Four lawmakers this week introduced legislation that would ban horse-killing for human consumption in the U.S. and prohibit transporting the animals outside the country for slaughter. The USDA this month said it encouraged Congress to reinstate the ban on funding inspections.
The legislation was sponsored by Senators Mary Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana, and Lindsay Graham, Republican of South Carolina, along with Representatives Patrick Meehan, Republican of Pennsylvania, and Jan Schakowsky, Democrat of Illinois.
Valley Meat Co. in Roswell, New Mexico, is determined to undermine the opposition of the American people who are opposed to horse slaughter.
The company is one of several that have applied to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to slaughter horses, a practice that ended in 2007 after Congress defunded government inspections at the facilities. That measure lapsed in 2011.
80% of Americans object to horse slaughter and the export of horses for slaughter. Valley Meat has been accused by the animal-welfare group Front Range Equine Rescue of allowing unsanitary conditions at the proposed horse-slaughter facility when it previously processed cattle. The organization said government documents it obtained include allegations of maggot-infested piles of decaying animals as high as 15 feet on the property. The plant, through attorney A. Dunn, has denied the allegations.
The USDA, which would regulate the plant, didn’t immediately comment on the lawyer’s assertion. The agency this month said that once the company meets technical requirements and inspector training has taken place, “the department will legally have no choice but to go forward with inspections.”
This government is "of the people, by the people, for the people," and America has made it clear...we oppose the slaughter of horses. We demand a Federal ban.
