Congress’ recent decision to have horse slaughter houses pay for meat inspection costs is a small victory for horse lovers, but the battle is not about money.

“We thought this bill would stop horse slaughtering for one year and give us time to work on getting a permanent ban in the U.S.,” said Janine Starykowicz, owner of Chicago Barn and Wire, an anti-horse slaughter Web site.

This was the first bill the entire Congress has had a chance to vote on, Starykowicz said. A bill for a permanent ban has been sitting in the House Agricultural Committee for several sessions.

“But the committee chairman Robert Goodlatte (R-Va.), has said publicly he won’t even bring it up to the committee for voting because he doesn’t agree with it,” Starykowicz said. “The bill has more than 220 co-sponsers which is more than enough support.”

Horse slaughtering facilities like Cavel International, 108 Harvestore Drive, will face an increase in production costs, but will not stop slaughtering horses.

“There are several different exotic animal stocks that have similar inspection fees,” Cavel Spokesman David Sceon said.

It’s fairly common for the government to shift the cost of production from them to the user and it’s happened across the board, Sceon said.

The fee for service inspections could cost up to $100,000 per year, he said.

Though Congress has made it more expensive for horse slaughtering plants to operate, the debate over whether it should be legal to kill horses for human consumption in the United States will continue.

“Horse lovers don’t care about the costs, it’s the philosophical point of view,” said Jon Block, former state director of agriculture.

The most humane thing to do is make sure there is a humane way of dealing with old and wild horses, Block said.

“There is no such thing as an old horse home,” he said.