Several agricultural organizations have sent a letter to the House Committee on Agriculture opposing a bill prohibiting the slaughter of equines for human consumption. The groups contend it is duplicative and enables further restrictions and bans on the livestock industry.
House Resolution (HR) 3475, the Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act, would amend a section of the farm bill prohibiting the slaughter of dogs and cats for human consumption to include equines. Under the section, no person may “knowingly ship, transport, move, deliver, receive, possess, purchase, sell or donate” a dog or cat for slaughter.
The groups—the American Sheep Industry Association, American Farm Bureau, American Quarter Horse Association, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and the Public Lands Council—state animal activist groups are using the opportunity to attach the resolution to the farm bill to further restrict the livestock industry and limit commerce on an exported product.
“The SAFE Act furthers their goal of enacting future restrictions and bans on the American livestock industry,” the groups wrote. “The goal of many so-called animal rights activists is a world where beef, chicken, pork, lamb and turkey are absent from the American dinner table—attaching the SAFE Act to the farm bill and enacting it into law would bring that goal much closer within reach, to the detriment of our nation’s food security, economy, and responsible stewardship of animals and resources.”
The groups further oppose the resolution, stating it is duplicative since horse processing for human consumption has been banned since 2007.
“An appropriations rider pushed by animal rights activists and adopted in (fiscal year) 2006 (and renewed each year since) defunds the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s inspection of any facility processing horse meat and illogically defunded inspection of any horses in transit to processing,” the letter read. “Consequently, there is no at-scale processing of horses for human consumption in this country.”
They also contend the measure establishes a precedent in the farm bill for banning the processing of a livestock species, limits commerce by attempting to prohibit a specific use for an exported product, exacerbates the suffering of horses and degrades the landscape due to overpopulation.
There is a companion resolution in the Senate, where it is being reviewed by the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
Both measures are supported by animal rights groups such as the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Humane Society of the United States, Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation and equine industry groups. — Charles Wallace, WLJ contributing editor
