SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - The resumption of the commercial slaughtering horses was blocked on Friday as President Barack Obama signed a budget measure that withholds money for required federal inspections of the slaughtering process.
Although the measure provides temporary funding for the federal government, it stops the Agriculture Department from spending money for horse slaughterhouse inspections.
The president of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said the federal government’s action reflected the opinions of many Americans that horse slaughter is “abhorrent and unacceptable.”
The last domestic horse slaughterhouses closed in 2007, a year after Congress withheld inspection funding. After federal money was restored in 2011, plants in New Mexico, Missouri and Iowa have fought to start slaughtering to potentially export horse meat for overseas consumers.
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