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U.S. Representatives Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Vern Buchanan (R-FL), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and John Katko (R-NY) took the lead in an effort to keep horse slaughter plants shuttered on U.S. soil.  In a letter sent to key leaders of Appropriations Committees, they urged for a continued restriction on the use of taxpayer funds for horse slaughter operations in the United States. This provision was included in both the House Fiscal Year 2021 agriculture appropriations bill and the administration’s Fiscal Year 2021 Budget Request. This is a continuation of overwhelmingly popular policy that has been in place each year since Fiscal Year 2014 and for all but two years since 2005. This provision is necessary to stop the return of the predatory horse slaughter industry in America. At a time when Congress faces difficult budgetary decisions to help Americans through the COVID-19 pandemic, expending limited funds to bolster a foreign owned industry should not be one of them. Horse slaughter is an inherently cruel practice that 80% of Americans want to see permanently banned. Beyond fiscal concerns, flesh from American horses is not fit for human consumption. Equines are not considered food animals in the U.S. and therefore are not raised under the regulatory restrictions of animals used for that purpose. Throughout their lives, they routinely receive drugs and medications that are specifically banned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in food animals due to their toxicity to humans. 85 additional U.S. Representatives signed the letter, sending a strong message to leadership that horse slaughter plants are not welcome in the USA and not one penny of taxpayer money should be allocated to fund them.
The effort to require the Bureau of Land Management to implement a humane management strategy for America's wild horses with the immunocontraception, porcine zona pellucida (PZP), advanced through a FY21 U.S. House spending bill.  Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) offered an amendment to the “State, Foreign Operations, Agriculture, Rural Development, Interior, Environment, Military Construction, and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act”, which would mandate that at least $11M of the Bureau of Land Management’s FY21 wild horse and burro budget be allocated to administering PZP to mustangs on the range. Cosponsors of Cohen's amendment: U.S. Representatives; Dina Titus (D-NM), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Joe Neguse (D-CO), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), David Schweikert (R-AZ), David Price (D-NC), Peter King (R-NY), Deb Haaland (D-NM), John Katko (R-NY), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), and Ben McAdams (D-UT). Opposition: By a vast majority, the U.S. House passed the amendment, but it did meet with one outspoken voice of opposition: Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT). Stewart, who is a leading architect of the misguided and reckless, “Path Forward, 10 Years to AML agenda” for wild horses, decried the amendment. He stated on the U.S. House Floor, "While I appreciate the gentleman's concern for wild horses, it will end up hurting more than it helps." Stewart went on to say, “The amendment seeks to push PZP contraceptive. The only problem with that is it doesn't work.” Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT) opposes humane fertility control, PZP, for wild horses. It’s extremely troubling that Rep. Stewart attempted to sabotage the amendment, especially as his 10 Years to AML agenda partners include the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), and Return to Freedom (RTF). All three of these organizations support the use of PZP. In fact, HSUS holds the registrant for PZP under the name “ZonaStat-H” for use on wild horses and burros, ASPCA has provided financial support for PZP research and development, and RTF successfully utilizes PZP on the wild horses residing at their sanctuary.
The next hurdle for the $11M mandate on PZP use will be in the U.S. Senate's FY 2021 spending bill that will be drafted and voted on in the next few months. Last year, 53,947 horses were shipped from the United States to Mexico for slaughter. That marks a 26% decrease from 2018 when 70,708 horses designated for slaughter were transported across the southern U.S. border, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Market News Livestock Export Summary.
Efforts to open new horse slaughter plants have been unsuccessful, partly because of legislation denying funds for federal inspections of such operations. Nevertheless, thousands of U.S. horses have been exported to slaughterhouses in Mexico and Canada. Canada and Mexico are two of the main exporters of horse meat to Europe. At least 85% of horses slaughtered at European Union–approved Canadian horse slaughterhouses originated in the United States, and 50% of the horse meat produced from those animals was exported to the EU. Federal data on the number of horses transported to Canada annually aren’t available. However, the advocacy organization Animals’ Angels estimated that 12,273 U.S. horses were imported by Canada for slaughter in 2017. California, Illinois, New Jersey, Texas, and New York have enacted laws against horse slaughter and eating horse meat. Source: AVMA
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TOPICS+ Horse Slaughter
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