Bill would ban transport, sale, purchase, donation of horses for slaughter for human consumption

Since October, the closure of horse slaughterhouses in the U.S. has been blamed for a crisis in care for many horses, along with drought, amateur breeding and other factors. But opponents of killing horses for meat anywhere are pressing their case in Congress, on the heels of an initial legislative victory, reports the Washington bureau of The Courier-Journal.

"Buried deep within the government spending bill Congress passed last month is a provision that effectively bans horse slaughter in the United States. The measure bars the U.S. Department of Agriculture from collecting fees to pay for horse meat inspections, without which slaughter can't legally continue," James R. Carroll writes.

Now a sponsor of that measure has "legislation that would ban the transport, sale, purchase or donation of horses to be slaughtered for human consumption. The idea would be to permanently prohibit the practice nationwide and also prevent horses from being taken to other countries for slaughter." Republican Rep. Ed Whitfield of Western Kentucky's 1st District told Carroll, "The problem now is that people are moving more of the horses to Mexico, where the slaughter process is even worse than it was in the U.S." The bill's other primary co-sponsor is Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois. The Senate also has a bill.

Carroll reports, "Some agriculture organizations, like the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, worry that banning horse slaughter is the first step in animal activists' plans to outlaw the processing of other meat. The bill is supported by the Humane Society of the United States, which "released a video report in September that it prepared on the horse slaughter industry in Mexico." (Read more)