House to vote on horse slaughter

WASHINGTON (AP) The House is once again confronting the slaughter of horses for meat, a practice lawmakers thought they had ended last year.

Congress voted in 2005 to stop horse slaughter. But they didn't ban it outright - lawmakers yanked the salaries and expenses of federal inspectors. In response, the Bush administration simply started charging slaughter plants for inspections.

A vote was planned Thursday on whether to put an end to horse slaughter. Critics call the industry un-American.

"Everyone knows who Mr. Ed, Secretariat and Silver are. I dare anyone to name a list of famous cattle or chickens," Rep. John Sweeney, R-N.Y., said in recent testimony to a House subcommittee.

"They are American icons that deserve to be treated as such. Would we ever think of slaughtering and serving a bald eagle in this country? The same should be true of the horse," Sweeney said.

American horse meat is sold mostly for human consumption in Europe and Asia, although some goes to U.S. zoos.

The industry's defenders say that slaughter plants offer a low-cost, humane way to ending a horse's life when it is no longer useful.

If horse slaughter ended in the U.S., plants in Canada and Mexico likely would take over some of the business, supporters argue. Unlike other countries, U.S. law requires that horses and other livestock be unable to feel pain before they are killed.

Horse slaughter is a tiny business in the United States, compared to the huge beef, poultry and pork processing industries. Horses are slaughtered at two plants in Texas and one in Illinois. In all, about 88,000 horses, mules and other equines were slaughtered last year, according to the Agriculture Department.

The issue has drawn highprofile lobbyists. Opponents of horse slaughter include oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens and country singer Willie Nelson;

supporters include former Dallas Cowboys tight end Jay Novacek, who is now a rancher.

"Many people cannot afford the more than $2,000 annual cost of caring for a horse that has outlived its productive use," Novacek wrote last month in an opinion piece for The Dallas Morning News. "There will be more abandoned and neglected horses because owners without adequate resources will make difficult and unfortunate choices."

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