Posted on 11/29/2011 4:55:10 PM PST by SJackson
Horse slaughter plants are legal again in the United States. Restrictions on horse meat processing for human consumption have been lifted.
In a bipartisan effort, the House of Representatives and the United States Senate approved the Conference Committee report on spending bill H2112, which among other things, funds the United States Department of Agriculture. On November 18th, as the country was celebrating Thanksgiving, President Obama signed a law, allowing Americans to kill and eat horses. Essentially, one turkey was pardoned in the presence of worldwide media while in the shadows, buried under pages of fiscal regulation, millions of horses were sentenced to death.
Horse slaughter has been prohibited in the United States as funding for inspections of horses in transit and at slaughter houses was non-existent. This worked because the horse meat cannot be sold for human consumption without such inspections. The House version of the bill retained the de-funding language and the Senate version did not. The conference committee charged with reconciling the two opted to not include it. The result is that it is now legal to slaughter horses for humans to eat.
Notwithstanding that 70% of Americans oppose horse slaughter, that President Obama made a campaign promise to permanently ban horse slaughter and exports of horses for human consumption (horses can be sent to Mexico and Canada), that documentation of animal cruelty, slaughterhouse stench, fluid runoff and negative community impact exists, it is taxpayers that will bear the costs!
Wyoming state representative Sue Wallis and her pro-slaughter group estimate that between 120,000 and 200,000 horses will be killed for human consumption per year and that Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Georgia and Missouri, are considering opening slaughter plants.
During these trying times, is the only thing that Democrats and Republicans can agree on is that Americans need to eat horses?
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Tastes like chicken./s
I had 2013 in the pool for when the USA becomes an official 3rd world nation. Damn!
“is the only thing that Democrats and Republicans can agree on is that Americans need to eat horses?”
Is there any serious argument FOR the government telling us what meats we can and cannot consume?
The only real story here is Obama trying to jump in and take credit for congress repealing a mess they had ill advisedly made.
It's been a couple years since we visited this topic. At the time I think the issue was shipping horses to France, where humans eat them.
Can't blame Obama till he signs the bill, but he's written about eating dog in Indonesia, so this shouldn't be an issue.
Personally I'm not a horse fan, but I certainly wouldn't eat one for various reasons. I suppose eating horse doesn't have to be illegal, but I always wonder about the impetus to changes. Is there a "let's eat horse" lobby? Do they want horse as an ingredient on Iron Chef?
Paging PETA!
Just because Americans don’t eat horse meat is no reason to ban slaughterhouses from processing horses for export. Such bans merely lead to the export of live horses who are then slaughtered in Mexico and then Mexican’s end up with jobs that Americans could definitely use right about now.
Oh, and when you live on a ranch you discover that “wild horse” is how you say ‘pigeon’ in the country.
A Muslim Holiday special?
Read the labels on the hamburger and dog food contents, very, very carefully!
This is disgusting! I’ll eat alot of things, but I draw the line at horses. What’s next? Dogs and cats? And people say he’s compassionate!
I guess they cannot print food stamps fast enough to keep up with Obama’s give-away programs....
No, and yes. Don't know if this crosses the threshold, but practically the politician that supports the right to eat cats and dogs will lose. Horses, who knows.
“Wilbu-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r! Put down the chain saw!”
The propaganda said that slaughtering horses for dog food had been made illegal. Maybe that was a lie. If you want European style steak tartar, go back to Italy. This is not Europe.
Can I get fries with that?
As much as we all like horses, this is a good thing. Here in OK, hay and grain prices coupled with the bad economy have forced people to turn their horses loose. You can’t give horses away anymore. I don’t know how many free horses I have turned down this fall. Taking them to the live stock auction used to get you at least $100, now even young but unbroken horses bring less than the $10 auction fee.
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