Horse Slaughterhouses Could Reopen In US

MORRISTOWN, NJ — Horse slaughterhouses could reopen in the United States, following a narrow Congressional committee vote to strike down a ban on slaughterhouse inspections. The ban, which effectively made the slaughterhouses illegal, has been in place for more than a decade. There are currently no operating slaughterhouses in the country.

The House Appropriations Committee voted 25-27 against extending the ban into the next year. The ban must be renewed yearly by committees in both the House and the Senate. It most recently failed in the House in 2015, but the Senate overruled the decision, keeping the ban in place.

By banning Agriculture Department officials from inspecting horse slaughterhouses, they were rendered effectively illegal across the country. Slaughterhouses cannot run without government inspection.

Horses can still be shipped outside of the country to be slaughtered for consumption. According to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report, horse exports to slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico increased 148 and 660 percent, respectively, between 2006 and 2010. (More recent data was not immediately available.)

“The reality is, if these horses are not dealt with in USDA certified and inspected facilities, they will be hauled off to a foreign market where the conditions are much more cruel and less humane,” Appropriations Committee member Mario Diaz-Balart, a Republican from Florida, who voted against keeping the ban, said in a statement sent to the Miami Herald.

Although horse meat is frequently eaten in other parts of the world, there is strong opposition to it in America. According to the Humane Society of the United States, 80 percent of Americans oppose horse slaughter for human consumption.

The last three operating horse slaughterhouses closed in 2007, when a loophole allowing slaughterhouses to fund their own inspections was closed, New Food Economy reported. Because it's illegal to serve, sell or distribute meat that hasn't been inspected, horse meat has been off the American menu ever since.

Although the ban was struck down in House Appropriations Committee, it was upheld in the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, making the future of the ban unclear. House Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen, a Republican from New Jersey, voted against keeping the ban in place.

Frelinghuysen's home district has a love of horses: The horse is the official New Jersey state animal, and Morris County, which makes up a large portion of his constituency, is known for its horse stables and farms. A representative for Frelinghuysen did not return Patch's request for comment.

Horse rescue groups spoke out against the possible re-opening of slaughterhouses in America.

"If the law passes in its present form, race horses, show horses, therapy horses and even our wild horses will be slaughtered right here in America. We need to end horse slaughter NOT bring it back into the US," Nancy Marie, the head of Medford-based Forgotten Angels Equine Rescue said in a statement.

"We don’t do this to dogs or cats when we don’t have homes for them, and it should be unthinkable to do this to the domesticated animal that helped settle the nation. I pity the people who don’t see the majesty of these American icons and who are numb to their suffering," Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, wrote in a statement.

Image via Karsun Designs, Flickr