A plant in New Mexico that plans to slaughter horses to produce meat for human consumption moved a step closer to operation on Friday when the Agriculture Department said it would provide legally required inspection services.
Courtney Rowe, a spokeswoman for the department, said it was likely to grant inspection services to two more plants “in the coming days.” The department did not name them but has said it has applications from facilities in Iowa and Missouri.
Although the plant, owned by the Valley Meat Company in Roswell, N.M., still has hurdles to overcome in the state, it is on track to become the first operation in the nation permitted to process horses into meat since Congress effectively banned the practice seven years ago.
Ms. Rowe said the department had determined that the company met all of the requirements of the Federal Meat Inspection Act.
The Obama administration has asked Congress to reinstate a ban on horse slaughtering in the United States. The House and Senate appropriations committees have approved similar amendments that would deny government financing for horse slaughter.
But “until Congress acts, the department must continue to comply with current law,” Ms. Rowe added.
In a statement, Valley Meat said it was “encouraged that after well over a year of delay that the process has finally reached completion.”
It said it planned to hire as many as 100 employees to work in the plant.
Opponents of horse slaughter said the federal government had options that would have allowed it to withhold inspection. They said that it had agreed to provide inspection services in an effort to put an end to a lawsuit filed by Valley Meat.
“This looks like a strange obedience to a Hail Mary lawsuit filed by the company,” said Wayne Pacelle, chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States.
Valley Meat said, however, that it would continue to press the lawsuit. “Given the unjustifiable failures of U.S.D.A. to comply with the law for a period extending well over 14 months, Valley Meat intends to continue to pursue the case,” the company said.
Gov. Susana Martinez of New Mexico and Gary K. King, the state’s attorney general, have opposed horse slaughtering, in part because of animal welfare issues but also because of potential hazards to humans. Horses are routinely injected with veterinary drugs by owners who never expect them to be eaten.
The Humane Society maintains a list of more than 100 drugs administered to horses, some of which carry labels stating they are not to be used in horses intended for human consumption. Bruce A. Wagman, a lawyer for Front Range Equine Rescue, a group opposing horse slaughter, said those drugs also posed an environmental hazard that the Agriculture Department was ignoring.
“The offal and waste byproducts produced by horse slaughter is put into lagoons where those drugs and other contaminants can leach out into streams and ground water,” Mr. Wagman said.
Phil Sisneros, a spokesman for Mr. King, New Mexico’s attorney general, said Valley Meat still faced hurdles to resuming operations there. (The plant was shut in 2007, after Congress effectively banned horse slaughtering). In a recent opinion, Mr. King said drugs administered to horses could constitute illegal contamination under New Mexico law.
“As I understand it, their attorney has said they have a testing process ready to go, and that’s a good thing,” Mr. Sisneros said. “We’re not going to just take their word for it, so there will be some sort of independent testing that has to be done.”
He said the environmental crime unit in the attorney general’s office would monitor Valley Meat, along with the state’s environment department, which has dealt with the company in the past.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/29/business/horse-butchering-plan-gains-as-us-agrees-to-inspect.html?partner=rss&emc=rss