Federal Horse Slaughter Ban to be Debated Soon
House Judiciary Chair likely to move measure.
Compiled by staff
Published: Feb 12, 2010
Another effort to federally ban horse slaughter is on the horizon. Mary Kay Thatcher, American Farm Bureau Federation Farm Policy Specialist, says hearings are scheduled in the next couple of weeks before the House Judiciary Committee.
"The chairman of that committee, Mr. Conyers from Michigan, has a bill to prevent horse slaughter," Thatcher said. "He moved a similar piece of legislation through that committee almost unanimously last year, very likely it will also happen this year."
Thatcher says there are 187 members of the House that have co-sponsored the bill. But she says there isn't as much interest on the Senate side. Since the last time a horse slaughter ban was brought forward, Thatcher says it's become apparent that there are 100,000 American horses being transported annually to Mexico and Canada for slaughter.
"Especially in Mexico they don't have the same kind of humane animal care, humane animal slaughter provisions that we do," Thatcher said. "So a lot of those animals are not having a good experience down there, and I think there are people saying, "Well, does this make sense?" We do have more humane slaughter regulations here so maybe we should think twice about what we forced to happen."
There are several states that are considering opening horse processing plants, but Thatcher says with state legislatures and the federal government very much involved in the issue, investors will wait to put forward any money to develop a processing plant.
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Tagged: farm, Farm Bureau, American Farm Bureau Federation
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