Horse Slaughter Battle & FDA OVerhaul

Horse Slaughter Battle & FDA Overhaul. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

A measure similar to the Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act of 2008 has been introduced and is currently pending in the Judiciary Committee. Last year’s legislation was approved by the committee - but never made it to a vote on the House floor. The bill would criminalize the export of horses for slaughter in Mexico and Canada. But former House Ag Committee Ranking Member Charlie Stenholm says that brings unintended consequences - and state legislatures are starting to recognize them.

STENHOLM: When you’ve got livestock markets that are turning away horses because they can’t sell them, when you’ve got horses being turned loose on country roads and turned loose in federal lands, we’ve got a problem. So now the states are saying – you feds – you guys are ignoring it, we’ve got a problem, we’re going to try to take care of it ourselves. You’ve got states now beginning to look at making it legal to deal with unwanted horses in the most humane way that can possibly be done.

Senate lawmakers say the U.S. Food and Drug Administration should conduct more food inspections - and during an emergency the government should have better access to industry test results. Therefore, a bipartisan team of lawmakers has introduced a bill that would expand FDA funding and give the agency more power to recall food. The legislation would require importers to verify the safety of their products and directs plants to address hazards and prevent product contamination.

Now here’s today’s Washington Grange Report.

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That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.