LINCOLN — One side trots out stories of unwanted horses left to starve in barren fields, or dumped in a stranger’s pasture, or turned loose to fend for themselves.
The other side describes nightmarish places where traumatized horses are slaughtered to fill dining tables overseas.
Both argue as if a bill creating a state meat inspection program in Nebraska would clear the way for reopening horse meat plants in the United States.
But federal agriculture officials call that presumption into question.
The federal officials said that the restrictions that ban U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors from overseeing the killing and processing of horses also apply to all state inspection programs.
“Distribution of product derived from horses for human consumption in interstate or international commerce is effectively barred,” according to information from the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.
The USDA’s position hasn’t stopped Nebraska lawmakers from advancing the meat inspection program bill as a first step toward allowing horse slaughter in the state.
Meat intended for human consumption must be inspected either by the federal or a state program. Supporters of Legislative Bill 305 believe that a state program would not be bound by the same restrictions as the federal inspection program, and therefore could oversee horse slaughter.
One key lawmaker said passage of LB 305 could set up a court challenge over whether the federal ban applies to states.
“We may test it out. We don’t think it’s clear,” said State Sen. Tom Carlson of Holdrege, the Agriculture Committee chairman, of the federal ban. “When that’s settled, we want to be ready to go.”
Sen. Tyson Larson of O’Neill, who introduced the bill, called horse slaughter a “states’ rights issue.”
He said lawmakers should decide on the bill based on the best policy for the state, not on the possibility of future court battles over horse processing.
The Agriculture Committee advanced LB 305 on a 7-1 vote and selected it as one of two committee priorities. The bill could be debated as early as this week.
Supporters said LB 305 could give horse owners a way to get rid of injured, dying or unwanted animals other than paying to have them euthanized or selling them for slaughter in Mexico or Canada.
They said a glut of unwanted horses has developed since the last three U.S. horse plants closed in 2007.
Since then, they said, prices for horses have plummeted, and the number of abandoned and neglected horses has increased.
“No one could have predicted the horrific outcome that haunts the horse industry today,” said Mindy Patterson of Missouri, a leader with the United Horsemen, a group pushing for the resumption of horse slaughter.
Opponents said the problems stem from overbreeding and the nation’s recent economic woes.
“Let’s sit down and come up with a reasonable solution, not kill them all because we don’t know what to do,” said Valerie Hinderlider of the Break Heart Ranch Horse Rescue near Minden, Neb.
USDA figures suggest that the number of horses slaughtered has changed little since the U.S. plants shut down.
About 150,000 horses from the United States were killed for human food in the year before the U.S. plants closed.
In 2008, after the U.S. plants closed, about 146,000 horses were sent to Mexican and Canadian plants.
Most of the meat is exported to Europe and Asia.
Horse meat is generally shunned in the United States, and pressure to end horse slaughter mounted during the 1990s, following reports on the treatment of slaughter horses.
More than a decade ago, the U.S. had eight horse plants, including one in North Platte, Neb. By 2007, only two U.S. plants remained, and state laws eventually shut them both down.
Congress has precluded other plants from opening by ending federal inspections of horse meat, and inspections are required for any meat sold for human consumption.
Butch Hughes of Hastings, who runs a horse rescue, argued that a state inspection program could “take the federal inspector leash off Nebraska.”
But 27 states already have their own meat inspection programs, and none have horse processing plants in operation, despite legislation in some aimed at encouraging plants to open.
Carlson and Larson both said a Nebraska meat and poultry inspection program would be worthwhile, even if the ban on horse meat remains in place.
A state program could make inspectors more available to small meat processors and could benefit producers of specialty livestock, such as buffalo, elk, ostrich or grass-fed cattle.
“LB 305 is good policy with or without horses,” Larson said. “It opens up a lot of smaller and niche markets to be inspected.”
But Sen. Russ Karpisek of Wilber wondered whether there would be enough use of a state program to justify its potential cost. Karpisek, a former owner of a meat market, cast the lone vote against LB 305 in committee.
He said that state-inspected facilities have to meet the same standards as those overseen by federal inspectors, which can be a barrier for processors.
The fees charged for the program could be another barrier. Karpisek said inspection programs in other states cost $800,000 or more to operate. Federal funds most likely would cover half of the cost, but the rest would have to come from fees or state funds.
“Other than the horses, I can’t see why anyone would go the state route,” Karpisek said. “To me, it just doesn’t pencil out.”
Meat processors have split over previous proposals to create a state inspection program. None testified for or against LB 305.
In 2000, then-Gov. Mike Johanns vetoed a state meat inspection program bill, saying it duplicated the existing federal inspection program.
Larson said the benefits of a state program have increased since that veto. In the past, meat inspected by state inspectors was not allowed to be sold across state lines, but the latest federal farm bill allows those out-of-state sales.
LB 305 does not provide specifics about how a state program would operate or how it would be funded, except that $200,000 to start the program would come from the Commercial Feed Administrative Cash Fund. The fund holds fees paid by grain elevators, ethanol producers and feed manufacturers to support Nebraska’s feed inspection program.
The bill also directs the Nebraska Department of Agriculture to report this fall about the steps that would be needed to set up an inspection program, including the potential costs and fee schedules.
Contact the writer:
402-473-9583, martha.stoddard@owh.com
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