Why is it so important to ban horse slughter in the US?

Yup, another one. But a different take on it.

This isn't intended to be one of those threads about why slaughter is bad or good in general. I'm not looking for responses like "It's important because horses have rights" or "because they're killing all the pretty ponies".

If horse slaughter is okay in Canada and Mexico, why is it important to not have it in the US? Has anyone that is fighting against it being restarted tried to stop it in Canada or Mexico or anywhere else it's allowed in the world? Unless you are involved in horse slaughter in Canada or Mexico, why would it make a difference to you if you didn't live in the US?

I know this was brought up on one of the other threads but never got addressed as far as I know.

I just figured that US people put up such a stink about "Killing the pretty ponies" That they thought it was in the best interest of the people to make it illegal.

Some plants have closed in Canada because enough people signed a petition.

Equine slaughter is not illegal in the US. There has never been a federal ban on it here in the States. There are several states who have made it illegal, but that's state law, not federal.

Didn't say it was either or... I live in Canada, why should I care what is going on in the US? And I wasn't completely wrong...

'Not completely wrong' doesn't make you right, either.

Unless you know what's going on here in the States and how our laws work, you won't have a good grasp of the situation.

States can and do make illegal/legalize things that the federal government doesn't get into. Gay marriage is one. That's always been a state issue, as well.

States' rights are part of the cornerstone of our government. The original idea was that the federal government was only supposed to be a way to bring all the states together and loosely watch over them; not to be the main governing power of the country. Sadly, that has changed, but states still hold powers within their own borders to make certain decisions.

Ray,

In a classic American political move, slaughter was effectively ended in the US because the funding for inspectors from the plants was removed.

Recently, an unrelated bill was passed that had a rider tacked onto it that restored the funding for the inspectors.

Whether someone will seize the business opportunity to begin processing horsemeat in the US again now that federal inspection has been restored is an open question, particularly with a lot of public sentiment against it.

I've never understood the position of banning horse slaughter in the US; it just moved the business to Mexico and Canada. Banning in throughout North America is not likely to happen.

They were pushing for that, though. I know there was some kind of petition/bill/act that was trying to make it illegal to transport horses out of the country for the purpose of slaughter. The point being that we can't exactly regulate what Canada and Mexico does, but at least we can try to prevent American horses from dying there. I don't know if that's still stewing somewhere or if it fizzled out....

I want just one person to tell me this:

If transport for slaughter becomes illegal and horses can no longer be bought at American sales for the purpose of taking them to Mexico or Canada to be processed,

What do YOU think will become of all of the horses that are now going through sales with NO ONE bidding on them except the slaughter buyers? Where do YOU think these horses will go and what do YOU think will happen to them?

Please, anti-slaughter folks, step up and tell me what will happen to all of the thousands of horses that will be "SAVED"?

Celeste?

I have read and been told of what happens to horses that go to Mexico they are put to a fight together so bets can be placed then after they beat each other to death then they are slaughter

You have been told wrong. When the American plant was closed in Illinois, the Belgian Company that owned it was already building a plant in Mexico. It is run according to EU standards (which are very strict). The horses are at no time handled or messed with by local Mexicans. Trucks go straight from here to feed lots or to the plant. They are stunned with a bolt gun and they are processed by very strict rules.

I hate to pop everyone's bubble, but the videos coming out of Mexico are old and are showing little local Mexican slaughter facilities where local horses are brought in and the meat is marketed locally in the little towns where these plants are located. They are filthy, the horses can be sick or maimed and they are just one of the reasons you do not eat food or drink water in small Mexican towns.

The AAEP sent representatives (Licensed Veterinarians) to the Belgian owned plant in Mexico and they reported back that the horses were properly handled and the plant was set up to better standards than the ones that were closed here.

But, we would still be much better off with several plants located here in the US so that horses did not have to travel so far and so their 'value' could come back up high enough to give people more reason to feed and care for low-end horses better than they do now.