All horse slaughter closed down in Mexico and Canada today

You have it here in the US too, but it has not received much publicity.

CDC - Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE)

Alex S here in the US we avoidied the mass hysteria and numerous infection due to our ability to isolate and control our products.
Our meat and vegetables are as safe as Europes and the rest of the world.
Our department of Agriculture and Food and Drug administration along with State and local health departments can isolate and minimize any out break remarkably fast. Shalom

Farmers in EU countries don't have to have a vet each time drugs are administered they are just expected to keep a record of whats given - its about trying to keep consumer confidence in whats going into the food that's on their plate.
One of the main thinking behind passports is to be able to track each animal to its origin so when a case of Foot & Mouth for eg is found its easy to trace it to where it came from and the herd and any other contacts can be quickly isolated and destroyed before the disease spreads. If you'd ever lived in a UK rural community and seen the devastation caused by something like FMD you would understand why its so important.
Horses only need to have recorded medication uses if they are going into the food chain. Casualty stock goes out through another door
The US has really strict regulations that they impose on any countries who want to export meat products to here so why would they expect to not have to conform to another countries own regulations?

Hmmm...so foot & mouth disease doesn't exist in the US? Or are our cattle so spread out that it isn't hard to deal with?

And the point about horse slaughter is that horses are not raised for food. The vast majority of horses going to slaughter went there after first being considered riding stock.

Regulations ARE obeyed. The US has objected to the EU rules, but that is all. And my suggestion was that we look elsewhere. The beef here is just as healthy to eat as beef in the EU. If you want "organic", you can get it. If you don't give a rat's rear, like most American consumers, you buy your beef knowing the main health concern is portion control - eating too much and getting fat. If there was evidence that the EU has lower cancer rates due to their controls, the US might adopt them. But there is no evidence, and most of our meat goes to our domestic market, so we don't care.

The EU is up to its neck with government weenies. It is an international HOA with the control freak minority trying to dominate everyone else. Happily, the US is large enough to blow them a big, beefy raspberry...

BSMS livestock producers in england and europe operate on a much smaller scale thatn producers here in the US and Canada.
Cattle are raised on much smaller holdings and herds are smaller for theat reason. If a family lost 5 cows to disease it would devastate most producers.
My family here in Texas has what I consider a small to medium operation. With about 100 head of brood cows, 5 bulls, calves and yearlings for replacemant or slaughter we have about 200 head at all time. Losing 5 would not big a big finanial loss. Shalom

I'm not sure what your argument is
The US has been free of FMD since 1929
Its is way more spread out because it does have way more open land, farming in countries like the UK is way more intensive because it doesn't have the acreage available or the distance between farms
I'm not aware that any of the EU farming policies have anything to do with trying to reduce cancer rates - the fact that some people may be trying to make a statistical analysis from it has nothing to do with them
The only concern with the horse slaughter issue is that horses going for slaughter in the EU for human consumption have to conform with the same regulations as any other meat producing animal and as you rightly say - many of the horses going to canada & mexico are unwanted riding horses so the EU feels that it has to protect its food source from these places in the same way as it does from its own countries.
The US doesn't eat horse meat so why should they worry - neither does the UK - but those countries that do feel they have a right to be feel confident in what they eat and not just be a dumping ground for unwanted US horses because the US can't get its head around providing slaughter facilities in its own country.
If the US has no need to export beef then why should it have any concerns at all about how the EU is run - its not going to have any effect on them at all
As of March 2012 the US was still upholding its 15 year old ban on importing beef from the EU. I'm not sure if there is any change on that

That US ban on imports from the EU is in retaliation for the refusal of the countries to allow our imports.
For example while I was stationed in Europe I drove a Chrysler New Yorker.
In those days they were very push and my relatives and friends in the countries I lived in thought I was terribly wealthy.
I was ontinually getting offers for the car.
However to sell the car that cost about 14,000 $ to a resident of that country would have cost them about 35,-40,000.
Now this was in the early to mid 80's so that was a lot of money for a car in those days. I could buy a european car for less than I paid for the New Yorker.
Closing markets to outside competition only hurst the consumer.
With the low cost of imported american beef consumers in the EU could find their food cost much lower. Shalom

How did the US get free of FMD without passports for cattle?

The ban on US beef was supposedly - according to the articles I could find - due to concerns that the stuff our cattle are fed and given cause cancer. Maybe those articles are wrong, but I doubt the EU has admitted they ban US beef to protect their farmers. I do remember the EU farmers protesting in the 90s about US farm products.

My point remains: The EU is going to do what it does, so we ought to look elsewhere rather than adopt their regulations and practices. The concerned EU consumers remind me of a person I know who won't use cell phones for fear of brain cancer - but I believe in freedom, and the EU consumers can pay high prices if they want to.

It isnt just the EU - Japan is only just easing its import restrictions on US beef - they also cite BSE as a reason. China still is in discussion with the US and has a really complicated list of exclusions
Export Requirements for the People's Republic of China
Its not unreasonable that countries with different costs of living need to protect the producers within their own borders. Some very poor eoropean countries are totally reliant on a rural economy, these people are existing close to the poverty line as they have no other real sources of employment so a flood of cheap US meat could destroy them. Even in the UK farming is really fragile as an industry and the loss of their sales to huge US beef producers would see many of them out of work.
A country has a duty to look after its own first because it has to provide for them if they are out of work. The UK for eg has a much different benefits and health system to the US
By the time beef was imported into the EU with the associated costs plus the addition of VAT (purchase tax) at anything from 17% to 23% it might not actually be that much cheaper when you consider that in some US states it can be zero.
A car in the UK costs almost as much in GBP's as it does in $'s in the US with a current exchange rate of about 1GBP to $0.619, the cost of housing is much the same
A horse in the EU that can't go into the foodchain is pretty much worthless and not that long ago would cost you money to dispose of as no slaughter yard was interested in buying them as there was no profit in it - more likely a loss.
If the EU is able to uphold its policy on not accepting US horses that aren't deemed fit for human consumption it will have a huge impact on the price they are making in auctions as they wont be worth buying and transporting to Mexico or Canada and butchering there

Jaydee I understand that the farmers want to protect their livilhoods but economcally it makes no sense when you can import it much cheaper.
Japan and china are dealing with the same issues as the EU.
Also if the US could control the worlds food supply along with a few other countries and it can then you are talking a immensely powerful country. One that already enjoys the benefits of being the only Superpower left. Shalom