The omnibus spending bill released Dec. 16 for FY 2016 again includes language prohibiting the use of U.S. Department of Agriculture funds for opening and inspecting horse slaughter plants in the United States, continuing a ban on equine slaughter in this country another year. 

The bill must next pass the House of Representatives and Senate before it’s signed into law.

“Negotiators have done the right thing and included language to forbid anyone from setting up a horse slaughter plant on American soil,” said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States, in a press release. “We don’t round up dogs and cats, butcher them, and ship them to foreign markets, and it should be unthinkable to do that with a species that helped us settle the nation.”