The Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is looking to close a loophole in its regulations on the commercial transport of horses to slaughter facilities.
Current regulations protect horses that are being commercially transported directly to slaughter. A proposed rule in the Nov. 7 Federal Register would amend those regulations to extend protection to horses that are bound for slaughter but delivered first to an assembly point, feedlot, or stockyard.
The USDA-APHIS stated it believes “that equines may be delivered to these intermediate points en route to slaughter for the sole purpose of avoiding compliance with the regulations.”
One reason for the updated regulations is to curb the use of double-deck trailers for the transport of horses. The trailers are currently not allowed to be used to transport horses directly to slaughter facilities. But APHIS noted that it has received numerous reports of truckers using the trailers to transport horses to assembly points, feedlots, or stockyards, and then reloading them onto straight-deck trailers for the final leg of the trip to the slaughtering facility.
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