U.S. District Judge Christina Armijo in Albuquerque, N.M., threw out a lawsuit filed by the Humane Society of the United States, Front Range Equine Rescue and several other animal protection groups on Nov. 1. The lawsuit, filed in July, was seeking to block horse slaughter on the basis that the environmental impact hadn’t been properly considered.
U.S. Department of Agriculture officials approved the opening of a new equine slaughterhouse in New Mexico on June 28. The approval, a grant of inspection, was issued to Valley Meats Company in Roswell, N.M., and a second approval was issued to Responsible Transportation of Sigourney, Iowa, on July 2. USDA officials stated they expect to approve other applications soon.
The U.S. House Appropriations Committee voted on June 13 to eliminate funding for federal meat inspections at horse slaughter facilities. If it makes its way through the entire legislative process, this would effectively stop efforts to resume horse slaughter in the United States.
The amendment, introduced by Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., and Rep. Bill Young, R-Fla., forbids the U.S. Department of Agriculture to inspect horse-processing plants in the 2014 fiscal year.
On March 12, Senators Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Representatives Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.) and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) introduced the Safeguard American Food Exports Act, which would ban the slaughter of horses for human consumption in the United States and prohibit the transport, export or import of horses intended for slaughter or horsemeat.
The Missouri House of Representatives passed a bill in March, HB 1747, that would establish plant operation and meat inspection regulations for horse processing plants. Currently there is no national government funding for inspections, thus there are no horse slaughter plants that provide meat for human consumption operating in the United States.
The bill was then incorporated into SB 795, a comprehensive agriculture bill, according the TheHorse.com.
In late February the Canadian Horse Defence Coalition received hidden camera footage of horse slaughter practices at Viande Richelieu in Quebec and Bouvry Exports in Alberta. The videos demonstrated that both facilities fail to meet humane slaughter standards used by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to audit Canadian slaughterhouses.
The videos reveal horses being shot multiple times while still alive and slipping and scrambling as they wait to be slaughtered.
Yesterday, April 8, a bill that would allow horse processing plant development in Tennessee passed the state's House Finance Subcommittee by a slim 7-6 margin, according to TheHorse.com. The measure now moves on for full Finance, Ways and Means and Budget Committee consideration.
HB 1428 allows the Tennessee Department of Agriculture to establish licensing, inspection, operational regulations and fees for horse processing plants.
One of the many concerns about horse slaughter is the inability to determine whether a horse has been given non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs at some point during their lives. These types of drugs are banned for use in any animal intended for human consumption because they are known to cause potentially lethal effects in humans.
Many western states are working on new legislature regarding horse slaughter reported TheHorse.com.
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