Source: ASPCA.org
Approved amendment would protect horses from cruel practice in the U.S.
Jerry Finch, president of Habitat for Horses, and R.T. Fitch, president of Wild Horse Freedom Federation, delivering letters and discussing equine issues with Rep. Jim Moran late last year.
NEW YORK—The ASPCA® (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals®) commends the members of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee for approving an amendment to its fiscal year 2014 Agriculture Appropriations bill that would prevent the use of taxpayer dollars by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to inspect horse slaughter facilities. The Moran-Young Amendment, introduced by Reps. Jim Moran (D-Va.) and Bill Young (R-Fla.), would effectively shut the door to the grisly horse slaughter industry on U.S. soil.
A similar spending prohibition was put in place in 2005; however, in the 2012 budget, the language preventing horse slaughter inspections was not included, opening the door for a return of horse slaughter in the U.S., despite broad opposition to the practice. Several applications to open horse slaughter facilities have already been filed with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, including one in Roswell, N.M. and another in Sigourney, Iowa.
“Horse slaughter is a cruel practice that only benefits foreign interests,” said Nancy Perry, senior vice president of ASPCA Government Relations. “Using taxpayer dollars to fund this abhorrent industry is irresponsible and wasteful. We are grateful to Representatives Moran and Young for their strong leadership in advocating to protect our nation’s revered equines.”
Horse slaughter is inherently cruel and often erroneously compared to humane euthanasia. The methods used to slaughter horses rarely result in quick, painless deaths, as horses are difficult to stun and often remain conscious during their butchering and dismemberment. Whether slaughter occurs in the U.S. or abroad, these equines suffer incredible abuse even before they arrive at the slaughterhouse, often transported for more than 24 hours at a time without food, water or rest, and in dangerously overcrowded trailers where the animals are often seriously injured or even killed in transit. The majority of horses killed for human consumption are young, healthy animals who could go on to lead productive lives with loving owners. Last year, more than 160,000 American horses were sent to a cruel death by a grisly foreign industry that produces unsafe food for consumers.
“Horses hold a special place in our nation’s history and they deserve better than to be slaughtered for the benefit of foreign consumers,” said Rep. Moran. “The Committee’s vote today will not only save taxpayers’ money, but it will help protect these iconic creatures from suffering a cruel fate.”
While the Moran-Young Amendment in the appropriations bill protects American communities from the devastating environmental and economic impact of horse slaughter facilities, it does not prohibit the transport of U.S. horses for slaughter across the border to Canada and Mexico. To address this issue, U.S. Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and Reps. Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.) and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), introduced the Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act (S. 541/H.R. 1094)—bipartisan legislation that would end the current export of American horses for slaughter abroad, and protect the public from consuming toxic horse meat.
In a recent national poll commissioned by the ASPCA, it was revealed that 80 percent of American voters, including the vast majority of horse owners (71 percent), are opposed to the slaughter of U.S. horses for human consumption. To learn more about the ASPCA’s efforts to ban horse slaughter, please visit www.aspca.org.
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Categories: Horse News, Horse Slaughter
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Can I breathe now? Please don’t wake me up if I am dreaming this!
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Me either! Woo-hoo!!!! Now these disgusting creatures who wanted to open up these houses of horrors can go crawl back from wherever they came from.
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So why is it so hard to just pass the damn federal bill to stop export for slaughter too and be done with this whole miserable “industry”.
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Thank you everyone who called the Appropriations Committee members. And Hoorah! However, this is just the beginning. The amendment got out of Committee, but now it has to be passed by the House and to survive the reconciliation with the Senate Version of the Farm Bill. We may have more calling and emailing to do to our individual Representatives and even Senators in the future. And while we are at it we must continue to push the SAFE Act, and push and push.
But this is a great day and yes, we can breathe for a bit.
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There is a lot of reps. that have cosponsored the Safe Act but no Senators that I know of. The only Senators are the ones that introduced the bill. This is the same thing that happened to the last bill.
Keep in mind that a large percentage of the Senate is in the pocket of racing industry and all of the other organizations that don’t want this to pass. The last bill never made it out of committee, the same thing with the one before that.
