The sound you heard echoing through the corridors of power in Washington a couple of weeks ago was the back door slamming shut, ending a de facto ban on horse slaughter in the United States.

Closing that door was a good thing.

It was a good thing, but not for the reason you might think. Not because a roadblock to horse slaughter was eliminated, but because our Senators and Representatives now have to face the uncomfortable task of actually doing something. Congress has gotten a collective pass on the issue for the last few years, mainly because the failure to take action on slaughter legislation didn’t really matter. Domestic horse slaughter was a financial non-starter anyway. That’s not the case any longer, and here’s why.

Money makes the world go Ôround, in politics more than anywhere else, and each year Congress has the task of deciding who can spend what during the coming fiscal year. For several years, the annual appropriations bills included a specific ban on using United States Department of Agriculture funds for paying inspection personnel at equine slaughter facilities. The ban survived a court challenge, and slaughter opponents gained some temporary breathing room