Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Horse Processing in TN?

Panel Considers Horse Meat Processing Plant for Tennessee

With cooperation from the state Department of Agriculture, some state legislators are tentatively seeking ways to process horse meat in Tennessee, either for consumption by humans in other nations or animals in zoos.

Up for discussion in the House Agriculture Committee Tuesday was a proposal (HB1428) that sponsor Rep. Frank Niceley, R-Strawberry Plains, said could be the first step toward sales of Tennessee horse meat for shipment overseas.

The bill, as revised by an amendment adopted by the committee on Tuesday, calls for the Department of Agriculture to promulgate rules and regulations for licensing and inspection of "equine slaughter and processing facilities" in Tennessee.

The measure also declares that anyone who files a lawsuit against establishing a horse processing plant in the state must post a bond with the court equal to 20 percent of the cost of building the plant. If the bond is not filed, the bill calls for automatic dismissal of the lawsuit. Read More

We can add Tennessee to the list of states that are considering ways to deal with unwanted horses. The bill being proposed is modeled after the Montana’s bill which has been passed by the Legislature and is awaiting the Governor’s signature. All of the states that have considered legislation dealing with horses have passed so far this year.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I am glad that they are thinking about opening up horse slaughter houses. We need them. Horse owners need them. They do need to be regulated. But look at some of the cattle slaughter plants. I'm sure stuff goes on inside them we wouldn't want to know about, but nobody says anything about them because it's okay to eat beef just not horse.