Senate Committee Approves Anti-Slaughter Budget Amendment

The U.S. Senate's Appropriations Committee has taken a significant step towards ending horse slaughter in the United States. By passing an amendment, the committee aims to prevent the USDA from using its budget to fund horsemeat inspections, a move that could effectively halt horse processing in the country.

The U.S. Senate's Appropriations Committee has approved an amendment that would prevent the USDA from using any of its 2017 budget revenue to pay personnel to conduct horsemeat inspections.

Previously, USDA Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) personnel carried out horsemeat inspections at U.S. horse processing plants. In 2007, however, Congress voted to strip the USDA of funds for horsemeat inspections at the last two domestic equine processing plants. The combination of legislation and local court rulings later closed both of those plants.

Federal funding bills continued to include language denying the USDA of funding for horsemeat inspections until 2011, when Congress passed a 2012 appropriations bill that failed to contain language specifically forbidding the USDA from using federal dollars to fund horse slaughter plant inspections. Shortly after that bill became law, horse processing plants were proposed in several states but were never established.

On May 19, the Senate's Appropriations Committee passed an amendment that strips the FSIS from paying personnel to inspect horsemeat. The amendment was sponsored by Senators Tom Udall (D-NM), Mark Kirk (R-IL), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Christopher Coons (D-DE).

Last month, the House of Representatives' Agriculture Committee narrowly passed a twin amendment.

The Senate's Agriculture Appropriations bill now moves on to the full Senate for review.

Originally posted by The Horse