Source Federal appeals court vacates ban on US horse slaughter
A federal appeals court removed a temporary ban on domestic horse slaughter, clearing the way for companies in New Mexico, Missouri and Iowa to open horse processing plants.
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver lifted the emergency injunction it issued in November after The Humane Society of the United States and others appealed the ruling of a federal judge in Albuquerque. The judge said the U.S. Department of Agriculture followed proper procedure in issuing permits to Valley Meat Co. in Roswell, N.M., Rains Natural Meats of Gallatin, Mo., and Responsible Transportation in Sigourney, Iowa.
Blair Dunn, an attorney for Valley Meat and Rains Natural Meats, said “the plants are ready to open, although they could agree to remain shuttered if the plaintiffs agree to post a sufficient bond to cover the companies’ losses should they ultimately prevail. They are getting ready to go as quickly as they can. It shouldn’t take too long. Not more than two weeks.”
FYI:
(1) I don’t raise horses for slaughter. Not because I have a problem with consuming horse meat, but because I prefer the taste of beef over that of horse meat. It should be noted that live horses are selling at auction for as little as $0.25 a pound while cows of the same age and weight are selling for about $1.50 or more a pound.
(2) I have no problems with supporting American businesses that process, package or sell horse meat. Horse is just another red meat source.
(3) If your comment(s) are based on your emotions, not on known, provable facts, intelligent conservation and discussion is not possible.
Contrary to what some people may believe, horse meat is no better or no worse that consuming beef. Processing horses for human consumption is better for everyone concerned including the horse than allowing the animal to be neglected, abused or suffer a long agonizing death by starvation.
One final note if your comment(s) are hate based I will send your comment into the black-hole of cyber space.
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As I get older the guilt trip gets more severe. I have a problem with any creature that can look me back in the eye, and that includes cows, horses, goats, sheep, and some pigs. Of course, my gramps told me a story about a brood sow that makes me feel okay about eating bacon on occasion.
I’ll tell you what though, if the shoe was on the other foot with chickens, they’d eat us in a Nueva York minute! Can’t you just imagine being chased by a big chicken? I have no problems eating chickens, even though I’ve met some hens I said “I’m sorry” to as I pilfered their eggs.
When I was a kid, we were babysat by a friend of our gramma’s who kept chickens in a pen in her back yard. They seemed completely useless to us kids, stupid and not friendly at all. We helped her feed them, and sometimes they’d get so excited they’d peck our legs and feet, and sometimes the whole pack of them would go nuts attacking one member.
About twice a week, her husband would come home and climb into that pen and grab one of those chickens and WHACK! We laughed as the bird would make a few headless laps of the pen, the other chickens didn’t even seem to notice. We would smell that chicken roasting through the kitchen windows as our grandma came around to pick us up. Our grandparents were too old to keep animals, we got our meat at the grocery store.
My mom was proud of her ability to kill and clean a chicken or any bird. When she waited tables at a local greasy spoon, she used to clean pheasants during hunting season for 75 cents a bird. My husband and kids hunt, with our crazy bird-sheep-dog Max, and my husband, a former Grateful Deadhead vegetarian, can clean the birds and have them on the grill in about 30 minutes.
Of course, these pheasant are nothing but “wild chickens,” pen-raised and set loose off a four-runner. Our dog gets so excited when he sees a fore-runner, anywhere, because he thinks there will be “chickens” coming out the tail end.
Thanks for this discussion. Sometimes I do feel guilt, but the other day I drove by a pasture full of absolutely ecstatic cows, romping and playing with each other, and I said to myself, “oooo, happy steak!”
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Oh, yeah, horse controversy is hot in horse country. I’ve known families that went broke supporting a horse(s) while neglecting their children. I’ve also known marriages that were pushed near divorce over the “pet” pig being made into bacon or cow into burger. If we wish to have pet horses, cows, goats, rabbits, chickens, ducks, etc. we should not eat them. However, we should not judge those who raise these as livestock for production (milk, cheese, meat)… Unless we want to become vegetarians, which is not such a bad idea, except for most of the vegetarians I have every known who eat poor qualty non-meat diets… Oh, yeah, vegetarian controversy… Merry Christmas. May your table have a fattened goose on it 🙂
Oscar
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Re hermitsdoor Thanks for your visit.
Truth be known I eat more vegetable meals than meat containing meals, With that said, I posted the horse meat thing simply because a horses being processed for human or animal feed use has been being shipped (trucked) to Mexico and Canada since 2007. I find this unacceptable for the support of American business.
Happy Holidays
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I had heard about horse being shipped to Canada and returned in pet foot. I have also heard about race horses in Europe being shipped around with their medical records being cleaned up with each transfer until they are passed off as never having been race horses filled with steriods and pain killlers after races. I am not against raising livestock for meat or racing horses, but from what I know from friends in the business (racing horses), that is probably more cruel to the animals. Enough ranting.
Oscar
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Re hermitsdoor – If I had my way, horse and dog racing would band along with cock(chicken) and dog fighting.
