News

Measure defunds horse processing inspection

Funding for agriculture programs was approved for fiscal year 2014 by the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday but it does not include any funding for resuming domestic horse processing.

An amendment sponsored by Senator Mary Landrieu, a Democrat from Louisiana, and Republican Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, that would defund the USDA inspection of horse slaughter facilities was approved on a voice vote. It is identical to an amendment passed by the House Appropriations Committee last week.

In addition, President Obama’s proposed Fiscal Year 2014 budget supports preventing tax dollars to fund horse slaughter.

Congress removed funding for horse slaughter inspections in 2006 but Congress approved the ability to restore funding in 2011.

The Senate Appropriations bill provides nearly $21 Billion to the USDA and the FDA for the next fiscal year and is $420 Million more than for fiscal year 20-13.

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  It is amazing how these legislators are supporting the animal rights agenda. It makes no sense to prohibit the slaughter of horses. Instead they will now be trucked for hundreds of miles to Mexico and Canada where they will be slaughtered…and some will just be let out onto the roads and fields…due to owners who can no longer afford to care for them. Wasteful decision.

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  This is not an “animal rights” agenda, Laurella. There are many issues at play here:

  We do not want the proposed horse slaughter plants to open because horses being shipped for slaughter are not required to have health certificates. This means all types of diseases from out of state horses could enter a state, with little to no traceability.
  Furthermore, there are over 100 equine drugs that we (the collective horse owners) give our horses that make them unfit for human consumption. The USDA has no business getting mixed up in this.
  Additionally, this plant would cost U.S. taxpayers $400,000.00 per year for the USDA inspections, and the meat would be shipped overseas.
  Also, we would be worried about horse thieves stealing horses in the surrounding area for slaughter, especially in this economy.
  What’s more, toxic waste from the plants could contaminate entire areas surrounding them.
  Finally, slaughter plants want the healthy horses and never the old or sick horses. These are horses that could benefit the community as therapy horses for children and veterans, or as police mounts.

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