HB0583 Summary

• Creates the Equine Rescue Assistance Fund as a special fund in the State Treasury to accept fees, gifts, grants, and donations for grants to qualified equine rescue organizations.

• Imposes a $25 fee per horse slaughtered at federally inspected facilities, with fees collected quarterly and deposited into the Equine Rescue Assistance Fund to support rescue facility expansion and care for rescued horses.

• Establishes exceptions to the Illinois Horse Meat Act for horse meat labeled in hermetically sealed containers and registered under the Illinois Commercial Feed Act, and for horse meat prepared in federally inspected plants for sale outside Illinois.

• Amends the Animals Intended for Food Act to include horses, mules, and other equidae in the definition of animals subject to quarantine authority for contamination with poisonous or deleterious substances.

• Clarifies that lame or disabled horses may be sold or transported only when destined for humane slaughter at approved facilities, and removes prior restrictions on equine slaughter from the Humane Slaughter of Livestock Act definition.