Category Archives: Federal Legislation

FEDERAL ACTION ALERT

FEDERAL BILL TO BAN THE PROCESSING OF HORSES FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION IS SET FOR A HEARING ON 1/29/20

H.R. 961 – Safeguard American Food Exports Act of 2019 – SAFE ACT

TEXT FROM BILL
the knowing sale or transport of equines or equine parts in interstate or foreign commerce for purposes of human consumption is hereby prohibited

HEARING : 01/29/2020 10:00 AM EST [House] Energy And Commerce 2322 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C.
Info on the hearing – you can livestream it here also:
https://energycommerce.house.gov/committee-activity/hearings/hearing-on-improving-safety-and-transparency-in-america-s-food-and-drugs
This is an equine welfare issue – there simply isn’t the infrastructure to support the unwanted horses that are currently being transported to Mexico and Canada to be processed for human consumption – this bill does NOTHING to address this. We need solutions, not an unfunded mandate that will make the situation worse for equine welfare in the United States.

If you are concerned about this bill you should immediately contact your U.S. Congressional representative and members of the Energy and Commerce Committee
Find your congressional representative: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

Members of the Energy and Commerce Committee:
http://clerk.house.gov/committee_info/index.aspx?comcode=IF00

Animal Rights or Welfare – The Big Difference

Huffington Post – The Blog

Who, in this day and age, would stand up in parliament and oppose a ban on wild animals in circuses? Andrew Rosindell, the Conservative MP for Romford, did that last week and blocked Labour MP Jim Fitzpatrick‘s last hope of introducing a ban before the general election.

A ban was originally announced in 2012 by animal welfare minister Lord Taylor. With the government having yet to pass the necessary law, Fitzpatrick tried to hasten action by introducing the same legislation as a private members bill in October last year. It was blocked on that occasion by Rosindell, too.

Full Article

AG paid 1 consultant $13,375 in horse-slaughter lawsuit

Some say government does not create jobs.

At least one consultant might disagree.

William Olson was hired as an expert in a politically popular lawsuit brought by  state Attorney General Gary King against a proposed horse-slaughter plant near Roswell.

Olson received more than $13,375 in public money for helping prepare King’s assistant attorneys general for the case, and for testifying against the slaughterhouse. Olson’s rate of pay was $80 an hour, according to payment records we obtained this week.

Full Article

Are horses livestock? DNR weighs question, considers horse-slaughter permit

News-Leader

WASHINGTON — The Missouri Department of Natural Resources will help determine the fate of a proposed horse slaughter plant later this month, as state officials weigh a permit application that would allow the facility to begin processing equines in Gallatin.

Full article

S.A.F.E. Act – Bogus Science and Bad Legislation

From the Animal Welfare Council – for reprint permission email awc@animalwelfarecouncil.org

 

Overview of the legislation

The Safeguard American Food Exports Act (S.A.F.E.) is legislation which would amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The S.A.F.E. Act (H.R. 1094 / S. 541) is a bipartisan measure that would outlaw horse slaughter operations in the U.S. and end the current export of American horses for slaughter. If passed, this measure would impose fines and prison time for anyone who sells, transports, imports or exports horses going to any horse processing facility, regardless of how humane and regulated it is. The Act makes processing horses for human consumption illegal in the U.S.

While health claims form the basis for one of these bills, the fundamental driving force behind both comes from groups claiming “humane concerns” on behalf of the animals. Yet the government’s own research, laid out in the Government Accounting Office’s Report to Congress, indicates that the cessation of horse slaughter within US borders has negatively impacted the welfare of horses in the United States.1 As with past proposed measures to ban horse processing, this legislation offers nothing to support the care and costs of the unwanted horses that would otherwise go to processing.

HR 1094 prohibits the sale or transport via interstate or foreign commerce of equines and equine parts intended for human consumption; this bill effectively shuts down horse export to Canada and Mexico as well as any interstate merchandising of horsemeat for human consumption.

