Horse Slaughter is now legal in the U.S.

[kirsty91]

Bottom Line - Horse meat may be back on the menu

Horses can now be slaughtered and exported to other countries as food! Most of the animals are not well taken care of despite regulations. Think of it like a guinea pig mill

I urge you to write letters to the president, congress, and your governor to help abolish slaughter once again!

[Fizzlepop40]

That makes me so sad.. I love horses. (Well, yes, I love all animals.) It makes me sick to think of how some animals are treated. WHY would they make horse slaughter LEGAL of all things??!

[kirsty91]

I don't know but I do know Obama made it legal quietly on Thanksgiving day I believe it was.

[Fizzlepop40]

This is my opinion, that is just STUPID. Especially since it was made legal on Thanksgiving. That makes me so mad.

[betty]

This is horrible! Just some insight from a former horse owner...
When it became illegal to slaughter horses in the US, tens of thousands of horses where shipped for very long distances without water/food/rest to Canada and Mexico for slaughter. The lucky ones made it to Canada. Horses ending up in Mexico suffered the worst kind of abuse and long painful deaths. At least the US has regulations and inspectors monitoring conditions at these plants!

I am not in agreement at all, but just offering another opinion

[bpatters]

Let's set the record straight here. Congress is the one who passed the law, and appended it to a bill which provided funding to keep the government running until the middle of December. The president cannot "quietly make anything legal" -- he can only approve or veto the laws that Congress has already passed. This is true regardless of your political persuasion.

[kirsty91]

I agree that the horses that got sent to Mexico was terrible but the same things do happen to the horses in the us despite the regulations. They can't be constantly monitored so things get missed

And I do know the president didn't randomly decide to make it a law but he did have the ability to veto it and didn't.

[avengedsoph]

this is awful! but are all of you veggies? if your not you cant say much its the same thing :s

[Fizzlepop40]

Wait.. I'm getting confused with all this political president and congress talk. I don't get presidential stuff and law-making. I just don't like animal slaughter.

[Inle_Rabbit]

Of all the things we could export why horse meat? Surely loosing regulations on other industries would be for more Americans.

[bpatters]

Well, Kirsty, if he'd vetoed that law, the government would be forced to shut down. That means massive layoffs of people, cancellation of hundreds of government programs, and dire consequences for the stability of the world's finances. What should have been just a government finance bill designed to keep the country running had all sorts of other things added to it by Congress. It's one of the reasons the country is in the economic shape it's in -- Congressional bills get all sorts of things added to them that have nothing to do with the original purpose of the bill.

When that happens, choices have to be made. Should the president veto a bill that allows the sale and slaughter of horses, horrible as that is, if by so doing hundreds of thousands of people will suffer the loss of jobs and the economic problems that will cause? It's not an easy choice, and it's surely not as simple as just vetoing a bill because it has something in it that shouldn't be there.

[kirsty91]

I understand what you mean bp but it's actually been a law for 5 years so no one would actually lose their job. There hasn't one plant open for awhile so there is no loss if he was to veto it.

[Inle_Rabbit]

Not in the horse industry, kristy, but in govt jobs. The legalization of horse slaughter was a rider on the bill that extended the federal budget this year. With out the budget being extended all federal govt jobs would be on leave until things could be sorted out. So Obama could not veto it on those grounds. However, if the senate, house or president felt strongly enough about the issue something could have been done when the bill was being drafted

[Pretty Piggies]

Seems like could think of some better law.

[bpatters]

I'm sure somebody could think of a better law. But undoubtedly someone who has a financial interest in the sale and slaughter of these horses lobbied someone in Congress to get this law passed. That Congressman got the bill attached to another bill that was so important it couldn't be vetoed without huge repercussions, so the horse bill snuck through largely unnoticed.

If you want to rant and rave about the bill being passed, the thing to do is write your Congressmen -- that's where the responsibility lies.

[Inle_Rabbit]

It was my understanding last night the congressmen who added it on has not come forward to claim responsibility.

[bpatters]

That's documented somewhere -- bills have the authors' names attached to them. But since this one got stuck on to the finance bill, it might take some digging to find it.

[Paula]

this is awful! but are all of you veggies? if your not you cant say much its the same thing :s

I'd like to know the answer to this question. Congress/presidential approval (quiet or otherwise), discussion aside, if the problem is horses being slaughtered for food, I don't see how this can be a problem for anyone if s/he eats meat.

I own five gorgeous draft horses and I agree, I'd not ever want them used for that purpose - but how's it any different than the cows, pigs, chickens, lambs, goats, buffalo, ducks, rabbits, and other animals that are commercially farmed to meet the same fate every day in this country for food?

[avengedsoph]

im a veggie so im allll good

[MinxFnx]

There was a reason that we made it illegal in the first place. Horses are no longer considered livestock in the U.S., or at least they weren't. I know that many would be appalled by this, because for one horses have been considered pets, and sometimes transportation. There are no wild horses really anymore in the U.S. because of the fact that people carelessy slaughtered so many of them. We did the same thing to the buffulo, and have protected that spieces... so why not horsed too?! I would find it appalling because if you think about it, it's like eating your own dog, cat, or any close animal companion for that matter. I am annoyed with our government recently for they have been also trying figure out how to tax people two cents for every mile they drive! Horse slaughter is in no exeption any better no matter how bad our economy is.