OH YEAH.
It's been a great week for the against horse slaughter movement. The Illinois slaughterhouse has closed it's doors. Currently no slaughtering is going on! Now Congress just needs to get a permenent ban in place. Yay. I was jumping up and down yesterday.
The horse is saved
TODAY'S EDITORIAL March 30, 2007
It took a court order for Congress' 2005 horse-slaughter ban to finally take
effect. The last slaughtering facility closed its doors Thursday morning in
DeKalb, Ill. after the U.S. District Court struck down a Department of
Agriculture scheme designed from the start to circumvent the year-and-a-half- old
legislation to outlaw the slaughtering of horses for human consumption. The whole
episode shows the lengths to which federal regulators will go to disobey
Congress if an agency stands to lose regulatory powers -- or, in this case, a
regulated constituency.
Until this year, the U.S. horsemeat industry consisted of three plants in
Illinois and Texas which butchered about 90,000 horses annually for export
primarily to France and Belgium. The domestic market for this revolting "delicacy"
is virtually nil; its consumption is illegal in several states, including
Texas, where two of the three U.S. plants were shuttered in January. The fact that
the industry lasted this long is testament to the power of lobbying, and, of
course, to the eternal federal agency.
Acting from the sense that horses are "living symbols of the historic and
pioneer spirit of the West" and thus (as with the venerated bald eagle ) -- it is
barbaric to kill them for human consumption, Congress stripped funding in
November 2005 for USDA's horsemeat-inspectio n activities. Without inspections,
there's no meat. The measure would "stop the slaughter of horses for human
consumption, " said Sen. Robert Byrd, a cosponsor. That's clear enough.
There began the chicanery. In blatant disregard of congressional intent, the
Agriculture Department devised a "fee-for-service" scheme whereby the
horsemeat industry, not taxpayers, would finance the inspections. The matter went to
court, and finally this week the U.S. District Court threw out USDA's attempt
to get around Congress. The players in opposition included the cattle industry,
which believed that free-range horses damaged grazing lands; foreign
horseflesh producers and consumers; and of course regulators who stood to lose
"business."
This is a case where the veneration of a national symbol outweighs
laissez-faire instincts. American horses should never be served up for the pleasure of
barbaric foreign palates. Pending in Congress currently are two bills (H.R. 503
and S. 311) to prohibit the transport of American horses across the border to
Mexico for slaughter. These, too, should pass, or else we've simply averted
our eyes without preventing the slaughter and abuse of the noble steed.
March 30, 2007
Judge's Ruling Closes Horse Slaughterhouse
Chicagoist hasn't ever eaten horse meat. We don't really have a moral objection to it, any more than we have a moral objection to eating veal, lamb, chicken, frog legs, fois gras, and on and on; we just haven't eaten it.
But some people do have a moral objection, and those people are feeling pretty happy after the nation's only operational horse slaughterhouse, DeKalb County-based Cavel International Inc., was shut down on Thursday. A federal judge ruled that "it was illegal for horse slaughterhouses to pay the U.S. Department of Agriculture to cover costs of their health inspections, " essentially because the USDA is also the organization that would shut them down if they didn't pass the inspections. While it wasn't really a moral victory against horse slaughterhouses, it was good enough to shut Cavel International down. The plant normally slaughters 1,000 horses a week, generating $30 million a year in foreign trade.
The horses at Cavel International, Inc. are killed with "a handheld 'penetrating captive bolt device' applied to the skull that opponents consider barbaric but regulators consider humane." This is the same device used to kill cattle. Once the horses have been slaughtered, they are shipped off to Europe where people don't seem to care one way or the other what they put in their mouth as long as it isn't genetically modified.
Even without this most recent ruling, the good old days may be over for Cavel, since a variety of legislation is on the table that would prohibit the slaughter of horses for consumption. A bipartisan bill passed the House of Representatives 263-146 last year and was reintroduced this winter. Here in Illinois, a ban passed a House committee by an 8-4 vote last week.
The horse is saved
TODAY'S EDITORIAL March 30, 2007
It took a court order for Congress' 2005 horse-slaughter ban to finally take
effect. The last slaughtering facility closed its doors Thursday morning in
DeKalb, Ill. after the U.S. District Court struck down a Department of
Agriculture scheme designed from the start to circumvent the year-and-a-half- old
legislation to outlaw the slaughtering of horses for human consumption. The whole
episode shows the lengths to which federal regulators will go to disobey
Congress if an agency stands to lose regulatory powers -- or, in this case, a
regulated constituency.
Until this year, the U.S. horsemeat industry consisted of three plants in
Illinois and Texas which butchered about 90,000 horses annually for export
primarily to France and Belgium. The domestic market for this revolting "delicacy"
is virtually nil; its consumption is illegal in several states, including
Texas, where two of the three U.S. plants were shuttered in January. The fact that
the industry lasted this long is testament to the power of lobbying, and, of
course, to the eternal federal agency.
Acting from the sense that horses are "living symbols of the historic and
pioneer spirit of the West" and thus (as with the venerated bald eagle ) -- it is
barbaric to kill them for human consumption, Congress stripped funding in
November 2005 for USDA's horsemeat-inspectio n activities. Without inspections,
there's no meat. The measure would "stop the slaughter of horses for human
consumption, " said Sen. Robert Byrd, a cosponsor. That's clear enough.
There began the chicanery. In blatant disregard of congressional intent, the
Agriculture Department devised a "fee-for-service" scheme whereby the
horsemeat industry, not taxpayers, would finance the inspections. The matter went to
court, and finally this week the U.S. District Court threw out USDA's attempt
to get around Congress. The players in opposition included the cattle industry,
which believed that free-range horses damaged grazing lands; foreign
horseflesh producers and consumers; and of course regulators who stood to lose
"business."
This is a case where the veneration of a national symbol outweighs
laissez-faire instincts. American horses should never be served up for the pleasure of
barbaric foreign palates. Pending in Congress currently are two bills (H.R. 503
and S. 311) to prohibit the transport of American horses across the border to
Mexico for slaughter. These, too, should pass, or else we've simply averted
our eyes without preventing the slaughter and abuse of the noble steed.
March 30, 2007
Judge's Ruling Closes Horse Slaughterhouse
Chicagoist hasn't ever eaten horse meat. We don't really have a moral objection to it, any more than we have a moral objection to eating veal, lamb, chicken, frog legs, fois gras, and on and on; we just haven't eaten it.
But some people do have a moral objection, and those people are feeling pretty happy after the nation's only operational horse slaughterhouse, DeKalb County-based Cavel International Inc., was shut down on Thursday. A federal judge ruled that "it was illegal for horse slaughterhouses to pay the U.S. Department of Agriculture to cover costs of their health inspections, " essentially because the USDA is also the organization that would shut them down if they didn't pass the inspections. While it wasn't really a moral victory against horse slaughterhouses, it was good enough to shut Cavel International down. The plant normally slaughters 1,000 horses a week, generating $30 million a year in foreign trade.
The horses at Cavel International, Inc. are killed with "a handheld 'penetrating captive bolt device' applied to the skull that opponents consider barbaric but regulators consider humane." This is the same device used to kill cattle. Once the horses have been slaughtered, they are shipped off to Europe where people don't seem to care one way or the other what they put in their mouth as long as it isn't genetically modified.
Even without this most recent ruling, the good old days may be over for Cavel, since a variety of legislation is on the table that would prohibit the slaughter of horses for consumption. A bipartisan bill passed the House of Representatives 263-146 last year and was reintroduced this winter. Here in Illinois, a ban passed a House committee by an 8-4 vote last week.