guest her idea of "hanging
them by the hind leg, kicking and struggling while their throats are cut" is

pure imagination!

The fallacy that horse slaughter plants being in operation threatens horses
is ridiculous. They simply meet a very serious need and prevent
unbelievable prolonged suffering.

If you're interested in true facts, the number of horses slaughtered
annually in the US dropped from over 300,000 in the 1990s to less than
50,000 in 2003. This is proof that as time passes more horses are being
kept longer, sold to others, humanely euthanized, or donated to retirement
and rescue facilities. Yet there will always be some horses who do not fit

into any of those categories, horses desperate for release from the
miserable reality of life. For them, horse slaughter is the only
conscionable answer.

I'm 60 years old and have owned, bred, ridden, trained, exhibited and most
of all LOVED horses, lots of horses, my entire life. Believe me, the racing

industry is GOOD to horses . . . long live the Kentucky Derby.

Perhaps PETA should shift their crusade Olympic Athletes . . . it appears to

me their very lives are being risked!!

Ride in the sunshine,
Rhonda Sedgwick Stearns
Newcastle, Wyoming
1977 Honoree, National Cowgirl Hall of Fame
Rancher, Author, Columnist, Radio Show Host