[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 52 (Thursday, March 26, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3925-S3926]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. LANDRIEU (for herself, Mr. Ensign, Mr. Cardin, Mrs. Boxer, 
        Mr. Graham, Ms. Collins, Mr. McCain, Mr. Lautenberg, Mr. 
        Menendez, Mr. Levin, Mr. Carper, Mr. Lieberman, Mr. Byrd, Mr. 
        Kerry, and Mr. Leahy):
  S. 727. A bill to amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit 
certain conduct relating to the use of horses for human consumption; to 
the Committee on the Judiciary.
  Ms. LANDRIEU. I rise today to introduce a piece of legislation that 
this body has seen before, and actually we have passed a version of it 
by an overwhelming majority. But we have had difficulty as this bill 
has left this body and moved across the Capitol, and the efforts to 
pass this bill have actually been thwarted--not so much on the floors 
of the Congress or the Senate, but in committee rooms and conference 
committees--sometimes out of full public view. It has become an issue 
that must be dealt with on its substance, but also the way that 
sometimes bills find themselves coming to dead ends, in my view in 
inappropriate ways.
  The record of this subject has been long discussed on the floor. But 
the bill attempts to end the transport of horses for slaughter to 
Canada and to Mexico.
  This Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, a majority, has gone 
on record saying that the practice of inhumane slaughter of these 
majestic and very noble animals has no place in America. We do not use 
their meat for human consumption. It is no longer used even in our pet 
foods. This is not true in other parts of the world but it is true here 
in America. So we want to have a better system to handle the breeding, 
the raising, and the disposal of horses that are old, infirm, and sick. 
But taking a perfectly healthy animal and slitting its throat and then 
cutting it up with hatchets and saws and moving equipment while it is 
still alive is not what people in America would like to believe is 
going on. In fact it is--or was until a few years ago, until some of us 
got together with a great coalition and ended the practice of slaughter 
in the United States.
  There were only three plants operating--two in Texas, one in 
Illinois. Those State legislators and the leaders in those States 
stepped up and closed down those plants. But the problem is now the 
100,000 or so horses out of 900,000 that die naturally every year. We 
have about 9 million horses in America, 900,000 die, approximately, 
every year. And the great part of this story is that 95 percent of all 
horses die a natural and humane death because the owners are very good, 
they are very responsible.
  Most people do what is right. That is what happens in most places, on 
most subjects. But there is always that small group that, for whatever 
reason, proceeds down a path that is wholly inappropriate, although 
right now legal--we hope to solve that problem--and inhumanely 
slaughters horses.
  The USDA and our own investigation show that 98 percent of the horses 
that are inhumanely transported over our borders now to places that 
are, of course, unregulated by our Government and very modestly 
regulated, if at all, by the Governments of Canada and Mexico, 94 
percent of these animals--92, I am sorry, 92.3 percent of those horses 
being sent to slaughter are healthy. They are not sick and they are not 
infirm and they are not old.
  People say to me: Well, Senator, do you not think we have to find a 
way to

[[Page S3926]]