S. 541 claims to prevent human health threats allegedly posed by the consumption of equines raised in the United States. The bill is based on the claim that horsemeat is tainted and unsafe, the assertion being that because the source animals are not raised commercially for food, they may at some time have received drugs such as phenylbutazone that might present a health threat to humans consuming the meat.

Background

Processing horses for food is a trending topic this year. Early in 2013, a European scandal over food marketed as beef that contained horsemeat created a media frenzy and focused attention on the topic of horsemeat. It is legal to eat horsemeat in most countries. The true source of the scandal was the fraud behind the mislabeled products, not food safety. According to the Irish Food Safety Authority (IFSA), one of the countries initially aware of the mixed meat issue, “…while the burgers were not 100 percent beef as advertised, they did not pose a public health threat.”2

As the scandal progressed, questions about the potential for drug residue in the meat were raised, particularly in regards to the drug phenylbutazone, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID). In a press release statement Professor Dame Sally Davies, the United Kingdom Department of Health’s Chief Medical Officer, states; “Horsemeat containing phenylbutazone presents a very low risk to human health… Phenylbutazone, known as bute, is a commonly used medicine in horses. It is also prescribed to some patients who are suffering from a severe form of arthritis… At the levels of bute that have been found (in horsemeat), a person would have to eat 500 to 600 burgers a day that are 100% horse meat to get close to consuming a human’s daily dose. And it passes through the system quickly, so it is unlikely to build up in our bodies…  In patients who have been taking phenylbutazone as a medicine there can be serious side effects but these are rare. It is extremely unlikely that anyone who has eaten horse meat containing bute will experience one of these side effects.”3 Professor Hugh Pennington, from his emeritus post at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and as one of the world’s top food safety experts, weighs in to say horse meat is safer than beef because it does not contain E. coli. “There are no E. coli cases associated with horsemeat, though there are around 1,000 cases linked to cattle in the UK each year.” Pennington says horse is a “bog-standard [completely ordinary] red meat.”  He acknowledges that residues of the horse pain killer known as bute are a “theoretical risk,” but says somebody would have to eat “tons” of horse burgers before there would be any harm.4

The resulting stir both in Europe and the U.S. may have prompted the timing for the March introduction of the S.A.F.E. act to an American audience primed to be suspicious of horsemeat.

The bills may also be driven by the proponents’ desire to prevent the opening of U.S. horse processing plants; with United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) applications approved, these plants became a viable option when the 2012-2013 budget passed with funding for the plants’ USDA meat inspectors. Three plants have completed the federal requirements for approval.

On June 28, 2013 the USDA issued its own statement about inspections at the New Mexico plant. In a written statement, a USDA representative said “that unless Congress votes to enact another funding ban, the agency is legally bound to conduct horsemeat inspections at the New Mexico plant. The Administration has requested Congress to reinstate the ban on horse slaughter. Until Congress acts, the Department must continue to comply with current law.”

“Under the Federal Meat Inspection Act, Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) must issue a grant of inspection once an establishment has satisfied all federal requirements, as this plant has done,” the representative said. “FSIS anticipates two additional applications for equine inspection will meet the mandated requirements in the coming days.”5

If Congress again prohibits using federal money for ante-mortem inspection of horses intended for slaughter for human consumption, equine slaughter in the U.S. could not continue. That is because without the USDA mark of inspection, no horsemeat could move in commerce. Furthermore, the proposed budget issued by the Obama administration for 2013-2014 has eliminated these meat inspection positions in a purported budget cutting effort. Again, these measures are without provision for the longer term and greater expense of caring for the unwanted animals that are kept alive.

Behind the Scenes

The bills are sponsored by U.S. Sens. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Reps. Patrick Meehan, R-Pa., and Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill. They and their cosponsors (112 U.S. Representatives, and 15 U.S. Senators) appear to question the USDA’s ability to detect chemical residues in meat and ensure the inspected meat products are safe for consumption, yet this is the very same agency that daily assures the American public of the healthfulness of all other inspected meat.

In the nearly seven years that elapsed under the previous ban, USDA found that equine meat inspection has changed, including the need to ensure there is no comingling of horsemeat with other meat products, so the FSIS has established stringent inspection processes including new testing capabilities and labeling requirements.

