What's missing? Common sense.

Congress hears results of U.S. horse slaughter ban [link]

Bryan Salvage | May 13, 2008

KANSAS CITY, MO. ― Participants in the Livestock Marketing Association’s fourth annual Washington, D.C. Fly-In said members of Congress are realizing the unintended consequences of closing the last three horse slaughter plants in the U.S.

Jim Santomaso, L.M.A. president, said the industry is seeing "more and more reports of abandoned horses and of horses turned out and left to starve because owners can’t afford their upkeep or have the means to properly dispose of them," after a series of legislative actions closed the three remaining U.S.-based plants in recent years.

Cavel International Inc., DeKalb, Ill., was the final plant to close this past year. State officials closed the plant, and a legal battle to reopen has led Cavel officials to the U.S. Supreme Court. In February, L.M.A. filed an "amicus curiae" (friend of the court) brief with the Supreme Court, asking it to overturn the Illinois law banning horse slaughter and the federal appeals court decision upholding that law. That law, and the subsequent appeals decision, effectively exempted 40,000-60,000 horses from humane slaughter, the brief said. The Cavel plant slaughtered that many horses annually, all under the provisions of the federal Humane Slaughter Act, which applies only to U.S. plants.

"[Lawmakers] are ready to listen to the argument that banning slaughter is creating huge problems," said Mr. Santomaso. "The ban takes away individual property rights, when you tell a horse owner what he can and cannot do with an animal that may be at the end of its useful life."

L.M.A. representatives made these points during meetings with the chairman and staff members of panels of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees, and lawmakers from the members’ home states. During a trip to Washington April 27-30, the group also met with the chair of the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., to discuss the unintended consequences of using the appropriations process in removing a humane method of disposal for tens of thousands of unwanted horses.

The "terrible result" of legislation banning this slaughter, he said, "is to close legitimately operated food-processing plants based solely on cultural and emotional arguments. And that sets a very dangerous precedent of banning a legitimate meat product for reasons other than food safety or public health."

"We are cautiously optimistic that the people we met on Capitol Hill will keep our position in mind as Congress moves forward on this key issue," he said.

XP—That's what I've been saying. To us, horse meat may be revolting, to others a hamburger made of beef is just as unsavory. But who are we to police our neighbor's dinner plates?