Killing horses for human consumption could become crime in Colorado
Colorado lawmakers are trying to prevent the killing of horses for human consumption.
Legislation introduced in the state senate last week would create a new crime — “equine slaughter” — if a horse buyer “knows or reasonably should know” that a horse could be killed for human consumption.
The bill requires blocking imports and exports of horses for the purpose of slaughter. It would mandate notices at livestock auctions. Violators would face fines of up to $10,000 for fraudulent transactions.
This legislation, sponsored by Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis (D-eastern Boulder County) and Rep. Lorena Garcia (D-Commerce City), has been assigned to the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee.
Colorado would join California, Illinois, New Jersey and Texas — states where lawmakers have banned the sale of horse meat for human consumption.
“It is cruel. Horses helped to settle this country, plow the fields, and deliver mail. This is the ultimate betrayal,” said Roland Halpern, a board member of Colorado Voters for Animals, an advocacy group that helped develop the bill.
“It is morally wrong to kill horses as food for human consumption,” Halpern said.
In 2010, Colorado lawmakers passed legislation declaring horses a cherished part of western heritage.
Hundreds of Colorado horses, including wild horses that the federal Bureau of Land Management rounds up on public land, have been sold at livestock auctions where buyers then move them to Mexico or Canada for processing as food for human consumption.
Unlike animals (chickens, cows, pigs) raised to be food, horses are held for other purposes. They’re administered drugs and vaccines that advocates warn have never been tested for safety if ingested by humans. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s food safety division prohibits importing horse meat for human consumption into the United States.
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