FSIS has enacted species testing for meat and poultry capable to detect and differentiate between beef, sheep, swine, poultry, deer and horse in order to avoid having one species sold as another (which was what occurred on a large scale earlier this year in Europe). FSIS also adopted validated testing and sampling methods to detect residues of drugs and/or chemicals in equine tissues. FSIS will test for approximately 130 pesticides and veterinary drugs in horses being slaughtered. The concerns raised by S. 541 have already been resolved by the USDA FSIS.

The bills’ proponents also claim that horse slaughter is in itself cruel and not humane; however, this claim begs the question: If captive bolt euthanasia of livestock is not humane for horses, how can it be humane for other livestock? And what precedent does this assumption set?

Timing

Given the USDA FSIS protocols now in place, why raise the issue of horse slaughter now, or at all? One must delve more deeply to discover the true proponents behind these bills and understand their motivation. Animal rights groups in the guise of non-profit charities alleging to support “humane treatment of animals” are lobbying for these bills to further their greater end goals, to destroy the market value and common use of all livestock animals.6

Science should guide this matter, not emotion, yet why do our elected officials nevertheless disregard their own (GAO) research? Why do they instead take up the causes of the well-funded animal rights activists? It should give the ordinary horse owner pause for consideration and encourage him or her to question their representatives’ logic.

Conclusions

Today the greater number of Americans have no direct experience with food production, harvest or hunting, experiencing instead a disconnected “meat comes from the grocery store” mentality. To this group the concept of killing and consuming an animal with which one is familiar is acutely uncomfortable. But in truth, horses are not the romanticized characters of movies and television, endowed with anthropomorphic traits. Horses are real animals, perhaps more wonderful than the movies could even portray, but as living things they have an end to life.

The vast majority of horse owners take their responsibility seriously for end of life decisions regarding their livestock. No one is proposing that horse owners should send their horses for processing if they wish to choose other options. However, those who are familiar with food production and specifically meat production may see the use of slaughter as a realistic part of animal agriculture, as well as a pragmatic means of disposal for unwanted horses. It is also an efficient use of resources. Recycling the remains of a horse yields food, leather, horse-hair products such as jewelry and musical instruments, bone meal and other products.  It is certainly a more environmentally friendly method than is the decades of ground contamination caused from a buried carcass euthanatized with a barbiturate overdose.

The American Veterinarian Medicine Association recognizes three humane methods of euthanasia for horses: barbiturate overdose, gunshot to the brain, and captive bolt, the method deemed humane for livestock at processing plants. Demonizing those who choose to end an unwanted horse’s life by shipping for processing is both unfair and hypocritical. Making it illegal is a travesty, especially when there are not resources available to maintain and care for these animals.

The rescues are full, hay costs have skyrocketed, equine neglect cases are up – in some states as much as doubled in the past year. 158,000+ horses were shipped for processing in 2012 to Canada and Mexico from the US and still it was not enough to return a floor value for U.S. horses because so many unwanted horses remain within our borders.The horse industry has reached the moment in which the decision is starvation versus slaughter.7 Surely swift humane euthanasia at a USDA FSIS regulated and inspected processing plant is a kinder end than starving to death.

The American Association of Equine Practitioners, American Veterinary Medical Association, American Quarter Horse Association, and many other horse and ag groups oppose the S.A.F.E. Act bills (H.R. 1094 / S. 541) to ban the transport for and processing of horses for human consumption. These bills are based on unsound science, they create unfunded mandates and they absolutely do not provide for the welfare of unwanted horses. The unintended consequences of the previous cessation of domestic slaughter—neglect, abandonment and other equine mistreatments—will become intentional consequences if a ban is renewed.

