Yep, ya never hear much about the Loonie and Toonie hunters.
Posted on 01/19/2014 2:34:06 PM PST by nickcarraway
Americans may recoil at the thought of eating horse meat, but other countries feel quite differently, as the sign above this butcher shop in Paris attests.
Americans may recoil at the thought of eating horse meat, but other countries feel quite differently, as the sign above this butcher shop in Paris attests.
When a federal ban on slaughtering horses to produce horse meat was lifted several years back, ranchers including Rick De Los Santos, a New Mexico rancher and owner of Valley Meat Co., stepped up to start operations with an aim to export the meat.
But, as we've reported, his plans for a horse meat slaughterhouse have hit major roadblocks. There have been lawsuits to stop him and others trying to get into the business. And plenty of stories about the ick factor evoked by the image of butchering a beautiful thoroughbred.
Now, given a bit of language written into the omnibus spending bill that was approved by the Senate on Thursday night, it's seeming more certain that there will be no horse slaughtering on U.S. soil in the foreseeable future. The House already approved the spending measure, which now heads to President Obama for his signature.
The provision bans the funding of U.S. Department of Agriculture inspections at horse slaughter plants. And without inspections, slaughterhouses can't be in business. Game over.
"Americans do not want to see scarce tax dollars used to oversee an inhumane, disreputable horse slaughter industry," Wayne Pacelle of the Humane Society argues in a press release. He has been lobbying for a ban on funding for horse slaughter inspections.
"We don't have dog and cat slaughter plants in the U.S. catering to small markets overseas, and we shouldn't have horse slaughter operations for that purpose, either," Pacelle writes.
For retiring Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), it's a win he helped usher through.
"These incredible companion animals don't deserve to be callously slaughtered for human consumption," his office wrote in an email to The Salt. "We fought hard for the past three years to reinstate this ban to prevent slaughter facilities from reopening on American soil."
The flip side of the argument is that horse slaughter is a practical way to handle the problem of abandoned horses. Horses can be very expensive to maintain, and when owners can't afford them, it's not unheard of for them to be sent to factories in Mexico and Canada.
That's the argument put forth by Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), who tried but failed to strike the ban on funding inspections from the spending bill.
"Without these facilities, aging horses are often neglected or forced to endure cruel conditions as they are transported to processing facilities across the border," Inhofe wrote in a release. "This provision is counterproductive to what animal rights activists are hoping to achieve."
And Inhofe is not giving up yet.
Before Thursday night's Senate vote, Inhofe said he and Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-OKla.) plan to introduce separate legislation that would lift the ban on funding for horse slaughterhouse inspections.
It is amazing that the democrats can pull off such a sneaky victory for oppressive laws.
There ain’t nothing wrong with people who eat houses, and there ain’t nothing but wast to let a houses perfectly good meat rot. Whats next will we be prohibited from eating cows and chickens because loonitic out east anthropomisized them?
Please Let the democratic lawmakers that made this happen know that instead of horse meat they owe these people the food “culturally acceptable food” off their own table.
This particular usurpation however is a direct product of the FDA which apparent mandates that they have to inspect everything we eat. So i guess a lot of people won’t be eating perfectly good food because the FDA demands the right to look at it first without even the time or money to do so.
“Lewis and Clark et. al. et plenty of Dog.
Where are the Dog slaughter houses?”
It would be fun to ask democrats seriously how many poor people around the world are starving to-death because they have outlawed their food supply because Democrats in their arrogance have deemed that food “actually unacceptable” or have otherwise decided that the animal is more important than the person.
Let PETA get strong enough and it will be...
Congress Blocks Slaughtering Cows For Meat In U.S.
Whatta 'bout insects? (They are going to inherit the Earth)
Holy Cow!
“65-70 years ago i used to buy horsemeat for cat food all the time.”
People in other parts of the world still eat the stuff. I don’t see anything wrong with eating anything nonhuman. We live in a world of food. People who get picky based upon anthropomorphic ideas are the first to starve.
In this case the Democrats have decided that others should starve because they don’t happen to like the idea of eating what they eat.
PETA
People
Eating
Tasty
Animals
Taking care of horses, but not veterans...although this won’t be good for horses, either, IMHO. Horses will still go to slaughter - just be sold for less $$$ and sent to Mexico for humane slaughter there! < / sarc >
Yep, ya never hear much about the Loonie and Toonie hunters.
Obsessive animal lovers have decreed that every dog or cat born DESERVES to be fed a proper diet and given warm and secure housing until the dysfunctions of natural old age can no longer be remediated. It appears that horses are now to be added to the roster of pampered quadrupeds, whatever the cost.
My local TV “news” producers/reporters devote a great deal of time to promoting adoption of animal pets, but none to promoting adoption of human children that lack private homes and personal parental care and attention.
Many have been there b4. (without being any happier about the situation)
=
“Why couldn’t the states decide this for themselves?
The feds could ban horsemeat crossing state lines if they wanted to be intrusive.”
I agree this is constitutionally at most a state issue.
That being said only a moron outlaws a food source, and that is what were talking about here. If that food is poisons the punishment is getting sick, ain’t no legitimate reason for State involvement.
That being said the unconstitutional problem is the so called “U.S. Department of Agriculture” inspections requirement which is no doubt an outgrown of the usurpation of our right to intrastate commerce.
The congressmen need to focus on abolishing that requirement not forcing the rest of us to pay for the Federal employee inspection of food most of us we won’t ever eat.
If someone wants to buy and eat horse meat let them inspect it themselves.
I guess the only thing we got going for our freedom to eat is that the animals aren’t generally cute enough to inspire a liberals anthropomorphic affection.
The same thing goes for plants, whom most liberals see as fixtures of the landscape rather than living things they can put faces and feelings to.
Theses people are nuts, all theses beasts are animals nothing more. Don’t want to eat them? Fine! Don’t eat them but deny anther man in anther place the right to eat them and he just might stave because of you!
If a liberal doesn’t want anyone else to eat something they should forgo eating themselves so that their food may be sent to feed the family who’s food they outlawed.
Father-in-law ate it in Germany after the war...ate it at a defeated Nazi camp...it was a big bbq’d steak...he said it was fine...
Do you have an answer as to what we should do with about 90,000 unwanted horses per year? Without slaughter they are worthless so that is how most unwanted horses are treated; abandoned, abused, starved. If slaughter here is not legal but they can be trucked to Mexico the haul is harder for them and no one with any authority in Mexico cares how they are treated or slaughtered. Truth is most of the horrific videos of horse slaughter were not filmed here but in Mexico. At least if it is legalized here it can be regulated.
Anyone that is against slaughter should be busy figuring out what to do with the unwanted horses first. We all know the problem is irresponsible owners and breeders, same as with dogs and cats. Reality is there is no way to stop irresponsible breeders and owners and that is why so many dogs and cats are killed every day in this country.
Thank you for posting that. The problem is being greatly exacerbated by the 0bama Economy too. Many horse owners are finding themselves in a no win situation.
That is the case with all meat sales. Exports are not possible without FSIS approval though.
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