AP: Aide: Fallin ‘Inclined’ to Sign Slaughter Bill
Aide: Fallin ‘inclined’ to sign slaughter bill
OK State Wire
SEAN MURPHY
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – A bill that paves the way for a horse slaughtering facility in Oklahoma cleared the Senate on Tuesday and now heads to the desk of Gov. Mary Fallin, who is expected to sign it.
Fallin typically withholds comment on pending legislation, but a spokesman said Tuesday that if the bill came to her desk in its current form, she “would be inclined to sign it.”
“She would of course only do so after reviewing it carefully with her legal and policy staff,” Fallin spokesman Aaron Cooper said in a statement. “One important fact that the public may be unaware of: Oklahoma horses are already being slaughtered. They are simply being shipped out of the country to Mexico and killed, in conditions that may be inhumane.”
The bill by Rep. Skye McNiel, R-Bristow, repeals a ban on the slaughter of horses for human consumption that has been in place in Oklahoma for 50 years. The bill, which passed the Senate on a 32-14 vote, would not allow the meat to be sold in Oklahoma, but it could be exported. The measure also authorizes the Oklahoma State Department of Health to inspect any horse slaughtering facility in the state.