End notes:

  1. U.S. Government Accountability Office. Report to Committees of Congress on HORSE WELFARE: Action Needed to Address Unintended Consequences from Cessation of Domestic Slaughter (GAO-11-228), released June 2011
  2. FSAI Survey Finds Horse DNA in Some Beef Burger Products, Food Safety Authority of Ireland, Press Release, Tuesday, 15 January 2013
  3. UK Department of Health: Bute in horsemeat: statement from Chief Medical Officer, Press Release, 14 February 2013
  4. Professor Pennington Speaks Out on Meat, Greens and Spoilage by News Desk, March 26, 2013
  5. Food Safety News, Letter from The Editor: Winning Towns Might Not Get Much by Dan Flynn, July 7, 2013
  6. Animal Welfare Council, Animal Welfare and Animal Rights: A War of Words with Casualties Mounting by Jill Montgomery, 2013, http://animalwelfarecouncil.com/awc-articles/
  7. Food Safety News, Letter From The Editor: Beer for My Horses by Dan Flynn, March 3, 2013

 

Back Door Route to Blocking the Processing of Horses in the United States

AWC Press Release  – For Immediate Release

June 2, 2013

Contact: Animal Welfare Council  at awc@animalwelfarecouncil.org       

Back Door Route to Blocking the Processing of Horses in U.S.

Legislation and regulation introduced to date that bans processing horses for human consumption lacks provisions for viable solutions for consequences to the horses that would otherwise be processed. These consequences include, among others, increased suffering for the horses through abandonment, and neglect, and economic hardship for the animals’ owners, the local governments burdened with caring for unwanted horses, and the overwhelmed horse rescues and sanctuaries. Proponents of such a ban are working directly via legislative proposals that overtly ban equine slaughter, and indirectly via the “back door” of federal budget manipulation that would curtail the USDA inspection of plants processing horsemeat for human consumption. Neither approach acknowledges, accepts responsibility for, or provides solutions for the consequences of the ban.

The horse industry recognizes the humane and economic aspects of the unwanted horse problem, and it is actively engaged in work both to resolve the present dilemma and to develop sustainable solutions. New programs are being deployed to educate horse owners to “own responsibly,” one key avenue to preventing more cases of unwanted horses. However, most in the industry recognize that humane equine slaughter remains a critical component to resolving the problem. Prior to enacting any ban, through any means, lawmakers must address humane alternatives for the maintenance or disposition of unwanted equines in numbers that equate to those currently being sold for processing. Without such alternatives, the ban on slaughter—carried out under the putative banner of “humane” interests—will have entirely the opposite effect on the very animals it purports to assist. 

“Back Door Route to Blocking the Processing of Horses in U.S.” is a research-based article commissioned by the Animal Welfare Council; it is suitable for broad publication and covers the philosophical  and applied implications of the legislative and regulatory approaches to the slaughter ban. The consequences will be critical to the future of the horse industry and will likely carry over to affect other livestock producers and users in the recreation, entertainment and agricultural/food industries.

See the full article

For more information on the topic, to learn what you can do to help unwanted horses, including contacting lawmakers, and to help increase viable alternatives to equine slaughter, please visit the Unwanted Horse Coalition website at www.unwantedhorsecoalition.org

PASSAGE OF H.R. 1094 AND S. 541 WOULD FURTHER INCREASE EQUINE ABANDONMENT AND NEGLECT

H.R. 1094 & S. 541 –The “Safeguard American Food Exports Act of 2013”

H.R. 1094 would “prohibit the sale or transport of equines and equine parts interstate or foreign commerce for human consumption.”

S. 541 has a stated purpose “to prevent human health threats posed by the consumption of equines raised in the United States.
Both bills would amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to prohibit the sale or transport of equines or equine parts in interstate and foreign commerce for purposes of human consumption.

Background:  In 2007 animal rights backed legal action in Texas and the passage of legislation banning the processing for horses passed in Illinois resulted in the closing of the final horse processing plants in the United States.  Additionally, from 2007 until 2011, Federal Agriculture Appropriations bills included a rider that preventing any federal funds from being used for inspection of horses for processing for human consumption.  Currently there is no prohibition of the use of federal funds and there is a plant in Roswell, New Mexico that is waiting for  USDA/FSIS/APHIS approved to open. Recently President Obama released his proposed 2014 Budget which did not include funding for inspectors.

