Ethics nonsense
Patience O’Dowd of Placitas, N.M., and Jerilyn Davis of Norman have filed an ethics complaint against state Rep. Skye McNiel, R-Bristow. They claim McNeil would financially benefit from legislation she filed to legalize horse slaughter because her family owns a livestock auction.
Yet McNiel’s bill does not require horses to go to auction before slaughter, and her family’s business is not favored over any other auction site. Furthermore, there’s not much money in horse slaughter.
In California, news reports revealed such horses sold for as little as $50 at auction. That’s hardly a road to riches, and McNiel says the bill is merely designed to prevent the dumping and starvation of old horses.
If attorneys serving in the Oklahoma Legislature can vote on bills impacting lawsuits or workers’ compensation, can’t McNiel file one loosely related to auctions?
This complaint appears a harassment tactic and should be tossed.
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You apparently understand that if there is a complaint against Rep McNeil the other legislators cannot vote pro slaughter, because if they do, and the ethics complaint prevails, McNeil might then be in trouble . However if an ethics complaint prevails, but the slaughter plant does not, then the complaint would be basically moot. You are sounding pro-horse slaughter and are railing against the checks and balances of a democratic society.