Horses are very different than cows. Currently, horses receive all types of parasite medication into their digestive tracts to prevent blockage of intestines.
The meat inspection standards in the USA do not provide guidelines for the feeding of horses to produce meat. There is no testing by the USDA of other factors that effect horse meat in the USA.
Horses have very inefficient digestive systems. They will never turn a profit as cattle do if that is the goal of the horse slaughter industry in the USA.
MURRAY, Ky. — Emaciated horses eating bark off trees. (click here) Abandoned horses tied to telephone poles. Horses subsisting on feces, walking among carcasses.
As the economy continues to falter, law enforcement officers in Kentucky and throughout the country are seeing major increases in the number of unwanted and neglected horses, some abandoned on public land, others left to starve by their owners.
The situation has renewed the debate over whether reopening slaughterhouses in the United States — the last ones closed in 2007 — would help address the problem. Some states, Missouri, Montana and North and South Dakota, for example, are looking at ways to bring slaughterhouses back....
I remind the only reason abandoned horses became an issue was due to the Bush Global Economic Depression. When homeowners with barns in their backyard had to choose between paying the mortgage or feeding their pleasure horses.
So, this is not a long term viable industry, unless there is another Republican elected into the Executive Branch again. At least if that happens the nation will know what they are facing and can plan for it now. If there is ever another Republican president the new 'Food Insurance' for survivalists will have to include their pets.
SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - The federal government's "nationwide program of horse slaughter" threatens the environment and public health, the Humane Society and others claim in court.
Lead plaintiff Front Range Equine Rescue et al. sued Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and two of his top assistants, in Federal Court.
"Defendants are embarking on a nationwide program of horse slaughter that presents clear threats to the environment without complying with congressionally mandated requirements intended to protect the public and our natural resources," the complaint states....
..."For six years, from 2007 until the filing of this complaint, there has been no plan or policy for inspection of horses going to slaughter. For that entire time, horses were notably absent from any consideration of testing or inspection programs. Defendants have been modifying and supposedly improving their testing programs for slaughtered animals over the course of that time. But horses have been consistently excluded. Even USDA's 2013 National Residue Program for testing animals subject to slaughter, when the agency knew that horse slaughter was authorized, excluded horses from consideration."...
The meat inspection standards in the USA do not provide guidelines for the feeding of horses to produce meat. There is no testing by the USDA of other factors that effect horse meat in the USA.
Horses have very inefficient digestive systems. They will never turn a profit as cattle do if that is the goal of the horse slaughter industry in the USA.MURRAY, Ky. — Emaciated horses eating bark off trees. (click here) Abandoned horses tied to telephone poles. Horses subsisting on feces, walking among carcasses.
As the economy continues to falter, law enforcement officers in Kentucky and throughout the country are seeing major increases in the number of unwanted and neglected horses, some abandoned on public land, others left to starve by their owners.
The situation has renewed the debate over whether reopening slaughterhouses in the United States — the last ones closed in 2007 — would help address the problem. Some states, Missouri, Montana and North and South Dakota, for example, are looking at ways to bring slaughterhouses back....
I remind the only reason abandoned horses became an issue was due to the Bush Global Economic Depression. When homeowners with barns in their backyard had to choose between paying the mortgage or feeding their pleasure horses.
So, this is not a long term viable industry, unless there is another Republican elected into the Executive Branch again. At least if that happens the nation will know what they are facing and can plan for it now. If there is ever another Republican president the new 'Food Insurance' for survivalists will have to include their pets.
SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - The federal government's "nationwide program of horse slaughter" threatens the environment and public health, the Humane Society and others claim in court.
Lead plaintiff Front Range Equine Rescue et al. sued Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and two of his top assistants, in Federal Court.
"Defendants are embarking on a nationwide program of horse slaughter that presents clear threats to the environment without complying with congressionally mandated requirements intended to protect the public and our natural resources," the complaint states....
..."For six years, from 2007 until the filing of this complaint, there has been no plan or policy for inspection of horses going to slaughter. For that entire time, horses were notably absent from any consideration of testing or inspection programs. Defendants have been modifying and supposedly improving their testing programs for slaughtered animals over the course of that time. But horses have been consistently excluded. Even USDA's 2013 National Residue Program for testing animals subject to slaughter, when the agency knew that horse slaughter was authorized, excluded horses from consideration."...
