Missouri lawmakers retaliate after animal activist clogs their inboxes with unwanted e-mails

Activist floods lawmakers’ inboxes; they retaliate

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri lawmakers respond with a flood of e-mails of their own after an animal rights activist and her group clogged their inboxes with unwanted messages.

Activist Brenda Shoss and the advocacy group, Kinship Circle, e-mailed Missouri House members last week, urging them to vote against a bill allowing a horse slaughterhouse to open in Missouri.

Republicans and Democrats say the volume of e-mails — hundreds from all over the world — made it hard to find those from people in their districts.

Some lawmakers responded by forwarding Shoss any e-mail with the word “horse” in it.

She says she also received calls in which people made neighing sounds, and one caller sang the theme song from “Mr. Ed,” the television show about a talking horse.

The House passed the bill Thursday.

Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, www.stltoday.com