Horse slaughter houses could open soon

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - The nationwide ban on horse slaughter is coming to an end. It’s a topic I’ve been covering for over a decade here at WISH-TV through I-Team 8 investigations. It means horsemeat may be available in the U.S. soon.

Horses could soon be butchered in the U.S. for human consumption after Congress quietly lifted a five year old ban on funding horse meat inspections. Activists say slaughterhouses could be up and running in as little as 30-90 days.

In 2006, Congress cut off funding for horse meat inspections at the three slaughter houses in the United States, including one just across the Stateline in Illinois. Congress lifted the ban in a spending bill President Barack Obama signed into law a few weeks ago to keep the government afloat until mid-December.

An I-Team 8 hidden camera investigation that began in 2001 found pets and former race horses beings old for slaughter here in Indiana. Each Friday at an auction in Shipshewana, we watched horse after horse go into the kill pen, death row for horses. Kill buyers would then buy them at auction and send them to slaughter.

The last U.S. slaughterhouse that butchered horses closed in 2007 in Illinois. Pro-slaughter activists say the ban had unintended consequences including an increase in neglected and abandoned horses. They are scrambling to get a plant going possibly in Wyoming, North Dakota or Missouri where 200,000 horses would be slaughtered for human consumption.

Right now US horses are transported to Mexico and Canada. According to the GAO, 138,000 U.S. horses were shipped there for slaughter in 2010.