The spending bill passed yesterday by the House and Senate includes a provision to stop efforts at resuming horse slaughter for human consumption in the United States. The Humane Society, which opposed slaughter, supports this move. Eighty percent of American oppose the slaughter of horses for human consumption.
Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, said in a statement, “we Americans care for horses, we ride horses, and we even put them to work. But we don’t eat horses in the United States. And we shouldn’t be gathering them up and slaughtering them for people to eat in far-off places. We stopped slaughtering horses on U.S. soil in 2007, and it’s the right policy to continue that prohibition.”
Sponsors of the amendment include Representatives Jim Moran (D-VA), the late Bill Young (R-FL), and Senators Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC). The Humane Society now wants Congress to pass a permanent ban on domestic horse slaughter with the Safeguard American Food Exports Act, which would end the export of American horses for slaughter in other countries.
American horses are often treated with drugs that can endanger human health if consumed. There is no system in the U.S. to track those medications and treatments given to horses throughout their lives. Therefore, there is no way to ensure that the meat is safe for human consumption. In addition, the Humane Society says that the methods used to kill horses “rarely result in quick, painless deaths, as horses often endure repeated blows to render them unconscious and can remain conscious during the slaughtering process.”
Judy,it seams as time goes on,our planet ,and all of its innocent creatures are continuing to suffer more at the hands of the all mighty human,the greed is never ending,i should correct myself,it will end in time it has to,when you figure the population of the world in 1940 was 2.5 billion,here we are 2014 over 7 billion,that’s over 4.5 billion people in 60 years,what can be done to keep us from completely imploding the planet,and it just does not seem that our governments are doing a thing to correct this mess,i think that what is needed is another gentleman like the one before us called Moses,was he not the one who built the ark,and loaded two of each animal to start over again,i don’t know if that would be the answer,there are only so many times that one can do this.I am very confused wright now as to what could be done if anything to make it better….
It is about time, they stop slaughtering the beautiful horses. And start treating them more humanly. And rounding them up with helicopters and running them into small corrals, in the heat and dust. And the baby colts trying to keep up with their mothers and sometimes they get seperated.
The consumption of any living animal is a cultural preference. People in Inda are appalled by the consumption of cows. The planet would be healthier if we did not raise any animals for humzn consumption. For a society to condem another society eat habits will not alter the situation. The saying “When in Rome do as the Romans do!z” I’d apprecia
te here.