USA resumes permitting horse meat production

The USA has technically resumed the allowing of horse meat production:

Horse Slaughter Resumes In US

June 29, 2013

The USDA is forced to issue slaughter permits since Congress has not continued the ban on horse slaughter. http://community.agriculture.com/t5/Farm-Business/Horse-Slaughter-Resumes-In-US/m-p/357115

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Federal officials cleared the way Friday for a return to domestic horse slaughter, granting a southeastern New Mexico company’s application to convert its cattle facility into a horse processing plant. In approving Valley Meat Co.’s plans to produce horse meat, Department of Agriculture officials also indicated they would grant similar permits to companies in Iowa and Missouri as early as next week.

With the action, the Roswell, N.M., company becomes the first operation in the nation licensed to process horses into meat since Congress effectively banned the practice seven years ago.

But the company’s attorney said on Friday that he remained skeptical about Valley Meat Co.’s chances of opening any time soon, as the USDA must send an inspector to oversee operations and two animal rights groups have threated lawsuits to block the opening. http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/feds-approve-horse-slaughterhouse-in-nm-say-permits-coming-for-iowa-missouri-companies/2013/06/28/054350f0-e016-11e2-8cf3-35c1113cfcc5_story.html

Notice some of what the Bible teaches about what humans should and should not eat:

3 “You shall not eat any detestable thing. 4 These are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, 5 the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the mountain goat, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. 6 And you may eat every animal with cloven hooves, having the hoof split into two parts, and that chews the cud, among the animals. 7 Nevertheless, of those that chew the cud or have cloven hooves, you shall not eat, such as these: the camel, the hare, and the rock hyrax; for they chew the cud but do not have cloven hooves; they are unclean for you. 8 Also the swine is unclean for you, because it has cloven hooves, yet does not chew the cud; you shall not eat their flesh or touch their dead carcasses. (Deuteronomy 14:3-8)

Horses do not have cloven hooves nor chew cud. They are biblical unclean animals and are not to be eaten. Following the example of Jesus and His disciples, we in the Continuing Church of God do not intentionally consume biblically unclean meat such as that from horses.

We do not accept that a bishop of the Church of Rome had the authority to change this in the late second century as certain Catholics claim (Protestants have essentially followed the practice of the Greco-Roman changes here, not actually realizing that this was a change by the Greco-Romans, not the original apostles or their faithful followers).

Despite certain Protestant suggestions, no one in the Bible who tried to follow God, either in the Old or New Testaments, is ever shown to have eaten meat from biblically unclean animals. Jesus, Himself, also taught against it (cf. Luke 11:11-12).

Whether or not the horse meat facilities open, humans are not supposed to eat horses.

Some articles of possibly related interest may include:

The New Testament Church and Unclean Meats Are foods considered to have been unclean in the Old Testament considered to be food in the New Testament? This article discusses this from the perspective of the New Testament. It also has a list of clean and unclean animals. It also answers the question, is pork healthy or is pork dangerous?
UK Study Supports Daniel Diet Daniel and his companions looked better eating more vegetables and avoiding strange meats. Has modern science confirmed this?
Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse What is the pale horse of death and pestilences? What will it bring and when?