Merry Christmas
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Our family raised, trained, bred horse for several years.. my husband is a farrier… many times horses were how we made our living. I am still confused as why this is such a huge issue… Horses are livestock just like cows goat and the rest.My only consurn is if the horse is on medication like antibotic, wormer,pain medication.Thier should be a standard wait time. before that animal could be used as a food source for humans. Standard rules should apply… If you dont want to eat it then don’t.
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Re jolynnpowers – Thanks for visiting my little blog. Not being in the meat processing business, I can only say that I understand identifying bacterial contamination and presents of antibiotics considered dangerous to humans is the responsibility of USDA meat inspectors.
Happy Holidays
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If the horse is going to be put down one way or the other, it is less humane to subject her to transport to another country first.
And yes, humans are irrational about such things. I once was acquainted with a blogger who worked in large-scale municipal composting and discussed composting the bodies of euthanized cats and dogs with the local shelter. He thought this was doable, but the public outcry was so great that they had to stick with burning them.
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I should add, I ate goat meat for the first time when I lived in Austria. Now I buy it occasionally here in Illinois, from the farmer’s market. People also have a stigma against that (for whatever reason). But a worse one against horse meat, probably because too many people have used them for things that cattle have never been used for, get attached to them, and think it’s inhumane. How is it any less inhumane to slaughter cattle? Well the animal rights activists are nut cases if you asked me. I mean, sure, animals should be treated humanely while alive. But beyond that…..
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I don’t see the big deal about horse meat. It’s not like they’re going to take someone’s pet horse and slaughter it, at least not without their consent. What I do think is, there have been way too many companies getting caught using the cheaper horse meat instead of beef (but charging beef prices). When consumers discovered this, they were up in arms. Now, why would they care about horse and want that banned while voters in California & Washington turned down a bill to label GMO grown foods on labels? People are weird in their food choices anyway. I know that I’ve eaten at Ikea many times, their Swedish meatballs delicious. But apparently they’ve been horse meat all these years. One of the main concerns about eating horse meat, for me, is horses are given antibiotics that are not approved for human consumption (antibiotics in meat is a big issue whether it’s horse, or any other animal). I really believe that the ruling to allow horse meat is driven by companies that have been selling it, couldn’t sell it anymore because of public awareness and bans, and it was impacting them financially. Now let’s talk about raw milk………if it were large companies producing it and a ban was made, it would be reversed similarly to this. But because only small farms, with buying clubs, are selling it, it’s easy to pick on them.
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Re My Watering Can – Thanks for visiting my little blog and your Comment(s).
Happy Holidays
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I don’t know how well horse meat will sale here in the states, people here just look at horses differently and not something they would feel good about eating. It will take many years to change that perception. Its kind like eating dog here, people feel the same way about horses.
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Re Gordon Milligan – Thanks for visiting my blog – I really think near 100 percent of processed horse meats will be exported to foreign countries that are more excepting of horse meat on their tables.
Happy holidays
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I think its all about what you are used to. As beekeeperwife says the French are OK about eating horse but not the Brits. Its how you are brought up and what is custom where you live as to what is acceptable.
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Re lodgehousebandbsomerset – I totally agree.
Big grin, as an American I don’t think stewed tomato’s belong on a breakfast plate, but that still does not change the fact that some places a tomato-less breakfast would not be tolerated!
Happy holidays
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I’ve never eaten horse meat, is it comparable in taste to beef? I’ve eaten deer and moose, which I don’t really like. Not a big fan of chicken or turkey but I do like duck. Rabbit and lamb are good too.
I live in cow and cowboy country so I doubt very much that horse is available to eat. But we sure are proud of our beef! Plus I don’t know if it’s legal in Canada.
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Re sedrate organizes – Thanks for visiting my tiny blog
Source document http://www.animaljustice.ca/blog/the-status-of-horse-slaughter-in-canada/
Canada’s horse slaughter industry has been characterized as one of the largest in the world; ranking among the top ten producers of horse meat internationally. The industry thrives primarily because of the demand for horse meat from European and Asian countries.
Happy holidays
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Cool, thanks for the info!
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We live in France and horse meat is just another red meat here – to eat or not as you choose, along with venison, wild boar, hare, and other game as well as the traditional meats such as beef, pork, lamb and goat – not forgetting poultry.
As a meat eater I accept responsability for being a source of animal deaths and providing that animal has been raised in a good and responsible environment I am not going to complain – and of course it is killed humainly.
We are so fortunate to have a choice, to have sufficient to eat (more than) and to care for our “pet” or “working” animals – when half the world would welcome the chance to eat meat wherever it came from.
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Re beekeeperwife – Thank you for visiting my humble little blog and for your comment(s).
For reasons unknown to me, Many Americans have assigned house pet status to horses and go completely incoherent when discussing horse as another table meat source.
Happy Holidays
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Don’t worry the Brits are just the same – seem unable to think rationally at all, but don’t want to pay the price for organically raised food (animal or vegetable) and it is all someones elses fault or responsibility. Have a great end of year and mid-winter festival (by any other name).
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