I was sent a update from Canadian Horse Defense on the number of horses that was counted going through one of the auctions for the past five months. This is just one auction but it looks like the breeders that sold and raced the standardbred’s are selling them off. The number sold was 278 over the five months with most of them going to kill buyers. So much for Canada paying any attention to the drugs all of these horses have been given.
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Barbara, since Mary Landrieu introduced the bill 14 Senators have co-sponsored (12D, 2R). I know the total is only 15% of the Senate, but many much less controversial bills attract fewer supporters. I keep links to both bills on my Bookmarks Toolbar so I can keep updated. S. 541: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/s541 H.R. 1094: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/hr1094
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Linda is correct….we CANNOT stop fighting. This voice vote in the House was a great thing….and most probably it will pass the vote in the entire House….but we must keep after our Reps about this. And then it goes to the Senate where it was screwed back in 2011 by Blunt, Kingston & Kohl. We have to make sure this doesn’t happen again…..stay after your Senators to keep the DEFUNDING language in the Farm Bill. Also stay after your senators to get the SAFE Act passed……there are a lot of senators with pockets filled with special interest money…special interests that do not want the SAFE Act passed….”The squeaky wheel gets the grease” Be the squeaky wheel and pester the hell out of the senators.
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YEAH!!!!!..
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Is there any kind of petition I can sign thanking the House Appropriations Committee for eliminating funds for inspections of U.S. Horse Slaughter Facilities. If so, I am sure thousands of Americans would sign it.
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woot woot ! onward to the next step.
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Thank you HAC !!
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This is definitely great news. It was mentioned by Scott Beckstead from the HSUS that the vote was passed by voice which means that there were so many for the Moran Amendment that they didn’t need to ask for roll-call! We need to take this momentum into the next phase of our campaign to ban horse slaughter and the transportation of horses to slaughter in America. Onward!!
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Yay! But keep up the contact and pressure!
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Brings to mind a song by micheal w smith, saddle up your horses! We made this far, we need to saddle up and agressively spread the truth on paper, the airwaves, tv, billboards, blogs a.d comments. We have to spur the safe act into play, round up the neigh sayers, encourage their votes, we need to thank moran, declan, tom vilsak, many agencies and many politicians, horse owners ect. For their diligent efforts and encourage them to keep their shoulder to the yoke, we are almost there! I am letting stars singers, and public persons know their assistance and exposure to this bill is important and that all their efforts were necessary. I hope we gain momentum, the Senate must know this will impact the future food supply, American trade, helping us turn this wagon around and salvage the horse industry that was dismantled by slaughter. We need to reaffirm the Senate our hard earned tax dollars are important to the USDA and Congress as they protect our food supply. Senate needs to know horse slaughter is un American, cruel, saves No animals from abuse and has adulterated meat no ones children should consume. I support the men and women backing this bill, our votes count and voices r heard. I will not rein it in, i will comment, thought provoke, and speak to all who listen. Urgent support is required, so ride with your reins over your horses heads and let them run full out to this win. At least when you our horses to the finish of this race they will live to run again.
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Just a footnote tell the people that need to vote to save horses, we know slaughter Doesnt Stop Abuse, we can prove it. The numbers reflect it, at least a 160,000 animals were abused last year alone in the slaughter pipeline and during the process of being cut open alive! You can also state we can prove slaughter doesnot stop abuse outside the pipeline, look at the headlines horses stolen sold to slaughter, trained lies and sells 120 individuals horses to slaughter without their knowledge, horse concentration camp at killer buyers home, and lastly underground horse slaughter out of control in miami, google it, horses burned alive for their meat! You tell them if slaughter was helpful then how can it keep killing everything even those Not at the plant, and last tell them we can prove healthy young horsez go to slaughter and thr old, sick, injured are left to die abandonded when rejected at slaughter plants. Millions of people have spoken out and we need millions more!
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It’s a step closer to the ultimate goal. No transportation and no slaughter. Canada needs to get on board this train.
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I’m sooo confused, as are a lot of other advocates. The Congressional Leadership (John Boehner et al) didn’t allow the three amendments supported by the HSUS and ASPCA to be debated on the floor of the House. Is Congressman Moran’s Amendment still part of the bill, or is it gone as well?
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