Horse Slaughter — Paul Harvey vs. USDA
Today (Wednesday) Paul Harvey made a point of mentioning that Congress had voted against slaughter of horses for human consumption, but the USDA ordered three facilities to continue slaughtering, 88,000 head per year.
After looking at the USDA site, apparently Congress (the school of unintended consequences, never graduated a class) tried to pull a tree-hugger tactic — forbid using appropriated funds to pay for inspection of horses prior to slaughter. The warm-and-fuzzy people figured that would end the ability to slaughter horses. The reality is that the slaughter was still legal, and the USDA still legally bound to do the inspections. Their response is not to go around Congress’ intent, but to meet their legal requirements, but charging fees to inspect the horses before slaughter to cover expenses.
Congress’ action may have sounded good, but did not come close to ending slaughter of horses (for human consumption — dog food wasn’t affected). They apparently recognized they didn’t have the authority or support to come out and do something, whether or not you support slaughter. So instead they tried a weak, left-handed, devious bit of red tape to satisfy someone’s lobbyist. The result is that everyone in Congress gets to report ‘Re-elect me, I tried to save those horses from those evil horse-eaters’, without really having to offend those making a living selling horse overseas, offending the overseas markets buying the horse, or the majority of the horse industry that recognizes a need for a way to drain off unwanted and undesirable horses.
I personally never want to slaughter a horse. But I understand why the operations exist, and the necessary function they perform. 88,000 horses per year, maybe 1760 per state per year — that doesn’t sound like a lot of extra horses to accomodate. But most horse people have at *least* as many as they can afford — taking on more horses will take feed and money from other horses.
I understand many visitors to the DraftResource.com chat board have gone to the sales, and bought slaughter-bound horses, many with great success, some with heartbreaking failure. My cynical observation is that there seem to be a lot of people protesting the slaughter of horses (for human consumption) that are *not* taking on their share of the 88,000 horses a year that would need care. Every year. ‘Put up or shut up’ may be a poor man’s attempt at morality, but it still helps keep a lid on interference in other’s lives.
Enjoy.