stupid politics and HSUSA at play again .............................>>>>>>>> 54 MINs agoUS Horse Slaughterhouse Moves Step Closer to Operation Agriculture Department Approves Application by New Mexico Company Permalink Facebook Twitter Expand/Collapse Several slaughterhouses that want to process horsemeat moved one step closer to operation after the U.S. Department of Agriculture approved an application submitted by a New Mexico company. By Rebecca Ballhaus WASHINGTON—Several slaughterhouses that want to process horsemeat moved one step closer to operation Friday after the U.S. Department of Agriculture approved an application submitted by a New Mexico company. Valley Meat Co., based in Roswell, N.M., received approval Friday to convert its cattle plant into a horse-processing facility and said it will begin preparations for hiring workers. The USDA could separately approve applications from plants in Missouri and Iowa as early as Monday. Despite the development, it isn’t clear whether horse-meat production will resume in the U.S. The Obama administration is opposed amid widespread public opposition. And both the House and Senate are pursuing a new ban in pending congressional spending bills that could be approved later this year. Blair Dunn, an attorney for Valley Meat, said the USDA won’t be able to send inspectors for at least three weeks and even then he said the company has “serious concerns” about whether they will actually be provided. “We don’t know if they’ll actually make good on their word,” Mr. Dunn said. USDA officials couldn’t provide a timeline for providing inspectors. Valley Meat’s application has been pending for over a year and USDA officials have publicly urged Congress to reinstate a former ban on horse slaughter. Six months ago the company sued the USDA, accusing it of “politically motivated” behavior in violating its own rules for granting inspections. The USDA said under current law it is required to grant the request unless Congress reinstates a ban that expired two years ago. “Until Congress acts, the department must continue to comply with current law,” a USDA spokesman said. Congress kept a ban on horse slaughtering in place from 2006 to 2011 that prevented federal funding for horsemeat inspections, effectively barring horsemeat production nationwide. Lawmakers have both proposed a new bar on inspection funding and an outright ban of horsemeat slaughtering in the U.S. Lawmakers working to reinstate a ban were disappointed with the USDA’s approval. “I don’t think it would make much sense for the facilities to open up if they’re eventually going to get shut down,” said Anne Hughes, a spokesman for Rep. Jim Moran (D., Va.), who opposes horse slaughtering. Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, said he is puzzled by the USDA’s decision. “It’s a strange decision given that the governor and attorney general of New Mexico don’t want that plant, that the Congress is about to defund inspections of horse-slaughter plants, and that Americans don’t eat horse meat and don’t want American horses killed for human consumption,” he said.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Jun 2013 22:21:54 +0000
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