 slaughter.
The legal status of horse slaughter changed on November 18, 2011 when President Obama signed the 112th Congress’ Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, H.R. 2112;Pub.L. 112-55. This federal appropriations bill omitted the horsemeat inspection defunding provision. In essence, federal law now permits domestic horse slaughter for human consumption, but regulations to administer the required FMIA inspections are being contested in a pending trial, Front Range Equien Rescue v. Vilsack. The court must decide whether USDA regulations requisite for the resumption of horse slaughter complied with agency and environmental laws. Meanwhile, proposed appropriations and slaughter ban bills would re-ban the practice if passed by Congress in 2014.
No commercial horse slaughter plants have operated in the United States since Cavel’s plant closed at midnight on June 29, 2007. Notably, the 2007 ban did not prevent the export of live horses for the purpose of slaughter. Horsemeat companies have since shipped approximately 150,000 horses a year, to Canada and Mexico to be slaughtered for human consumption.
The U.S. now faces the issue of whether to permit or prohibit domestic horse slaughter for human consumption. The most conspicuous options for the current legislature would be to accept horse slaughter and avoid the details; embrace it and enhance its standards for humane methods, the environment, and export; or adopt an affirmative horse slaughter ban, such as the Safeguard American Food Exports Act of 2013 (S.A.F.E.), H.R. 1094. However, the status of proposed FY 2014 agricultural appropriations bills would suggest that the most likely legislation will be a renewed temporary inspection defunding provision and effective federal ban. In any case, the legislative and regulatory atmosphere regarding horse slaughter is permeated with controversy and remains in flux.