Horse slaughter

In late May, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its version of next year’s Agriculture Appropriations bill (S.2389) which provides funding for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the 2015 fiscal year. The bill once again contains an amendment that in effect will continue the ban on the humane slaughter of horses in the U.S. Senators Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) offered the amendment to prohibit funding for USDA inspections at U.S. horse slaughter facilities. Their amendment passed by an 18-12 vote. Senator Mike Johanns (R-NE) spoke in opposition to the amendment. This sets up the likelihood of a repeat of this year’s congressional action on the current budget that ended a brief interlude of construction planning for new slaughter plants in the U.S. Congress did this very same thing in 2006, but in 2011, the highly respected General Accounting Office (GAO)—Congress’s own watchdog agency—reported bluntly to Congress that their funding cut and the resultant plant closures actually had the opposite effect from that intended. The GAO told Congress that horses were now traveling further (to Mexico and Canada) and in many cases were slaughtered under worse conditions than before, and that their legislation had harmed horse welfare. After receiving that report, in 2011 Congress reinstated the funding for USDA inspections, opening the door for a resumption of horse processing in this country. As a result of that action, the USDA in 2013 gave approval for the opening of horse slaughter plants in New Mexico and Missouri. However, lawsuits filed by animal rights activists repeatedly delayed those openings. HSUS and the Obama administration both lobbied to end horse slaughter in the U.S. Yet unsolved, however, is the issue of how to humanely cope with the more than 100,000 unwanted and abandoned horses that used to pass through those processing facilities each year. Posted May 31, 2014

The Congress passed, and the President signed the new budget, effectively banning horse slaughter once again by cutting funding for USDA inspections at horse slaughter facilities. Congress did this very same thing in 2006, an action which effectively closed all horse processing plants in the country. Much has happened between then and now. In 2011, the highly respected General Accounting Office (GAO)—Congress’s own watchdog agency—reported bluntly to Congress that their funding cut and the resultant plant closures actually had the opposite effect from that intended. The GAO told Congress that horses were now traveling further (to Mexico and Canada) and in many cases were slaughtered under worse conditions than before, and that their legislation had harmed horse welfare. After receiving that report, in 2011 Congress reinstated the funding for USDA inspections, opening the door for a resumption of horse processing in this country. As a result of that action, the USDA recently gave approval for the opening of horse slaughter plants in New Mexico and Missouri. However, lawsuits filed by animal rights activists repeatedly delayed those openings. “Americans do not want to see scarce tax dollars used to oversee an inhumane, disreputable horse slaughter industry,” said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). “We don’t have dog and cat slaughter plants in the U.S. catering to small markets overseas, and we shouldn’t have horse slaughter operations for that purpose, either.” HSUS and the Obama administration both lobbied to end horse slaughter in the U.S. Yet unsolved, however, is the issue of how to humanely cope with the more than 100,000 unwanted and abandoned horses that used to pass through those processing facilities each year. Click for more details. Posted January 15, 2014

A district judge in New Mexico has delayed for ten days the planned operations of the nation’s first horse slaughter plant in seven years. On January 13, 2014, State District Judge Matthew Wilson will listen to testimony in a lawsuit brought by state Attorney General Gary King. King filed the lawsuit last month after a federal appeals court vacated a temporary restraining order blocking the openings. It seemed, momentarily, that the way was cleared—once again—for processing plants to reopen. Going back in time, that temporary restraining order was allowed in July after the U.S. Department of Agriculture gave the go-ahead for resumption of the regulated slaughter of horses. This latest lawsuit by the New Mexico attorney general claims that the processor would violate the state’s food safety, water quality, and unfair business practices laws. The processor’s attorney argues that the state lacks jurisdiction because the meat would not be sold or consumed in the U.S., that the federal government has sole jurisdiction over meat shipped to international markets, and that the company is working with environmental officials to ensure lawful disposal of all waste. Click for more details in the Associated Press report by Jeri Clausing. Posted January 4, 2014

Horse slaughter plants in New Mexico and Missouri expect to resume processing again in the U.S. in a matter of days. “Expect” is the operating word in this ongoing battle between the opposing views. Horse slaughter plants expected to open back in July of this year after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) cleared the way, but a last-moment appeal spearheaded by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) resulted in a temporary restraining order on the plant openings. That emergency ban has now been vacated by a federal appeals court, deciding that the humane organizations “failed to meet their burden” of proof that the injunction was necessary. The way is cleared once again for the plants to open. Most media news articles continue to approach this contentious issue from the horsemeat angle. The sensitivity of many in this country to the use of horses for human consumption is powerfully emotional, and such headlines sell newspapers. However, what the media mostly ignore in their coverage is that the Government Accounting Office (GAO), Congress’s independent investigative arm, bluntly reported to Congress in 2011, that horse welfare had been harmed by their legislation that resulted in the closing of all horse processing plants in this country. Prompted by animal rights groups, Congress, in 2006, passed a law which eliminated funding to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the inspection of horses in transit to slaughter and at slaughter facilities. Since existing law required USDA inspection, it was a back-door method of ending the slaughter of horses in the U.S. Within a year the last domestic slaughter house closed. At that time about 100,000 horses a year were being shipped to slaughter facilities. It was the ideological dream that these horses would somehow be absorbed by equine retirement facilities to spend the remainder of their natural lives in green fields tended by loving caretakers. That dream became a nightmare for horses. With retirement facilities unable to absorb even a small fraction of unwanted horses, the GAO reported that in 2010, 138,000 horses were exported to Mexico and Canada for slaughter. “The horses are traveling farther to meet the same end…in foreign slaughtering facilities where U.S. humane slaughtering protections do not apply,” said the GAO. The agency went on to say that horses are sometimes shipped in too small containers—conditions that were not allowed when USDA inspections applied. Not only have more horses been shipped greater distances under conditions unregulated by the USDA, to be slaughtered in facilities unregulated by the USDA for humane treatment, but thousands more horses are simply abandoned and neglected for lack of a commercial outlet that slaughter facilities used to provide. Horse slaughter may not be the best solution for the unwanted horse. Surely we must continue to pursue and develop all practical ideas that have come forward to solve the problem of unwanted horses in a kinder way. But the cessation of horse slaughter in the U.S. as the result of Congressional legislation has resulted in more suffering, not less, according to the GAO. Posted December 17, 2013

