The Humane Society of the United States applauds New Jersey Governor Chris Christie for signing A.2023, a bill that prohibits the slaughter of horses and sale of horse flesh for human consumption, bans the sale of horse meat or products derived from slaughtered horses and bans the transport of horse meat or live horses for the purpose of slaughter.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie
The Humane Society of the United States is delighted that Governor Christie protected New Jersey horses by signing A.2023 into law.
© 2012 by David Shankbone
“The Humane Society of the United States is delighted that Governor Christie protected New Jersey horses by signing A.2023 into law,” said Kathleen Schatzmann, The HSUS’ New Jersey state director. “The horse is New Jersey’s state animal and an American icon. We are grateful that Governor Christie agrees with 80 percent of Americans that slaughtering horses for human consumption is cruel, inhumane and plain wrong.”
A.2023 was championed by Assemblyman Ronald Dancer, R-Cream Ridge and Sen. Raymond J. Lesniak, D-Union.
“New Jersey is taking the lead on this issue to make sure horses aren’t taken from the pasture to the plate,” Assemblyman Dancer said in a press release.
“Slaughtering horses for food is just not right,” said Sen. Lesniak. “This legislation will stop the trafficking of horses from New Jersey to inhumane slaughterhouses.”
In 2005, Congress temporarily ended the domestic slaughter of American horses by voting to stop funding inspections of horse slaughter plants. However, Congress omitted this defunding language from last year’s Department of Agriculture spending bill, thereby opening the door for horse slaughter to return to the U.S. Once this funding was reinstated, pro-slaughter advocates began attempting to bring this brutal and unnecessary industry back to U.S. soil.
Currently, the U.S. Congress is considering the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, S. 1176/H.R. 2966, which would ban the slaughter of horses (including export for slaughter in other countries). The bill currently has 165 cosponsors in the U.S. House and 26 in the U.S. Senate.
Facts:
- More than 100,000 American horses are exported for slaughter each year, mainly for consumption in Europe and Asia.
- The slaughter pipeline is horribly cruel, with many of the horses suffering immensely during transport and the misguided and often repeated attempts to render them unconscious. USDA has documented the abuse and misery horses suffered at slaughterhouses in the U.S. before the last remaining plants closed in 2007.
- Virtually all the horses used for meat spend most of their lives as work, competition or sport horses, companion animals or wild horses.
- During their lives, horses who end up at slaughter are given a constant regimen of drugs and other substances which are either illegal for food animals, or are potentially dangerous to people who eat them.