The long-running ban on horse slaughter in the United States, a rider on the annual USDA-FDA funding bill, would end on Sept. 30 under a vote by the House Appropriations Committee. Before clearing the bill for a floor vote, the committee refused, 27-25, to include the provision in the $145 billion funding bill for the fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1.
“This isn’t over and we will look for opportunities to reinstate the ban as the appropriations process continues,” said Oregon Rep. Earl Blumenauer, such as an amendment during House debate. “Congress has repeatedly banned inspection of horse meat processing facilities to make sure that horses are not slaughtered and consumed by people within our borders.”
Horse slaughter is a perennial and emotional issue of debate when appropriators draft the USDA-FDA bill. The last U.S. horse slaughter plant closed a decade ago. The debate pits lawmakers who believe the domesticated animal deserves better treatment than slaughter against lawmakers who point to horse abandonment and the cost of feeding wild horses that otherwise would over-graze public lands.
“It (the horse) is the biggest, fastest thing on the plain,” said Rep. Tom Cole, whose Oklahoma district ranks seventh in horse population. When oil prices fall, owners abandon horses and there are not enough purchasers, he said. “A lot of horses are living in a not very good environment.”
“Frankly, we do not eat horse meat in this country,” said Ohio Rep. Marcy Kaptur, who saw no reason to accommodate a foreign preference, which she said was declining, for horse meat.
California Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, sponsor of the unsuccessful amendment, said the slaughter industry “preys on healthy horses” not malnourished, elderly, or sick horses. “We know horse slaughter is not humane.
Western lawmakers said if U.S. slaughter is banned, buyers will ship horses to Canada and Mexico for slaughter, as they do now.
The Humane Society of the United States said, “American horses deserve a better fate than to be gathered up by a disreputable ‘kill buyer’ … We don’t do this to dogs and cats that don’t have homes.”
Before approving the bill on a voice vote, committee members approved language that would require China to implement carcass-by-carcass inspection by government meat inspectors at processing plants before USDA can allow import of Chinese poultry. At present, China is limited to shipping cooked chicken products that are processed in its plants, but the birds must be raised and slaughtered in other countries. As part of U.S.-China consultations earlier this year, the United States agreed to receive chicken meat from birds raised and processed in China. At the same time, China agreed to end its 13-year ban on imports of U.S. beef.
The Organization for Competitive Markets, a family-farmer group, said the Trump administration should renegotiate the beef deal with China because it allows shipment of beef from Canadian or Mexican cattle that are slaughtered in the United States. “The words describing the exported beef under this trade agreement as ‘U.S. beef’ are misleading to both the U.S. cattle producers who are seeking market opportunity and to Chinese consumers who will think they are purchasing high-quality U.S. beef,” said OCM.
To read an Appropriations Committee news release on the USDA-FDA bill, the committee summary of the bill, its text or the report accompanying the bill, click here.