Misguided Anti-Horse Transportation Bill Moves Forward

September 26, 2008 - Under a bill approved by a U.S. House of Representatives committee this week, an individual could be punished with a three-year prison term for trafficking in horse meat, a product that is regularly consumed in much of the world.

The Animal Agriculture Alliance learned on Thursday that the misguided and misleadingly named Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act (H.R. 6598), a bill which would criminalize the sale and transportation of horses for the purposes of slaughter, was approved and recommended to the House of Representatives by the House Judiciary Committee. The bill passed by a voice vote.

Multiple amendments intended to lessen the frightful negative impact the bill would have on horse welfare were defeated along largely partisan lines. The American Sheep Industry Association, American Veterinary Medical Association, American Association of Equine Practitioners, American Quarter Horse Association, American Farm Bureau Federation and National Cattlemen's Beef Association, among many others, oppose this fatally flawed bill.

House Agriculture Committee members continue to argue that this bill is within the agriculture committee's jurisdiction. The Judiciary Committee has two days to report the bill out.
Reprinted from Animal Ag Alliance

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