On Monday, November 4, a federal appeals court granted an emergency request by animal rights groups to temporarily block the expected reopening of horse slaughter plants in the U.S. After eleven years, horse slaughter was expected to resume as early as this week after a U.S. District judge in New Mexico last Friday threw out a lawsuit brought by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and other animal protection groups. The lawsuit by HSUS et al alleged that the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), responsible for inspection of processing plants, failed to carry out environmental reviews before granting approval to the three companies scheduled to resume slaughter. The district judge in New Mexico dismissed the suit on Friday, clearing the way for horse processing to resume. HSUS et al responded on Monday, in their emergency request to the 10th Circuit, by arguing that an emergency injunction was necessary to prevent environmental harm. A two-judge panel granted the request. The anticipated resumption of horse slaughter was enabled mainly by a General Accounting Office (GAO) report to Congress that their 2006 legislation resulting in the closing of all horse processing plants in this country actually turned out to be detrimental to horse welfare. For more details, click to read Terry Baynes’s Reuters article. Posted November 5, 2013

A federal judge last Friday placed a temporary restraining order on the planned openings of two New Mexico horse slaughter plants scheduled to begin operations this week. Chief U.S. District Judge M. Christine Armijo ruled on the basis of claims by horse slaughter opponents that the plants pose a threat to the environment. The ban will remain in effect for at least thirty days. The plants are allowed to seek a bond from their opponents to compensate them for lost business should they ultimately prevail through the courts. The New Mexico plants had expected to be the first to open since Congress effectively banned horse slaughter in the U.S. six years ago. The judge based her decision on a directive published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), but lawyers for the USDA claim that the directive was just an operating guideline for USDA use and had no bearing on the law that permits horse slaughter. The HSUS and other groups were parties to the lawsuit blocking the plant openings. Lawyers for the USDA, the slaughter plants, and tribal groups in the area claim that the judge relied on sweeping statements of damage to the environment with no evidence to back up the claims. John Boyd, representing the Yakama tribe in Washington State said the only proven damage to the environment has been caused by the runaway population of thousands of unwanted horses destroying the vegetation and driving out other species. Another hearing will take place in thirty days. For more details, read Milan Simonich’s article in the Alamagordo Daily News. Posted August 4, 2013

Horse processing is likely to resume in the U.S. after six years without the availability of domestic slaughtering facilities. The last horse slaughtering plant in the U.S. closed in 2007 when Congress forbad the USDA from inspecting horse meat for human consumption. Since then, horses destined for European and other foreign food markets have been shipped to Canada and Mexico for slaughter. Now Valley Meat Company in California expects to open, in Roswell, New Mexico, the first horse processing plant since the closures. USDA inspection and approval is required before slaughtering can take place in any processing plant. In 2011, four years after Congress banned inspections, they removed their ban after the General Accounting Office— Congress’s objective and apolitical investigative arm—bluntly reported that the unintended consequence of Congress’s intrusion into the horse slaughter debate had actually harmed the welfare of the unwanted horse population. Since the ban was lifted there has been talk in several states about opening such plants. Last fall, Valley Meat Company sued the USDA for inaction on their request for inspections, and the agency is now expected to approve their request. According to a New York Times article, the Obama administration is urging Congress to reinstate the ban. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has petitioned the Agriculture Department and the FDA to delay approval of any horse slaughter facilities because of concerns about the presence of drugs that might have been administered to the horses. Posted March 9, 2013

A group of horse owners and equestrian clubs in New Mexico are in favor of the establishment of a horse slaughter facility in their state. The group says that the closing of the last such facility in the U.S. five years ago has caused “needless suffering under the cruelest conditions.” In a letter to Governor Susana Martinez, New Mexico Horse Council President Rusty Cook wrote that an informal survey of the council’s membership showed that ninety-four percent favored humane slaughter. Cook wrote that there were insufficient facilities for unwanted horses in the state, and she estimated that one thousand horses a month are being shipped through New Mexico to slaughter facilities in Mexico. She said that a slaughterhouse in New Mexico would help alleviate the overpopulation of horses and would provide economic benefits to the state in the form of jobs and products, both foreign and domestic, such as meat, dog food, and glue. The governor and other groups, including animal rights activists, oppose the proposal. An application to the USDA has been filed by a New Mexico meat packer to provide such a facility. The USDA is evaluating slaughterhouse applications from New Mexico and Missouri, but has indicated that there will probably be no decisions made until after the presidential election. Read further details in the Associated Press report on CBS News. Posted August 5, 2012