URGENT- CALLS NEEDED NOW! Appropriations Bill advances despite $2 billion budget cut to the USDA
Los
Angeles, Mar 8, 2012, A $2 billion budget cut to the USDA prompts
slaughter plant inspector furloughs while USDA pushes forward to approve
horse slaughter inspections in the US. Secretary Vilsack told the
House Ag committee that due to the federal sequester each USDA inspector
will likely be furloughed 11 to 12 days at a time. The White House says
USDA inspectors furloughs will cause meatpacking plants to shut down
periodically.
"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, " explains Katia Louise, of the Wild for Life Foundation (WFLF). "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." As pointed out by Wild for Life Foundation's Saving America's Horses, the inclusion of the defunding language in the farm bill was however quietly stripped in Nov 2011, by Senators Blunt, Kohl and Congressman Kingston, leaving America's horses virtually unprotected.
What does this $2 billion budget cut to the USDA mean for the future of horse slaughter inside the US? Apparently not much, according to the House. The House simply carried over the existing language and passed it as is, therefore the 2013 bill does NOT include the defunding clause. The bill now goes to the Senate where Senator Mikulski and the subcommittee members will be poised to take action as early as next week.
Over
70% of the American public opposes horse slaughter, but proponents are
working at such lightning speed, that Americans may not have a chance to
be heard until it's too late.
Please
help by forwarding this message to your network of contacts right away!
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"Proponents
of slaughter argue that it would be better to slaughter horses in the
U.S. where we can supposedly insure their humane treatment," observes Ms
Louise. "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."
Support the protection of America's horses from the
barbaric cruelty of slaughter by calling the Mikulski and the Senate
subcommittee to restore the defunding language.
- Contact Senator Barbara Mikulski, Phone: 202-224-4654, Email: http://www.mikulski.senate.
gov/contact/shareyouropinion. cfm
- Get subcommittee contact info: http://www.appropriations.
senate.gov/about-members.cfm
Get Quick Facts:
http://www.
http://www.
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
-- And American consumers are more concerned than ever that horse meat
will make, or has possibly already made its way into beef products in
the United States as it has done in Europe. 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.
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. "But most people don't realize that U.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." - WFLF's Facts that Refute the 7 Most Common Myths About Horse Slaughter. "... And Foreign consumers of horsemeat are not made aware of the associated health risks directly related to the substances administered to U.S. horses."
As
Congress works to cut the budget through federal sequester and other
possible means, it should also continue to prevent the additional
spending of millions of dollars, simply to allow our nation’s horses
again to be subjected to cruel slaughter for the satisfaction of foreign
markets.
Prior to 2006, USDA spent approximately $5 million annually for inspections at U.S. based horse slaughter plants. If the USDA were to re-institute such expenditures in the face of these critical billion dollar budget cuts, it may very well lose and never regain the trust of the American people.
Wild for Life Foundation (WFLF) is a 501 (c)(3) grassroots nonprofit charity dedicated to saving, protecting and preserving wild and domestic equines. The Saving America’s Horses Initiative is an international consortium of equine professionals dedicated to educating the public and raising awareness for responsible equine ownership, the preservation of America’s wild horses on open rangelands, and the protection of all equines from slaughter.
Learn more: http://www.
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