obama has lifted the ban on horse slaughter

Does anyone have more information on this? I don't know how I feel about this, on one hand it infuriates me and on the other it could be beneficial. I don't understand anything about horses slaughter laws or facilities. Could someone enlighten me?
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There is no federal ban on horse slaughter, and never has been. Except for several states which have made it illegal to slaughter horses within their borders, there has never been a USA-wide ban on equine slaughter.

The only thing that happened was the funding for USDA inspectors was canceled and the plants subsequently closed down, because without USDA inspection the meat couldn't be approved for human consumption.

If Obama has now reinstated the funds for USDA inspection, that's a step in the right direction IMHO.

What about equine slaughter for non human consumption... eg... dog food, glue.. ? Im so clueless about that whole industry and what's happened over the last few years, I can't find anything to explain it to me in layman's terms.
Posted via Mobile Device

Horse meat hasn't been used in dog food since the 1980s, and zoos and big cat sanctuaries have their own processing facilities. As far as rendering the already dead carcasses, that's another industry entirely.

Since the commercial slaughter plants were closed down, unless you take the horses to private slaughter houses, there are no US places in operation at the moment that handle horses.

What was the reason funding for the inspectors was pulled? Was it to placate the public? Was it a question of humane slaughtering? What will happen now? What actually happens at slaughter houses? Is there some sort of overseeing body that will make sure these facilities will operate within the law? What is the law regarding how equines should be slaughter? Sorry for the 20 20
Posted via Mobile Device

The funding was pulled because the RARAs (rabid animal rights activists) were annoying the Powers That Be, and they decided to put a band-aid on the issue hoping they'd shut up and go away.

Since 'the public' has been so long off farms and don't realize that food doesn't originally come shrink wrapped, they fell for the bunk the RARAs were spouting. People don't tend to think logically, they're very easily emotionally manipulated.

If you eat any kind of meat and utilize leather, you approve of the slaughter industry. Claiming horses are 'more deserving' and 'better' than other livestock doesn't make it so, and it's anthropomorphizing at its worst.

The only thing closing the plants did was insure that the horses now have longer rides to Canada and Mexico, and are out of US jurisdiction.

There are already laws on the books regarding how slaughter animals are to be treated. The USDA inspectors aren't just there to look at the meat once it's processed, they oversee the whole operation. That's why the funding being stopped had such catastrophic results for the horse industry. Add to that the economy tanking, and the bottom fell out of the horse market.

You have to be able to set a bottom dollar price on animals, and the slaughter industry did that. It still does it for other livestock, just not horses at the moment.

I'm for the humane slaughter of ALL livestock, not just horses. It's not a one dimensional problem, and anyone who only thinks in black and white will never understand that there are sixty million shades of gray when it comes to something like this.

Thank you for clarifying all this.
Posted via Mobile Device

I'm sure OBAMA thinks he lifted the ban ........

Obama is a politician.
He signed that in theory, the USDA could use funds to inspect horses.
Then, he didn't provide the funds.
So everybody is happy. The pro-slaughter people love him. The anti-slaughter people love him. Brilliant move for sure.

Wernt the plants being shut down or going out of business already ? I am thinking funding was pulled as there just wasnt that many inspections to be made. This industry moved south for the same reason everything else has. Cheap labor and no environmental or liability laws.