Federal and state officials dealt horse slaughter plants a one-two punch on Jan. 17, 2014, perhaps ending the latest move to butcher American horses for foreign consumption.
President Barack Obama signed a $1.1 trillion spending package that funds the federal government until September 2013 and includes language preventing the Department of Agriculture from spending money ($5 million) on inspection of horse slaughter plants. Without inspections, the plants can’t operate.
Also, on Jan. 17, a New Mexico judge granted a preliminary injunction against a New Mexico horse slaughter plant, preventing it from beginning operation, though it wouldn’t have been able to open anyway, given the federal action.
New Mexico District Judge Matthew Wilson accepted arguments by state Attorney General Gary King that Valley Meat would harm the environment and contaminate the food chain. King has sought to permanently block horse slaughter in New Mexico.
If the move in Congress to defund inspections feels familiar, it’s because we’ve been down this road before.
In 2005, Congress passed legislation that withheld inspection funding for horse slaughter plants; it went into effect in 2006, leading to the shutdown of the last of the slaughterhouses in 2007. About 140,000 horses were being slaughtered annually at the time, according to a Missouri news outlet. The move didn’t end slaughter or improve the plight of tens of thousands of unwanted horses in America. Those horses were simply shipped to Mexico and Canada for slaughter. In Mexico, horses faced unspeakable horrors, according to a Houston Chronicle expose in September 2007.
In 2011, three U.S. lawmakers removed spending language that allowing the funding of inspections again. During the next two years, many horse lovers watched in fear as plant owners in New Mexico, Iowa and Missouri prepared their facilities for slaughtering horses.
The Humane Society of Missouri launched an epic battle against these companies, filing lawsuit after lawsuit, and celebrities such as Robert Redford weighed in, saying horses deserved better and were part of the American fabric.
Perhaps the most memorable quote during the legal melee was given by Cynthia MacPherson, an attorney based in Mountain Grove, Mo., who battled against the Missouri plant opening. She said: “I’ve talked to people in De Kalb (site of a former slaughter plant in Illinois). They’ll tell you they heard the horses screaming all night.”
With the latest defunding language in place, animal welfare groups have wasted little time in calling on Congress to pass a permanent ban on domestic horse slaughter with the Safeguard American Food Exports Act, which would prevent horse slaughter on U.S. soil while also banning the export of American horses for slaughter abroad.
Most in the horse community would agree that slaughter is a bad solution to the problem of how to care for the nation’s horses. The plight of unwanted horses has taken on new urgency during the current economic climate as horse neglect has skyrocketed.
Even if Congress creates a permanent ban, only half the work will be finished. America must have an honest discussion about how to care for its animal citizens going forward. This not only includes horses, but also cattle, sheep, wolves, deer and all the other animals that need a certain amount of American land to survive. We must save that land for them and manage their lives in a more responsible manner. This country is their country, too.