Senate Signals Horse Slaughter Ban Likely to Continue
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. […]
Congress Bans Horse Slaughter…Again
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, […]
Horse Slaughter: State Judge Trumps Federal Appeals Court
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 […]
Horse Slaughter Plants “Expected” to Open in NM, MO
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 […]
Temporary Injunction Delays Resumption of Horse Slaughter
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 […]
Judge Delays Horse Slaughter Plant Openings in New Mexico
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 […]
Horse Slaughter to Resume in the U.S.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has finally given the go-ahead for resumption of the regulated slaughter of horses once again in this country as predicted in our report of March 9, 2013. This turn-around on the part of the government is in response to a reputable study showing that the welfare of horses was harmed by Congressional legislation that closed slaughter plants here.
Animal rights groups will now pressure Congress and the White House for more misguided legislation. Your opinions need to be expressed. Click here to learn how.
Most media news articles reporting the recent USDA action have approached the story from the horsemeat angle. The sensitivity of many in this country to the use of horses for human consumption is a powerfully emotional issue, and such headlines sell newspapers. However, what the media mostly ignore in this story 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.
Horse Slaughter Likely to Resume in U.S.
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 […]
New Mexico Horse Owners Support Slaughterhouse Proposal
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 […]
Horse Slaughter: A Contentious Issue
As most of our readers know, horses may no longer be slaughtered in the United States because there are no longer any slaughter houses in operation here. The last horse slaughter facilities closed when, in 2005, Congress curtailed funding to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the inspection of horses in transit to slaughter. The lack of inspection resulted, as it was intended to do, in a defacto ban on horse slaughter.
Some applauded Congress’s action. Certainly the mainstream animal rights activists who lobbied Congress to take that action counted it as a victory. Many, many horse lovers also counted that action as a victory for the welfare of horses. And in a perfect world it well might have been so.