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A permanent ban would protect horses
from ending up on foreign dinner plates. |
Horses and animal welfare advocates won two victories in Congress last week, both key steps toward a permanent ban on horse slaughter for human consumption overseas.
On April 26, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill reinstating protections of wild free-roaming horses and burros from commercial sale and slaughter. The bill, H.R. 249, passed with overwhelming support by a vote of 277 to 137.
Wild horses and burros had been protected from slaughter from 1971-2005, but in 2004, former U.S. Senator Conrad Burns stripped those protections by slipping an amendment into the 2005 omnibus spending bill.
The vote came a day after the Senate Commerce Committee passed a similar bill, H.R. 503/S. 311, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, legislation that would ban horse slaughter for human consumption in the United States and would ensure that horses could not be shipped to other countries for the same purpose. The HSUS is now calling for Senate leadership to give the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act a full floor vote.
Individuals around the country who support a permanent ban on slaughter flooded Congress with calls and emails this week to help secure the victories.
"We are so grateful to the thousands of animal advocates who called and wrote to their legislators to express their support for the humane treatment of America's horses," said Wayne Pacelle, President and CEO of The HSUS. "The inhumane slaughter industry has suffered a number of serious setbacks this year, and these votes are the latest victories in a fight for one of America's most treasured animals."
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Protecting Wild Horses |
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 A permanent slaughter ban would not only protect domestic horses from ending up on foreign dinner plates. It would protect a dwindling population of 30,000 horses left in the country, down from more than 2 million in the 1800s and 60,000 in 1971.
Survival of wild horses in the United States is already threatened by the loss of 13 million acres of the land originally granted to manage the species through reductions made by the Bureau of Land Management.
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In the latest of those setbacks, a federal district court ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to stop inspecting horsemeat at the Cavel International slaughter plant March 29, closing the last horse slaughtering operation in the United States. A controversial split decision by a federal district appeals court allowed the plant to temporarily resume slaughtering horses May 1.* Advocates said the appeals court ruling illustrated why passage of the permanent slaughter bans under consideration in the U.S. Congress and in Illinois is so crucial.
The HSUS rescued 28 horses from the Cavel plant in April, one of which was a pregnant mare who recently delivered a new foal.
Contrary to a common belief, horses slaughtered for their meat are not typically old and frail. There is no evidence to show that there has been an increase in the number of abandoned and unwanted horses in the United States, nor that a slaughter ban will lead to an increase in horse abuse and starvation or neglect cases—common arguments advanced by slaughter industry supporters.
Posted April 26, 2007.
*Updated May 1, 2007.
