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Feb. 8, 2013
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Jewish World Review
Nov 18, 2011
/ 21 Mar-Cheshvan 5772
They're going to eat horses, aren't they?
By
Dale McFeatters
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Americans love their horses, both real and fictional. Not long ago, a book about a beloved Depression-era racehorse, Seabiscuit, became a bestseller and an Oscar nominee for best picture.
Two things Americans won't do for their horses is eat them or much care for them in their old age and when they are in surplus. Other countries in Europe and Asia do, however, eat them and think of horsemeat as a delicacy.
At one time U.S. slaughterhouses did a decent business in butchering horses for foreign consumption. But this offended the sensibilities of many Americans and pressure grew on Congress to stop it. The horse advocates had sentimentality on their side; the slaughterhouses, economics. Sentimentality won.
In 2005, Congress in a backdoor way effectively outlawed the export of butchered horses. It cut off funds for U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection of horse slaughter facilities and without those inspections the meat cannot be shipped across state lines.
Horses are still slaughtered by rendering plants for animal food and hides, and an estimated 140,000 live U.S. horses are shipped each year to slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico.
But as Lee Bowman of Scripps Howard News Service reports, the clause with the ban was quietly dropped this week from a must-pass federal spending bill that will again make it possible for U.S. processors to butcher horses for human consumption here and abroad. The bill will likely pass because the funds in it are needed to avert a partial government shutdown this weekend.
A coalition of horse breeders, slaughterhouses, large animal veterinarians and exporters say lifting the ban will create jobs and be good for the economy and, moreover, cut down on the number of horses abandoned or starved by owners who can no longer afford the upkeep, a claim supported by at least one government study.
Animal rights activists has vowed to win passage of a bill that would permanently ban horse slaughter in the U.S. and the export of horses to foreign packinghouses. They've picked up 25 co-sponsors in the Senate and nearly 100 in the House but most members of Congress, facing an election year, have little appetite for getting into a fight over horsemeat.
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Previously:
• 11/17/11 A pretend stick shift for pretend drivers
• 11/16/11 Clinton's vast experiences: Did NBC pick the wrong Chelsea?
• 11/15/11 Occupy protesters, you've made your point. Now, scat
• 11/10/11 Our vets are a national problem?
• 11/09/11 Requiem for a once-great sport
• 11/08/11 A toilet as smart as its occupant
• 11/07/11 Prerevolutionary gems in need of TLC
• 11/04/11 Feds must stop scam of stealing from dead children
• 11/03/11 Bank listens very closely to customer lynch mob
• 11/01/11 TV that's leading the people away from core socialist values
• 10/31/11 NATO should not be a victim of its success
• 10/28/11 Iran mulls getting rid of president and presidency
• 10/27/11 Bienvenidos a Dayton and bring your businesses with you
• 10/26/11 Archivists long for Obama's teleprompter
• 10/25/11 United Nations to run the Internet?
• 10/24/11 Attention, world: You've got the cash. We've got the houses
• 10/19/11 Oil pipeline must be in America's future
• 10/18/11 U.S. plans limited mission in an Africa with no limits
• 10/17/11 Social Security's grave mistakes
• 10/12/11 NASA's help-wanted sign for astronauts
• 10/10/11 Saving Thomas Jefferson''s chimneys
• 10/06/11 Uncle Sam's answer to deadbeats --- robo-calls
• 10/04/11 Christie should ignore jibes on his weight
• 10/03/11 Iran says its warships will head for Jersey shore
• 09/29/11 Europeans bristle at Obama's lectures
• 09/28/11 Jessica Rabbit for the defense
• 09/27/11 Russia learns outcome of next March's presidential election
• 09/26/11 Another try at leaving no child behind
• 09/23/11 This generation needs a job more than a name
• 09/22/11 In the lane next to you: A driverless car
• 09/20/11 Cloudy, cool, chance of falling satellite
• 09/14/11 Humanitarian extortion
• 09/13/11 Paging Dr. Watson; he's there in 3 seconds
• 09/09/11 Forecasting 100 percent chance of heavy metal
• 09/08/11 A jobs program at Obama's doorstep
• 09/07/11 Iran's government afraid of the water
• 09/06/11 Congress returns, tanned, rested and testy
• 09/05/11 Space nations must clean up after themselves
• 09/02/11 Osama bin Laden died a failure and he knew it
• 09/01/11 Time to retire political pie in the face
• 08/31/11 Labor Day celebrates what, exactly?
• 08/30/11 These arrestees really are framed
• 08/25/11 When in an earthquake, block traffic
• 08/23/11 A case for discretion in deportation arrests
• 08/22/11 Tough times or not, parents shell out for school
• 08/18/11 Being unpleasant for fun, profit, promotion
• 08/17/11 Time to prepare for the end game in Libya
• 08/16/11: Super Committee starts facing reality
• 08/15/11: World's fastest plane disappears even faster
• 08/12/11: British cops track rioters through security cameras
• 08/11/11: Relax. There is no Death Star
• 08/10/11: House pages run final errands
• 08/09/11: U.S. treading water on job creation
• 08/08/11: Uncle Sam, the world's permanent guest
• 08/05/11: Most 9/11 victims not on federal death records
• 08/04/11: Russian PM calls U.S. a parasite. He should be so lucky
• 08/03/11: Congress goes from one bind to another
• 08/02/11: D.B. Cooper may no longer be a mystery
• 08/01/11: Libya's latest weapon against NATO --- lawsuits
• 07/29/11: He'll always be known as Hot Wheels Handler
• 07/25/11: Recruiting children to save a dying town
• 07/22/11: Bachmann's admirable medical candor
• 07/12/11: Social Security's grave mistakes
• 07/08/11: Debt crisis need not be constitutional crisis
• 07/07/11: Startups entice new talent with kickball, treehouses
• 07/05/11: Stranded tourists get rare treat
• 06/30/11: The dollar Americans refuse to spend
• 06/27/11: The hangman doesn't cometh
© 2011, SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
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