Posted on 01/19/2014 2:34:06 PM PST by nickcarraway
Americans may recoil at the thought of eating horse meat, but other countries feel quite differently, as the sign above this butcher shop in Paris attests.
Americans may recoil at the thought of eating horse meat, but other countries feel quite differently, as the sign above this butcher shop in Paris attests.
When a federal ban on slaughtering horses to produce horse meat was lifted several years back, ranchers including Rick De Los Santos, a New Mexico rancher and owner of Valley Meat Co., stepped up to start operations with an aim to export the meat.
But, as we've reported, his plans for a horse meat slaughterhouse have hit major roadblocks. There have been lawsuits to stop him and others trying to get into the business. And plenty of stories about the ick factor evoked by the image of butchering a beautiful thoroughbred.
Now, given a bit of language written into the omnibus spending bill that was approved by the Senate on Thursday night, it's seeming more certain that there will be no horse slaughtering on U.S. soil in the foreseeable future. The House already approved the spending measure, which now heads to President Obama for his signature.
The provision bans the funding of U.S. Department of Agriculture inspections at horse slaughter plants. And without inspections, slaughterhouses can't be in business. Game over.
"Americans do not want to see scarce tax dollars used to oversee an inhumane, disreputable horse slaughter industry," Wayne Pacelle of the Humane Society argues in a press release. He has been lobbying for a ban on funding for horse slaughter inspections.
"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," Pacelle writes.
For retiring Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), it's a win he helped usher through.
"These incredible companion animals don't deserve to be callously slaughtered for human consumption," his office wrote in an email to The Salt. "We fought hard for the past three years to reinstate this ban to prevent slaughter facilities from reopening on American soil."
The flip side of the argument is that horse slaughter is a practical way to handle the problem of abandoned horses. Horses can be very expensive to maintain, and when owners can't afford them, it's not unheard of for them to be sent to factories in Mexico and Canada.
That's the argument put forth by Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), who tried but failed to strike the ban on funding inspections from the spending bill.
"Without these facilities, aging horses are often neglected or forced to endure cruel conditions as they are transported to processing facilities across the border," Inhofe wrote in a release. "This provision is counterproductive to what animal rights activists are hoping to achieve."
And Inhofe is not giving up yet.
Before Thursday night's Senate vote, Inhofe said he and Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-OKla.) plan to introduce separate legislation that would lift the ban on funding for horse slaughterhouse inspections.
The utterly-corrupt EXEMPT treasonous HATED Congress
just has not found a way to make money from it ... yet.
Where are the Dog slaughter houses?
T. Boone Pickens trophy wife, Madeleine, gets her way again.
Cows seem so much more vegetative than horses. I wouldn’t want to see horses slaughtered on the same scale as cows. I’m no expert on the subject.
Why couldn’t the states decide this for themselves?
The feds could ban horsemeat crossing state lines if they wanted to be intrusive.
I’d certainly at least try it. I eat chicken feet and sea cucumbers.
It is shortsighted, tree-huggin’ do-gooders like these idiots that have led to many people simply turning their domestic horses out on federal or state lands to fend for themselves. They become unwitting prey to various other animals, or die from exposure, exhaustion or dehydration.
Animals that have been cared-for their entire lives are ill equipped to survive in the wild.
But, these jackasses would rather that, than a more humane end. Processing horse meat is no different than beef, pork, or poultry; or, deer, wild turkey, pheasant, squirrel, rabbit, and on and on and on.
Get past the supposed ick factor and really consider the better approach.
“I’ll sign the bill as long as it doesn’t include dogs...”
bHusseinO
smile
smile
But slaughtering babies is A-OK
Worse than that are the much longer, grueling hauls to the Mexican border where they’ll ~still~ be slaughtered with very little in the way of “humane” treatment.
Wonderful news. There is no humane way to slaughter horses. Plus most horse meat would not be fit for human consumption because of the drugs commonly used in routine horse care such as wormers.
Horses, dogs, bald eagles, et al must be available for consumption if there’s a market for their meat, and if not, if someone wants to create one for the same.
The Government can’t dictate what the people want to eat.
There’s no humane way to slaughter anything, if horses can’t be slaughtered humanely.
If anything in this life is certain, if history has taught us anything, it is that you can kill anything humanely.
And shipping them to a less humane slaughter is even more stupid.
Wow, great priorities! Horses trump punishing the IRS!
I recently made the mistake of Googling “dog” and “Chinese food” while looking for animal halloween costumes.
Not a mistake I will make again.
Eye opening..... to say the least.
65-70 years ago i used to buy horsemeat for cat food all the time.
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