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Congress Deciding Now on Defunding Horse Slaughter Inspections

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Posted by Laura Allen from Animal Law Coalition

The Horses Need Your Voices

photo by Terry Fitch

In June, 2011 the U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to continue to de-fund ante-mortem inspections of horses for slaughter for human consumption. This means under the House version of the FY 2012 Agriculture Appropriations bill, H.R. 2112, commercial horse slaughter in the U.S. will remain illegal.

The U.S. Senate version, however, passed a version of H.R. 2112, which does not de-fund or, basically, prohibit these inspections.

The FY 2012 Agriculture Appropriations bill has now been referred to a conference committee to come up with a bill that is acceptable to both the House and the Senate. The conference committee is made up of both representatives and senators.

The conference committee held its first meeting on November 3, 2011 and is expected to reach a final decision by November 14. Even now members may be making a decision on the de-funding of the inspections for horses.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

It is important that conference committee members and especially the chair persons hear from you in support of continued de-funding of inspections of horses for slaughter for human consumption. It is important that you contact committee members and if they are not on the conference committee, your senators and representative, and urge them to adopt the House version of H.R. 2112 and continue de-funding ante-mortem inspections of horses for slaughter for human consumption.

That is all you need to say! Or you can use talking points which you can find here.

It is also important that you only contact committee members and your own representative and senators. Be very polite. You can do more damage with angry or overly emotional calls or letters. The industry led by the likes of Wyoming state Rep. Sue Wallis and Charlie Stenholm has been lobbying members of Congress for months to allow commercial horse slaughter for human consumption to resume in the U.S. For the sake of the horses, our points in support of continued de-funding of ante-mortem equine inspections must be clear and compelling and stated with authority and reason.

Phone the United States Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121. A switchboard operator will connect you directly with the Senator’s office you request. Or find direct contact information for senate conference committee members here. Phone the Capitol switchboard at (202) 225-2771 to reach House conference committee members and also find direct contact information for them here. If you decide to contact members in writing, faxes are best.

Senate Conference Committee members:

Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee; Sen. Herbert Kohl (D-WI), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Adminsitration, and Related Agencies and Conference Committee Chair; Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA); Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD); Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE); Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR); Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH); Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA); Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD); Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), Conference Committee Co-Chair; Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS), Vice-Chair of the Appropriations Committee; Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY); Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME); Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS); Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND); Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX); and Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL).

House of Representatives Conference Committee members:

Republicans:
Appropriations Full Committee Chair Hal Rogers
Rep. C.W. Bill Young
Rep. Jerry Lewis
Rep. Frank R. Wolf
Rep. Jack Kingston, Agriculture Subcommittee Chair and Conference Committee Co-Chair
Rep. Tom Latham
Rep. Robert B. Aderholt
Rep. Jo Ann Emerson
Rep. John Culberson
Rep. John R. Carter
Rep. Jo Bonner
Rep. Steven C. LaTourette

Democrats:
Appropriations Ranking Member Norm Dicks
Rep. Rosa DeLauro
Rep. John Olver
Rep. Ed Pastor
Rep. David Price
Rep. Sam Farr, Conference Committee Co-Chair
Rep. Chaka Fattah
Rep. Adam Schiff

Go here to find your 2 U.S. senators.
Go here to find your U.S. representative.

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10 replies »

  1. Anyone reading here have any of those Congressional reps in their district or Senators for that state? I know that status of most of the Senators, but as to the House reps (since none are mine) who knows?

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  3. Hey as long as I am still a constituent even though I’m living abroad I emailed them. My senator (Herb Kohl) is on the committee for the bill, but he’s a good guy and I’d be more than shocked if he was in favor of horse slaughter. I know my Congressional representative, Sean Duffy, is also not in favor of horse slaughter – he already emailed and told me so.

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  4. It would be very helpful if you had a fax link to the representatives that included a standard letter with an option to add personal comments. (NumbersUSA has a good one as an example.)

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  6. I am not sure what you mean by status. None of these Congressmen and Congresswomen represent my state either. I do know how a few of them have voted in the past—which is causing me some concern. We just need to do what we have to do—quickly and effectively.

    R.T., thank you for posting this. I have been searching for it, but I guess I did not know the right words to us or perhaps I searched for it too early, anyway, many thanks.

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  7. The House now has 97 co-sponsors for H.R. 2966 but the Senate still has only the original 24 for S. 1176.

    The Senate seems to be the tough sell.

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