The Finance, Ways and Means Committee of the Tennessee General Assembly listened carefully yesterday as Former Texas Mayor of Kaufman,Paula Bacon and John Holland, President of Equine Welfare Alliance offered their experiences and knowledge about horse slaughter.

This morning, according to a press release by The Animal Welfare Institute, Chris Heyde, deputy director of the organization, stated, ” We are pleased that Representative Nicely has agreed to pull this bill from consideration. There are many more humane and responsible ways of caring for horses in need and we look forward to expanding those in Tennessee. Slaughter certainly isn’t an option and we feel many legislators realized this.”
HB 1428, sponsored by Representative Frank Nicely, (R-Strawberry Plains) included legislation for the licensing and inspection of “equine slaughter and processing facilities.” The bill also included language stating that anyone who filed a lawsuit against an established horse processing plant would have to provide a bond equal to 20% of the cost of building the plant or the lawsuit would be dismissed. If the lawsuit proceeded and the plaintiffs lost, the bond would be forfeited. Read More…