Equine welfare in the United States has suffered as the plants have closed and the economy has worsened.  Groups that oppose legislation to ban the processing of horses for human consumption include the American Association of Equine Practitioners, American Veterinary Medical Association, American Quarter Horse Association, and many other horse and agriculture groups.  This opposition is based on the fact that they are unfunded mandates and do no provide for the welfare of unwanted horses.

The 2013 Safeguard American Food Exports Acts do not address: 

  • Government Accountability Office Report:  The GAO report, released in 2011, revealed that a lack of horse processing in the United States has exacerbated the suffering, and increased abandonment, neglect, pain and misery for horses nationwide.
  • Disposition of Unwanted Horses: These bills do not offer any funding or programs for horses that would have been humanely processed or any euthanasia and carcass disposal alternatives.  Abandoned and neglected horses are overwhelming equine rescue and sanctuary organizations and if these bills pass the situation would become much worse.  Currently, many privately and publically funded rescue and retirement facilities are at capacity and do not have the resources to take the additional horses that would become unwanted if these bills were to pass and take away the option of transporting horses to processing plants.  In 2012 over 158,000 U.S. horses were shipped to Canada and Mexico for processing for human consumption.
  • Economic Hardship to Local Governments.  Local and state governments are faced with the financial hardship of taking care of neglected horses that are seized through cruelty and neglect investigations.  Resources must be provided for unwanted horses that are voluntarily given up by their owners or those abandoned by desperate horse owners. A survey published in 2009 by the Animal Welfare Council revealed that up to 83% of public animal shelters surveyed cannot house and care for any horses.  Others can only care for a limited number, only 6% of personnel are very well trained, facilities have budget limitations, and most reported an increase in number of calls related to abandoned and neglected horses.
  • Industry Solutions:  The horse industry is diligently working to educate its members on responsible ownership and provide resources for horse owners.  The Unwanted Horse Coalition leads the way in this effort offering programs such as grants for free gelding clinics and extensive educational materials.  Many states have followed suit including Colorado, where the horse industry has formed the Colorado Unwanted Horse Alliance (CUHA) which is partially funded by a tax check off program.  CUHA has conducted research to gather information on the extent of the problem and is offering resources to not only horse rescues in Colorado, but also the horse industry to work on solutions to the unwanted horse issues in that state.

Conclusion:  Enacting legislation without properly understanding, exploring and examining all the surrounding issues will harm an industry that is already diligently working to seek solutions for with unwanted horses without government intervention. Unwanted horses in the United States are facing a crisis.  From New York to California, horses that are considered at-risk in the equine population are being severely impacted by a struggling economy, high grain and hay prices, and the closure of the U.S.’s remaining processing plants.  The result: increased equine cruelty in the form of abuse, neglect, and abandonment. The passage of this legislation would also be detrimental to local governments across the country as many unwanted horses may be abandoned, thus making it the public’s responsibility to care for them.

Downloadable Copy of the document:

2013 Processing Issue Paper

 

The State of the Horse Industry Since the Closing of the Horse Harvesting Facilities

By  Dr. Patricia Evans—Utah State.

In September of 2007 the last horse processing plant in the United States closed its doors. This came about due to pressure from animal rights groups opposing horse harvesting. A state law was passed that forced the Dekalb, Illinois, plant to close and this ruling was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

Click here to read the entire article. (.pdf)

The United States’ prohibition of horsemeat for human consumption: Is this a good law?

Dr. Terry Whiting, Chair of the CVMA Animal Welfare Committee and published in the November 2007 issue of The Canadian Veterinary Journal:

n May 24, 2007, the last slaughterhouse in the USA producing horsemeat for human consumption was closed by State statute (1). Recently there have been several state and federal regulatory initiatives in the USA intended to prevent the slaughter of horses for human consumption (2,3). On January 27, 2007, simultaneous bills were introduced in the Senate and the House to prohibit the slaughter of horses for human consumption and to ban the transport of live horses from the United States to countries where they could be slaughtered for human consumption (2). The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) are pursuing defeat of these amendments to the Horse Protection Act (2,4,5).

Also in French.

Click here to read the entire article. (.pdf)