Legal or Not, Will Americans Ever Buy Horse Meat?

The legislative pendulum seems to have swung back again, however, apparently influenced by people like Dave Duquette, the president of a non-profit organization called United Horsemen. He argues that since U.S. slaughterhouses were shut down in 2005, neglect and abuse of horses has skyrocketed. Owners don’t know what to do with older horses that can become difficult to care for. Indian reservations are being overrun by feral horses, he says. And that increased supply of horses has dramatically driven down their price. Duquette says that horses that used to sell for $1,200 to $1,500 now go for as little as $50, further contributing to their neglect. So Duquette says he’s trying to get slaughterhouses to reopen in the U.S. to reduce the animal’s population and increase their value and welfare.

“We’ve got 10 million horses in the United States, domestic horses,” says Duquette. “And 80% of those fall into the category of the backyard hobby horsemen, the ones who just go out and trail ride a bit. And they went from owning an asset to owning a liability.”

The Humane Society’s Pacelle responds that the problem of horse overpopulation is a fairy tale. More U.S. horses are being slaughtered today than in the past, he says; they’re just being sent to facilities in Canada and Mexico rather than in the U.S. Indeed, according to U.S.D.A. numbers compiled by the Humane Society, about 167,000 American horses were slaughtered by our two North American neighbors in 2012, more than during any year when it was legal to slaughter them in the U.S.

In any case, in 2011, Congress again made it possible to slaughter horses in the U.S. — at least in theory. Such facilities need to be approved and inspected by the U.S.D.A., and that has yet to happen. The U.S.D.A. says two processing facilities — one in New Mexico and another in Missouri — have applied for a grant of inspection from the department. The New York Times reported Thursday that the proposed plant in New Mexico, owned by Valley Meat Company, may be approved to open within the next two months. Sequestration, however, may cut into the U.S.D.A.’s food safety budget, delaying these inspections indefinitely. Even if the funding is available, however, the U.S.D.A. would face the fresh challenge of testing for a host of new drugs, including anti-inflammatory medications that make horse meat unfit for human consumption.

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