UNITED STATES-GREEN LIGHT GIVEN FOR HORSE SLAUGHTER.Senate OKs slaughter measure
House lawmakers agreed on Wednesday that North Dakota should study the possibility of opening a horse slaughterhouse in light of a growing population of unwanted horses, supporters said.
"We need to tell the United States that we have a problem and we need to solve it," Rep. Rod Froelich, D-Selfridge, said.
The House voted 89-5 to direct the Agriculture Product Utilization Commission to study the feasibility of opening a horse slaughterhouse in North Dakota by looking at potential sites and costs to construct one as well as any potential legal barriers.
The bill would provide the commission up to $50,000 in grant money from the general fund to study the horse slaughter proposal.
The nation’s three horse processing plants closed about two years ago amid growing political disapproval in some statehouses and Congress, which has a bill before it that would ban the consumption of horse meat in the United States.
The bill, HB1496, now moves onto the Senate for consideration.
