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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Your reliable sources are wrong. There is such a thing as humane horse slaughter, and it no doubt isn’t being used in Mexico, like it was in this country before the do-gooders “fixed things.”
Before obama leaves office, you may be thankful if you can get some horsemeat to eat. Or you can starve to death and let someone else have it.
Very funny. I suppose you condone the consumption of horse? Can I offer you cat or dog too?
I trust my sources and consider it a gross betrayal of a beloved companion animal to subject it to such terror and inhumane death.
I have nothing against the humane euthanasia of even a healthy horse if the alternative is for it to be abandonded to a slow death. But I will never advocate for horses being sent to slaughter.
It is a shameful fate for an animal that has served us so well.
Couldn’t do that either. What’s going to be next, cats and dogs?
Would you eat cat or dog?
This is my preference. You want to eat horse, go to Mexico, Canada, or Europe.
I’ve heard that it is really bright red. You probably did. I think I may have in Germany when I was stationed there. One time I got some meat in the Commissary that I thought was awfully bright red. Someone told me later that it was probably horse. I sure hope not.
“Very funny. I suppose you condone the consumption of horse? Can I offer you cat or dog too?”
I condone the choice. Is a horse better than a cow or a pig?
We agree more than disagree.
I would never subject my beloved dog to a cruel or inhumane death, I’d shoot her first.
And horses are companion animals and deserve our respect. However, in the world we live in neither of these animals get it sometimes, and many suffer from neglect and abuse. Letting a horse being let starve to death, etc., is a lot less enticing if you could get money for taking it to slaughter.
The American Veterinary Association and many others approved of the methods used in legitimate slaughterhouses in the U.S., in fact would inspect them. The horses don’t have that in Mexico. Their fate is much grimmer after the animal rights HSUS got involved.
I agree this has nothing to do with Obama, but that was the headline.
girlangler, obviously I defer to you. I was thinking of some threads I posted some years ago about what I think was a ban of exports to France. My recolecction they were shipping live horses, and it was from BLM land. Couldn't sell them all.
I never thought about the problem beyond wild horses on federal land till this thread. Which has been enlightening, thanks to the horse fans.
Taking it a step further to my beloved canines (I even like the wild ones, though they have to be controlled) and the felines in my family I disparage (but like), I'm not sure there's any rational basis to ban their use as food, for humans or feed. It's a state or local issue, not federal.
(but if u must know...Ive eaten dog in a Vietnam snack bar...and it wasn't all that bad!)
What bugged me about your post was u want to decide/make rules for others!!!......I don't see that as a conservative point of view.....
Do u eat Lobster?....once known as the cock roaches of the sea?
The great thing is the animal rights activists, usually left wingers, are so pissed off at Obama they’ll not vote for him. He promised the big AR organizations before he was elected he would not let this happen.
While I wouldn't eat horse, it's incomceiveable to me there's no humane way to slaughter. If it's being done inhumanely, that may be an undesireable offshoot of the law.
Horsemeat was in vogue necessarily during the depression. The similarites of today versus the ‘30’s are becoming more and more striking.
A buffet? McDonalds. They would have loved McDonalds back in the day. Were I there, i would have eaten horse.
You raise an important point.
If, as I've stated I'd be reluctantly ok with commercial use of euthanized dogs or cats, commercial production, which your comment on "tenderness" leads to, would be an entirely different situation.
While I don't disagree with the concept, where is that true?
I don’t know anything about those import bans, but doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. The antis have been trying for years to stop the consumption of horses.
They actually want to destroy ALL agriculture. There again, if they actually got what they wanted, it would be a disaster like this one issue became.
Welll, I think I would although I have eaten some things that tasted pretty good until I found out what they were. Love squirrel, all venison, bison, chorizo (although I do look at the ingredients first - no lungs, butt hole etc) Love blood sausage (hubby is German) We’ve been pretty lucky on horses now dogs!? Somedays I think I could definitely..... well, not eat but maim LOL (three yapping yorkies who loooooove me)It’s pretty bad when you have to make them get down so you can wipe. :/
The Conservative point of view is not “everything goes”. Libertarians are more of that view.
What you eat is material. Where would you draw the line? Is you pet fair game for the crock pot? Or does it have to be someone else’s pet? Maybe we should empty the shelters, right?
Yes, I eat lobster, and don’t care what they were called. Lobsters aren’t the same as a horse. My boyfriend doesn’t eat catfish because they are bottom feeders. Fine. Do you think that all animals are for feed? Like I said, where do you draw the line?
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