Horses still can be killed for food -- meatpackers got rules changed

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http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/04/03/MNGN8I2DKN1.DTL

Horses still can be killed for food -- meatpackers got rules changed

Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau

Monday, April 3, 2006

Washington -- For years, horse advocates have tried to shut three foreign-owned plants in the United States that slaughter horses and ship the meat to France, Belgium, Italy and Japan, where it is served in restaurants as a delicacy.

Congress amended an agriculture spending bill last fall to ban using taxpayer funds to inspect horse meat, which would stop horse slaughter in the United States because federal law requires the inspection of all meat.

But the Department of Agriculture, lobbied by the owners of the plants and their allies in Congress and in the horse and cattle industries, issued new rules last month allowing the plants to keep operating by paying the $350,000 annual cost of the inspections.
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Lawmakers are pushing a broader bill -- sponsored by Rep. John Sweeney, R-N.Y., in the House, and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., in the Senate -- which would ban the slaughter of horses as well as the transportation of horses or horse meat for human consumption.
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