Court Rules Against USDA in Horse Slaughter Case

April 4, 2007 — 

The US District Court has ruled that the USDA violated the law by not conducting an environmental impact review of its decision to allow the continuation of horse slaughter.

Following the passage of a Congressional amendment to the FY 2006 Agricultural Appropriations Act eliminating the use of federal dollars to fund required inspections of horse meat destined for human consumption, USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) created a fee-for-service system to pay for the inspections. This action allowed the three horse slaughter facilities in the US, two in Texas and one in Illinois, to continue operations and prompted the lawsuit filed on behalf of a number of animal rights organizations.

Horse slaughter in the US is effectively ended following recent losses in both federal court and Texas state courts. A recent ruling in Texas upheld a 1949 Texas law banning the slaughter of horses for the purpose of selling the meat for human consumption overseas.

Speculation is that the 90,000 or so horses destined for slaughter in the US each year will now be transported to Mexico or Canada where equine slaughter remains legal unless congress passes legislation outlawing the transport. Such legislation passed the US House of Representatives during last year's congress, but failed to be voted on by the US Senate. Similar legislation (HR 503 and S 311) has been reintroduced in this year's congress.