Court of Appeals rules horse slaughter illegal in TX

[altivo]

Goddess forgive me for citing Fox news, but that's the reference ruwhei provided and I don't want to waste time hunting down another just now.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,245380,00.html

The Court has upheld a 1949 Texas law that forbids horse slaughter for food, effectively requiring a shutdown of both processing plants in Texas. Whether this will be appealed to the Supreme Court depends on who is willing to spend the huge sums of money required. I'm not sure the slaughterhouse owners have that sort of backing. I suppose the Texas legislature may rush to repeal the 1949 law, or the slaughterers may move their operations somewhere else, say, Oklahoma or Alabama. The judge wryly noted that the cowboy, an American icon, is never depicted as being willing to eat his horse.

This ruling has no direct effect on the Cavel International operation in DeKalb, Illinois, just 35 miles from my home, alas. It's interesting to note that all three horse slaughter operations in the US are owned and operated by foreign interests and employ only a handful of people. This is not a business interest with major economic impact.

Comments

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Poor horses, I hope it get's upheld.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Poor horseys indeed. Not only are they being killed for their meat (88,000 last year in this country) but we keep having news stories about abuses in shipment. Overloaded trailers, accidents, no food or water, etc. It has been truly horrible. Congress tried last year to put a stop to it, but the Bush administration found a way around them.

[heavens-steed.livejournal.com]

You know, I find that really strange. Why would Bush, being the cowboy that he is, try to undermine any efforts to stop horse slaughter? I would figure that if he does appreciate any form of animal life, it would be a horse. But maybe not. Conservatives aren't supposed to love anything about the earth except for how it can be used to suit their own needs.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Bush is not a real cowboy. He's just a spoiled rich kid. Everything in the world exists just to be used for his own pleasure and purpose.

The horse slaughter battle, which has many facets as you no doubt know, is viewed by this administration as an attempt to restrict the prerogatives of business, and of course they always oppose that. Last year Congress cut off the funding for inspectors in those plants, but the administration worked out a dubious plan that let the slaughterhouse owners pay the cost of the inspectors, reimbursing the FDA (in theory) so that federal inspection could continue. Otherwise, the output of those disgusting places could only be sold for animal feed.

Here in the US, the market for horsemeat even as dogfood has dwindled to almost nothing, though some is used by zoos to feed large carnivores.

[heavens-steed.livejournal.com]

*laughs* Tivo quoting Fox News, now that is first class entertainment right there! Have you ever seen the flash cartoons on the Ebolaworld website? I think you would love them.

But any success in the banning of horse slaughter is good, no? I've been seeing a positive trend for the banishment of horse slaughter in this country. Let's hope it stays that way.

*whispers while attempting to make quotation marks with his hooves* "Fair and balanced!" ;)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I find that Flash stuff is not worth the wait over a dialup connection, so I haven't seen any of it.

The sad thing about horse slaughter is the way most people just don't get it. If someone proposed opening a dog slaughterhouse that would sell dog meat to Asia, you can bet it would be stopped immediately and in no uncertain terms, even though the same arguments could be used about "excess, unwanted dogs" and "a human end rather than suffering." But to most Americans, a horse is an alien thing, one they have no feeling for because they've really never been close enough to see and understand.

[shadow-stallion.livejournal.com]

*nods* Thank Epona these things may finally be out of this State. It always breaks my heart to know facilities such as this are still in operation. Maybe now the beginning of the end is at hoof. :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I doubt its the end of the story. More likely they'll try to repeal that 1949 law or amend it.

[ruwhei.livejournal.com]

I wanted to mention a couple of things.

1) I'm not in the habit of reading Fox News, but Google's helpful news service had it as the top listing. I apologize for the taint of conservatism. :)

2) California passed a law banning the sale of horse meat and horse slaughter a few years ago. I mention this because California has no horse slaughter industry, yet the bill did have its opponents. There was the usual scattered opposition from a variety of folks, but one block that emerged seemed to be an unlikely one, and that was people who ran horse barns; riding barns, breeding facilities, and ranchers. Their basic argument was economic. They have many horses, and they make a living with their horses. A horse that cannot produce money is a horse that consumes money; an expense that many facilities cannot tolerate. Sending the horses that are ill, lame, old, and so forth to a slaughter facility is not about making money from the sale of the horse, but from avoiding the cost of the upkeep. They argued bitterly at the impact upon their business.

To these people, horses are a way of making a living (not getting rich), and do not have much of an emotional attachment to many of the animals themselves (how can you when you have so many?)

My counter to this was that the economic factor of slaughter was tied directly to decisions made because they knew that safety net existed. Breeders overbred, ranchers overstocked, barns overbought. The true problem was excess, and not the unavailability of slaughter.

"Bush is a cowboy," (or at least perceived as such; I think there can be no such thing as wealthy cowboys) but the mentality of large scale ranchers is towards economic feasability and not the soft feelings of love towards a pet horse. The romantic notion of what a cowboy is often not close to reality.

In the old west and frontier times people did in fact resort to eating horses, usually out of desperation or poverty. Obviously, horses are not inexpensive animals, particularly compared with cattle.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Valid points all, and I acknowledge them. (Even the one about the "taint" of conservatism. Though I have perceived you as relatively conservative politically in the past, I know very well that you are nowhere near as far to the right as the commentators and owners of Fox.)

[soanos.livejournal.com]

That is good news, I hope it will happen worldwide one day.
Horses are companions, not food. I would not eat horsemeat myself,
as I feel I am one of them, too. It would be cannibalism.

*crosses his hooves* I am hopeful, too.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

An article in the farm newspaper says that the slaughter houses have continued to operate. They are just selling the horsemeat as animal food, or so they say. That is probably a much-reduced price and will not keep them going for very long. (If in fact they aren't just secretly shipping the meat the same as ever.)

They are fighting the court decision of course. In the meantime, both houses of Congress now have legislation awaiting approval that would completely outlaw horse slaughter for human consumption in the US. That has a chance of passage, but I suspect Bush would veto it.