Mitch Perry
Congress is just into the second week of a five-week summer August break, but that doesn’t mean lawmakers are staying idle when it comes to working on gaining support for legislation they’re sponsoring.
Take Sarasota’s Vern Buchanan, whose office announced Thursday that his bill that would ban the killing of horses for human consumption picked up its 150th co-sponsor in New York Republican Dan Donovan.
“The slaughter of horses for human consumption is a barbaric practice that must end,” Buchanan said.“We need to build on this momentum and get this bill signed into law.”
Last week, the SAFE ACT (Safeguard American Food Exports) was introduced in the Senate this month by Senate Republicans Susan Collins from Maine and South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham, and by Democrats Bob Menendez from New Jersey and Sheldon Whitehouse from Rhode Island.
The SAFE Act has been endorsed by the Humane Society of the United States, the Animal Welfare Institute and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Although the slaughter of horses for human consumption is currently not allowed in the United States, the prohibition is temporary and subject to annual congressional review. There is no federal law prohibiting the transport of horses across American borders for slaughter in Canada or Mexico.
More than 100,000 American horses are exported to Canadian and Mexican slaughterhouses each year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Those horses are butchered and then transported overseas for consumption in Japan, Italy and other countries. More than 90 percent of these horses were healthy and in good condition.
The last horse slaughter plant in the U.S. shut down in 2007, and Congress has worked to keep them off U.S. soil every year by denying funding for required slaughterhouse inspections in its annual appropriations budgets.
Buchanan has received the U.S. Humane Society’s Legislator of the Year award for his strong record against animal cruelty.
7 comments
Diana Kline
August 11, 2017 at 3:17 pm
Thank you, Mitch, for covering this story, and with the facts. You have your facts and it’s much appreciated.
Max Loftis
August 11, 2017 at 3:46 pm
Way to go, Vern Buchanan! I support you and your humane thinking about all animals. Let America’s mustangs run free, forever!
Cheryl Bowe
August 11, 2017 at 4:14 pm
U.S. horses are not raised as meat animals under USDA/FDA drug regulations, and are thus not safe to eat, because of harmful drug residues in the meat. Currently our government allows U.S. horses to be shipped to Canada and Mexico, their meat then processed for human consumption in other countries. The meat has been known to come back to the U.S. in sausage and prepared meals…. The only way to keep the public safe is to prevent these horses from entering the food supply……..
You can read the bill here, then contact your representatives to support the bill by co-sponsoring…….https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/113/text
The Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act (H.R. 113) Congress finds that—
(1) unlike cows, pigs, and other domesticated species, horses and other members of the equidae family are not raised for the purpose of human consumption;
(2) equines raised in the United States are frequently treated with substances that are not approved for use in horses intended for human consumption and equine parts are therefore unsafe within the meaning of section 409 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act;
(3) equines raised in the United States are frequently treated with drugs, including phenylbutazone, acepromazine, boldenone undecylenate, omeprazole, ketoprofen, xylazine, hyaluronic acid, nitrofurazone, polysulfated glycosaminoglycan, clenbuterol, tolazoline, and ponazuril, which are not approved for use in horses intended for human consumption and equine parts are therefore unsafe within the meaning of section 512 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act; and
(4) consuming parts of an equine raised in the United States likely poses a serious threat to human health and the public should be protected from these unsafe products.
Cheryl Bowe
August 11, 2017 at 4:19 pm
The bill introduced in the Senate which reads the same, is S1706 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘John Stringer Rainey Memorial Safeguard American Food Exports Act’’ .
Please contact your representatives to support these bills……
Laura LaRocca
August 11, 2017 at 5:49 pm
We should not ship horses to other countries. The slaughter of horses for human consumption is a barbaric practice that must end.
Sally Wise
August 11, 2017 at 7:29 pm
This bill ONLY prevents slaughter of horses in U.S. This bill is not complete unless it prevents horses from being shipped to slaughter in other countries. The main purpose of rounding up wild horses is to remove them for ranchers and energy companies. 80% of Americans oppose removing wild horses, but our government is bowing to the big money persons.
Susan Kamlan
August 12, 2017 at 9:57 am
I support all legislation that will ban horse slaughter in the United States and not allow horses to be shipped out of the United States to other countries for horse slaughter. Ban horse slaughter and the transport of horses to horse slaughter for consumption.
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