President Obama has now released his budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2015, to fund the government’s $3.5 trillion-plus operations, and the budget recommendations include several important provisions for animals. If ratified by Congress, these proposals will extend prohibitions on funding horse slaughter plant inspections in the U.S. and on sending wild horses and burros to slaughter, will continue strong funding for enforcement of animal welfare laws, and will dedicate new funds to combat illegal wildlife trafficking. But unfortunately, they will also take a step backward in one area by dramatically cutting poultry slaughter inspections.
Congress previously passed a provision in the FY 2014 omnibus spending bill to prohibit the use of tax dollars to inspect horse slaughter plants, which halted imminent plans to open U.S. horse slaughter operations, and the president’s new budget proposal would continue that ban for another year. Americans do not eat horses and do not want to see scarce tax dollars used to oversee a predatory and inhumane industry, which rounds up horses by disreputable means and peddles their doped-up meat to foreign consumers.
The president’s budget also includes good news for wild horses and burros inhabiting the public lands of ten western states. For years, ranchers have pressured the government to control mustang herds by rounding the horses up and adopting them out—but the pace of roundups has wildly exceeded the number of potential adopters, and there is a risk that the animals could be sold to “killer buyers” and sent to commercial slaughter for human consumption. The president’s budget, however, makes it clear that the Bureau of Land Management should not use funds to send these iconic animals to slaughter. It also includes a $2.8 million increase for the BLM’s wild horse and burro program, and the agency has specified that this additional funding will go toward research on population-control methods, which are superior to round-ups and will help provide a more lasting, humane, and cost-effective solution.
The administration also took another step forward to combat the threat of wildlife poaching and trafficking, calling for no less than $45 million for enforcement, which includes cracking down on poaching of protected species and the illegal trade of their related parts and products. Illegal trafficking and poaching have significantly increased in recent years, and last summer President Obama signed an executive order to combat wildlife trafficking and called for a multi-agency and international effort to address this monumental crisis.
The president’s budget proposes to sustain the same level of funding as in last year’s budget for enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act and the Horse Protection Act, to support the important steps being taken to enforce the nation’s animal welfare laws at thousands of puppy mills, circuses, roadside zoos, laboratories, and horse shows. Given the concerns about overall federal spending and cutbacks at some agencies, it’s important to hold the line and preserve these modest investments that yield such a huge return for animal welfare on the ground.
The proposal also includes funding to implement the requirements of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, the goal of which is to modernize the American food system and prevent recalls and outbreaks. Under the broad scope of the FSMA is a proposed rule on pet food safety, which would require better preventative measures to help protect the nation’s beloved companion animals from tainted and adulterated food and treats.
On the downside, the president’s budget proposes hefty cuts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s number of poultry slaughter inspectors, in order to hand off significant oversight responsibilities to industry and implement new methods that will move slaughter line speeds up from 140 to 175 birds a minute. Already, reports show that nearly one million chickens and turkeys are unintentionally drowned in tanks of scalding hot water each year in U.S. slaughterhouses, and workers endure debilitating pain and crippling injuries. Speeding up the lines and removing inspectors will make these problems worse, and it’s another sop to a largely deregulated poultry industry.
When Congress takes up the FY 2015 spending bill, we hope lawmakers will move the ball forward for animal welfare by adopting the spending limitation on horse slaughter, supporting more humane management of wild horses and burros, and allocating the funding levels for animal welfare programs and wildlife trafficking. We also hope that they’ll nix the short-sighted and dangerous poultry slaughter rule, which threatens to make a grim situation much, much worse for animals and people.
