Horse slaughter ban amendment OK’d by Senate

Suzanne Struglinski

Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2005 | 9:59 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The country's three horse slaughter plants may no longer be able to sell horse meat for food, based on Senate action Tuesday.

The Senate approved, 68-29, Sen. John Ensign's amendment to the agriculture spending bill aimed at ending all horse slaughter. The amendment bans using tax dollars to pay the Agriculture Department to do inspections of horses destined to be made into food. Without the inspections, the meat cannot be sold.

Ensign, a Nevada Republican, said this is a "very constitutional" way to ban slaughter. He said the country's history with the horse has created an emotional attachment with the animals, so killing them for food to be shipped to other countries is unacceptable.

There are three plants in the United States, one in Illinois and two in Texas, that slaughter horses to be used for human consumption in Italy, France and Japan. Some are also shipped oversees to be killed.

Ensign's amendment had support from the Humane Society of the United States, Veterinarians for Equine Welfare and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, according to his office.

Controversy erupted earlier this year when horses purchased from the Bureau of Land Management ended up in a horse slaughter factory in Illinois. BLM has since taken steps to tighten its horse sale program and several pieces of legislation, including some proposed by Nevada lawmakers are pending to try to reform it even more.

As for Ensign's amendment, the House identical language in June on a 269-158 vote. Nevada's three House lawmakers, Republicans Jim Gibbons and Jon Porter and Democrat Shelley Berkley, voted for it.

The Senate still needs to pass the overall agriculture spending bill and the provisions would need to survive negotiations on the final bill between House and Senate lawmakers.