get rid of horses that are sick or too old? I say: Absolutely. There 
are humane ways to get rid of horses. But the myth and the lie and the 
shame of this slaughtering that is going on is that 92 percent of those 
animals are healthy. Many of them are young. Many of them have a great 
future. But because there is a loophole in our law right now, they are 
being treated in this way.
  So I am introducing this bill with my good friend and colleague John 
Ensign, Senator Ensign from Nevada, the leading cosponsor, also with 
Senators Cardin, Boxer, Graham, Collins, McCain, Lautenberg, Menendez, 
Levin, Carper, Lieberman, Byrd, Kerry, and Leahy as cosponsors, 
original cosponsors of this legislation, entitled the Prevention of 
Equine Cruelty Act.
  The way this bill would be put into place, should it be passed and 
signed by the President into law, is if a person is found in violation 
of this act, they are found to knowingly transport or sell or purchase 
a horse with the intent to slaughter it for human consumption, they 
will be fined, and there will be criminal penalties associated with 
this practice. If a defendant is found guilty, he or she could be 
sentenced up to 1 year of prison if he or she has no prior convictions. 
If he or she does have prior convictions, the penalty will be 
increased.
  As I have said, although U.S. slaughterhouses have been closed, 
thousands of horses are inhumanely, every day, 1,500 a week, 
transported across our borders to this deplorable fate. Sometime horses 
are shipped as many as 600 miles with limited food and water. I could 
show you dozens of pictures. I will spare those who are on the floor 
and those watching from the horror of some of these pictures. But if 
you want to see them, there are ample pictures and evidence on the 
Internet available for what is a mindless and barbaric practice we want 
to stop.
  When people say to me: Senator, how are farmers and ranchers going to 
afford it? It is expensive to put down a horse. It costs about $225 to 
humanely euthanize a horse. It costs $225 to feed a horse for 1 month. 
So if you can afford to purchase an animal, if you can afford to 
maintain an animal, you most certainly can afford the price of putting 
it down humanely, for the work that is done on your behalf, for the 
pleasure it has provided you or the transportation it has provided you.
  Horses are used in our country for many different and very necessary 
purposes. I want to say this has been a long battle. It started many 
years ago. But in September of 2007, the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld 
the Illinois statute that banned the slaughterhouse from continuing.
  In April of that same year, the Senate Commerce Committee voted 15 to 
7 to ban slaughter. In 2007, in January, the U.S. Court of Appeals for 
the Fifth Circuit declared the slaughter of horses for food illegal in 
Texas, upholding a law that dated back to 1949. And on September 7--you 
might have still been there--the House passed H.R. 503, the American 
Horse Slaughter Prevention Act. Unfortunately, that Congress adjourned 
before the Senate could take it up, and the Senate did, in October, 
take up this matter in the agriculture appropriations bill, only to 
have it scuttled again.
  So I submit to you that there is a broad base of bipartisan support 
for this legislation. I submit to you that the practice is cruel and 
inhumane. I submit to you that I have every court, both at the district 
and appellate level, that has weighed in has weighed in on the side of 
our efforts here today. And it is my intention, working with Senator 
John Ensign from Nevada, to finally get this bill passed, so we will 
have, once and for all, ended inhumane slaughter and created a way for 
horses to be put down or to die naturally and to be disposed of 
properly in this country, which we think will be a great testimony to 
the rising awareness of animal care in this Nation.
  Now, when people say: She has gone too far and we are going to do the 
same thing for cows and goats and chickens--horses are not raised for 
the same purpose as cows and goats and chickens. They are never raised 
for slaughter. They are raised for companionship, for partnership, and 
that is where the line, I hope, will be drawn.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be 
placed in the Record, as follows:

                                 S. 727

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Prevention of Equine Cruelty 
     Act of 2009''.

     SEC. 2. SLAUGHTER OF HORSES FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION.

       (a) In General.--Chapter 3 of title 18, United States Code, 
     is amended by adding at the end the following:

     ``Sec. 50. Slaughter of horses for human consumption

       ``(a) Except as provided in subsection (b), whoever 
     knowingly--
       ``(1) possesses, ships, transports, purchases, sells, 
     delivers, or receives, in or affecting interstate commerce or 
     foreign commerce, any horse with the intent that it is to be 
     slaughtered for human consumption; or
       ``(2) possesses, ships, transports, purchases, sells, 
     delivers, or receives, in or affecting interstate commerce or 
     foreign commerce, any horse flesh or carcass or part of a 
     carcass, with the intent that it is to be used for human 
     consumption;
     shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 
     three years or both.
       ``(b) If--
       ``(1) the defendant engages in conduct that would otherwise 
     constitute an offense under subsection (a);
       ``(2) the defendant has no prior conviction under this 
     section; and
       ``(3) the conduct involves less than five horses or less 
     than 2000 pounds of horse flesh or carcass or part of a 
     carcass;
     the defendant shall, instead of being punished under that 
     subsection, be fined under this title or imprisoned not more 
     than one year, or both.
       ``(c) As used in this section, the term `horse' means any 
     member of the family Equidae.''.
       (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections for chapter 
     3 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at 
     the end the following new item:

``50. Slaughter of horses for human consumption.''.
                                 ______