Bill Backs Horse Slaughterhouses [MO]

CattleNetwork.com

January 12, 2010

A Greene County lawmaker wants to make the slaughtering of horses for human consumption legal in Missouri.

But state Rep. Jim Viebrock has a lot of hurdles to clear.

Viebrock, R-Republic, is sponsoring state legislation aimed at bypassing a federal ban on meat inspectors working in horse slaughtering plants by getting processors to pay for the inspections.

In September 2006, Congress barred any federal funds from being spent by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on inspecting the nation's three remaining horse slaughtering plants in Illinois and Texas -- effectively putting them out of business.

But Congress did not out-right ban the slaughter of horses and shipping the meat overseas to markets in Europe and Asia, where the meat is a delicacy.

Viebrock said the proposed legislation would create state-level USDA inspectors by allowing the Missouri Department of Agriculture to levy inspection fees on slaughterhouses. The state's Department of Agriculture would pass those fees onto USDA, requiring no federal funds, he said.

In addition to getting such a controversial bill through the Missouri legislature, there is the question about whether USDA will honor such an attempt to circumvent the legislative intent of Congress, Viebrock said.

"That is the big hurdle," he said. "We'll find out how powerful the animal rights lobby really is if (USDA allows) it."

The proposal has the support of state Agriculture Department Director Jon Hagler, a St. James native and horse trainer who said the federal ban on horse slaughtering inspections has hurt the entire equine industry.

Hagler said the inspections ban in the U.S. has prompted exporting more horses across the border into Canada and Mexico.

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