Vickery Eckhoff, Contributor ~ Forbes.com
“Rural U.S. lawmakers with ties to the cattle industry and economically-strapped horse breeding registries have been pushing to reopen horse slaughter plants in the states…”
While everyone is making jokes about the Polish horse meat that contaminated Tesco’s ground beef patties in the UK, lawmakers in Oklahoma and other western states are busy introducing bills to open horse slaughter plants for human consumption here in the U.S.
Below are five reasons why the Tesco scandal could play out in rural America in the very near future if they succeed—and why food safety issues with contaminated horse meat are a far bigger threat to consumers than the industry is admitting.
Reason #1: What’s in that burger and where is it from?
The fact that horse meat from Poland ended up in ground beef in Ireland isn’t so far-fetched when you understand how the industry operates. At least here in the U.S., your average burger is a big mash-up of edible scraps and parts from different cows from different plants, often from different states (and even countries), with fat and additives ground in.
Dr. Lester Castro Friedlander, DVM, used to see “big tubs of beef from different plants ground together” at plants were he was a USDA inspector and also a top inspection trainer. “This makes it difficult to trace liability to any particular plant in the case of e-coli contamination,” says Dr. Friedlander.
As part of a year-long investigation, The Kansas City Star went inside four of America’s largest packing plants (Cargill, JBS, Tyson and National Beef), photographing a plant in Dodge City where tubs of scraps and cuts waited to be ground into burgers, just like the ones Dr. Friedlander talked about. The practice was also exposed in a 2009 New York Times article, “The Burger That Shattered Her Life.”
E-coli contamination is a high risk as both the Star and New York Times articles reveal. And as the Tesco situation shows, it’s not just disparate parts of different cattle from different plants and countries that find their way into burger meat, but pork and horse meat as well, all crossing borders (and datelines) and sold to unwary customers without proper labeling.
Reason #2: Oklahoma wants to cash in on slaughtering racehorses, mustangs and other equines not raised as meat animals.
Rural U.S. lawmakers with ties to the cattle industry and economically-strapped horse breeding registries have been pushing to reopen horse slaughter plants in the states since the last three plants shut down in 2007 (two in Texas, one in Illinois).
Over the past 12 months, they’ve tried unsuccessfully to overturn Texas’ state slaughter ban and pass pro-slaughter legislation in Tennessee. They’ve also tried (and failed so far) to open plants in New Mexico, Oregon and Missouri.
This coming Tuesday (February 5), lawmakers are poised to try again in Oklahoma when a new bill, SB375, is scheduled for a second reading in the state’s Agriculture and Rural Development Committee.
What’s behind it are the 140,000-150,000 U.S. horses that are now being slaughtered in Canada and Mexico for markets overseas plus about 45,000 mustangs unwisely removed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from public lands and warehoused at taxpayer expense to make more room for cattle grazing. This is a wasteful program but “welfare cattle grazing,” the reason most commonly blamed for the removals, is even more wasteful of taxpayer dollars.
These horses, many held in long-term holding pens in Oklahoma, are considered “excess” by the BLM and there are quite a few people in the meat trade who’d happily buy them cheap and sell them at a large profit to slaughter plants (in fact, they’ve been doing this illegally for some time, as revealed in the National Journal article, “Is the U.S. Government Complicit in the Killing of Over 1,000 Wild Horses?” as well as in an investigation reported on in (The Desert Independent)…(Continued)
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Categories: Horse News
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Well done Vickery!
There is another cache of wild horses that seldom get talked about and as I understand it never gets counted into any of the numbers we see and that is the number of horses that live on tribal lands. A recent article noted an increase in the population of wild horses on the Colville Reservation in Washington was creating over grazing problems. Colville is home to several native nations including the Nez Perce of Chief Josephs band. The reservation lands encompass over 1.4 million acres with a wild horse population of about 1,000. That is just one of the many native reservations.
Recently a discussion was exposed about opening horse slaughter facilities on native lands because of the legal advantages afforded the tribes. I’ve also read where among all the 310 native reservations there are an estimated 100,000 wild horses. Add that to the 50,000 in holding and there is a glut of untainted meat and a lot of money. Greed is looming!
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Doink has been pushing HCHS plants on reservations for about 4 years and has the insidious backing of the Native Peoples “National Congress”.
What he fails to mention is that there is great disunity among Native Peoples and many tribes have disputed Chiefs (different leadership) and certainly disagree with many positions that the “National Congress” has taken.
But it is important, just as the dysfunction between state and federal and private management of wild equines has been demonstrated.
If the Nez Perce think that equines are a problem on their land….much more butchering them this way is acceptable to the memory of their leaders and culture, it is a sad commentary and a loss to their Nation.
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hey there’s also a pro horse slaughter bill in new mexico sponsored by, paul bandy HB 90, and it has passed the ag commitee
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No surprise it passed the Ag Committee. LOL. Apparently, the cowboys of New Mexico don’t mind feeding tainted meat or polluting the air and water.
The Governor has already made it clear that any attempt to establish slaughtering of horses in New Mexico would be against the better moral and ethical values of the people of New Mexico and as a whole against the people of the United States.
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Everyone should tighten their seat belts for this ride. Many of these low lifes never had a plant in their backyard or even in their states. Several political block heads continue to entertain and try to open these plants again. I come from Illinois and fought to close and keep close Cavel, Intil in DeKalb, Illinois. It was a disgusting place and contaminated the evironment. This greedy bunch of foreigners left Illinois owing thousands in violations and fines. The information Animal Angels has is so sicking its unbelievable.. I cannot fathom how any human in their right mind could cause such pain, suffering and death to such beautiful animals. People in every state should start talking about this to horse people and non-horse owning people. We again need to get the Burns Amendment reversed and the ban on slaughter. We can never let this happen in our country again. One look at that video Animal Angels aquired should be enough for any sane person. However, these low lifes are amoung the lowest of lowest demons from Hell. Keep the damn slaughter houses closed and save the horses!
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My suggestion…burger king FB page, we have been hitting it hard..I posted suggestion in order to make it right with consumers they make substancial donations to rescues and sanctuarys and to support legislation pending to ban slaughter..or we ain’t eatin nothing they make…new pettion up on FB to OKLA. reps..I will never spend another dime in their state at horse related events(which bring inalot of money to the state)..Hell the AQHA world show alone goes on for 2 weeks…they may not give a damn about the horses but they do care about the money and bad publicity..bet ya BK is writing checks as I write..at least with business, we can make or break them..call for a boycot of OKLA
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I submitted a comment, Vickery, but my comment may have gotten lost in cyber space.
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http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/02/01/170873657/wheres-the-beef-burger-king-finds-horsemeat-in-its-patties?guid=1359764871093#commentBlock
NPR story tonight seems to find it amusing instead of addressing the toxicity associated with slaughtering pets who are given drugs that are banned from livestock raised for food..unbelievable are the really stupid the comments
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