Last week Congress passed a provision in a bill to allow the USDA to transfer $55 million to meat inspectors from other, undetermined areas of its budget. The provision will end the need for USDA inspector furloughs in slaughterhouses, but what does this mean with regard to horse slaughter?
Just last week while speaking with reporters, Secretary Vilsack called on
Congress to come up with
What will stop Congress from funding horse slaughter inside the US?
USDA
inspections must take place on site at each U.S. slaughterhouse in
order for its meat product to be legally available for interstate
commerce. Prior
to 2006, USDA spent approximately $5 million annually for inspections
at U.S. based horse slaughter plants.
The former ban on the spending of taxpayer dollars for USDA
inspections of horse slaughter, had helped to keep foreign special
interests from slaughtering our horses inside the U.S. The inclusion of
the defunding language in the appropriations bill was however quietly stripped in
Nov 2011, by Senators Blunt, Kohl and Congressman Kingston, leaving
America's horses virtually unprotected.
The bill sat idle through 2012 and in January 2013 the House simply carried over the
existing language - therefore the 2013 bill does NOT
include the defunding clause. This bill was passed by the Senate on Mar 21, 2013, presented to President Obama on March 22, 2013, and signed by President Obama today, March 26, 2013.
Proponents
of slaughter argue that it would be better to slaughter horses in the
U.S. where we can supposedly insure their humane treatment. But numerous governmental reports and undercover
investigations show that USDA inspections fail to stop insidious abuses
from taking place inside our slaughterhouses. Substantial documented
evidence reveals egregious violations and a total lack of enforcement by
the USDA in U.S. horse slaughterhouses before they were shut down in
2007. If horse slaughter plants are reopened in the U.S., horses will
undoubtedly suffer torturous agony on U.S. soil again.
As revealed in the new PSA series from WFLF, "International Health Alert" and "Duped", the U.S. horse slaughter cover-up puts people and horses in harm's way.
In the absence of a federal ban, over 100,000 American horses are
shipped across federal borders to slaughter plants in Mexico and Canada
each year and from there the horse meat is shipped primarily to the EU.
America’s horses are treated with many substances known to be toxic
to humans; substances that can be lethal when ingested by humans, and
many of which have been banned from the human food chain in most
countries. Evidence of health hazards surfacing amidst the
international horse
meat scandal has resulted in several major companies, including Tesco,
Nestlé and Ikea, pulling food from grocery shelves in 16 countries after
tests showed beef products actually contained up to 100% horse meat.
What you can do:
Support the protection of America's horses from the
barbaric cruelty of slaughter... Contact your U.S. senators and representatives in Washington, D.C., today to ask them to cosponsor the SAFE Act. The Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act
is pending bill that if passed would ban horse slaughter in the U.S. as well as shipping horses
to other countries to be slaughtered for human consumption. This bipartisan legislation, if passed will protect people and horses and would end the possibility of U.S. horse slaughter once and for all.
Watch these PSA’s from WFLF-SAH
“HEALTH ALERT” http://youtu.be/S3UwE1hVaS0
Get Quick Facts: http://www.
“HEALTH ALERT” http://youtu.be/S3UwE1hVaS0
“DUPED” http://youtu.be/peP_78ATJwc
Get Quick Facts: http://www.
LEARN MORE: http://www.savingamericashorses.org/legislation.html
LaCrosse Tribune "USDA won’t have to furlough meat inspectors"
