Horse Slaughter is Legal in the US

Horse meat may be back on the menu

Sue Ogrocki / AP

Cheri White Owl, founder of Horse Feathers Equine Rescue, is pictured with one of the 33 horses she is currently caring for in Guthrie, Okla.

 

Horses could soon be butchered in the U.S. for human consumption after Congress quietly lifted a 5-year-old ban on funding horse meat inspections, and activists say slaughterhouses could be up and running in as little as a month.
Slaughter opponents pushed a measure cutting off funding for horse meat inspections through Congress in 2006 after other efforts to pass outright bans on horse slaughter failed in previous years. Congress lifted the ban in a spending bill President Barack Obama signed into law Nov. 18 to keep the government afloat until mid-December.
It did not, however, allocate any new money to pay for horse meat inspections, which opponents claim could cost taxpayers $3 million to $5 million a year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture would have to find the money in its existing budget, which is expected to see more cuts this year as Congress and the White House aim to trim federal spending.

 

The USDA issued a statement Tuesday saying there are no slaughterhouses in the U.S. that butcher horses for human consumption now, but if one were to open, it would conduct inspections to make sure federal laws were being followed. USDA spokesman Neil Gaffney declined to answer questions beyond what was in the statement.
The last U.S. slaughterhouse that butchered horses closed in 2007 in Illinois, and animal welfare activists warned of massive public outcry in any town where a slaughterhouse may open.
"If plants open up in Oklahoma or Nebraska, you'll see controversy, litigation, legislative action and basically a very inhospitable environment to operate," predicted Wayne Pacelle, president and chief executive of The Humane Society of the United States. "Local opposition will emerge and you'll have tremendous controversy over slaughtering Trigger and Mr. Ed."
But pro-slaughter activists say the ban had unintended consequences, including an increase in neglect and the abandonment of horses, and that they are scrambling to get a plant going — possibly in Wyoming, North Dakota, Nebraska or Missouri. They estimate a slaughterhouse could open in 30 to 90 days with state approval and eventually as many as 200,000 horses a year could be slaughtered for human consumption. Most of the meat would be shipped to countries in Europe and Asia, including France and Japan.
Dave Duquette, president of the nonprofit, pro-slaughter group United Horsemen, said no state or site has been picked yet but he's lined up plenty of investors who have expressed interest in financing a processing plant. While the last three slaughterhouses in the U.S. were owned by foreign companies, he said a new plant would be American-owned.
"I have personally probably five to 10 investors that I could call right now if I had a plant ready to go," said Duquette, who lives in Hermiston, Ore. He added, "If one plant came open in two weeks, I'd have enough money to fund it. I've got people who will put up $100,000."
Sue Wallis, a Wyoming state lawmaker who's the group's vice president, said ranchers used to be able to sell horses that were too old or unfit for work to slaughterhouses but now they have to ship them to butchers in Canada and Mexico, where they fetch less than half the price.

 

The federal ban devastated "an entire sector of animal agriculture for purely sentimental and romantic notions," she said.
Although there are reports of Americans dining on horse meat as recently as the 1940s, the practice is virtually non-existent in this country, where the animals are treated as beloved pets and iconic symbols of the West.
Lawmakers in California and Illinois have banned the slaughter of horses for human consumption, and more than a dozen states tightly regulate the sale of horse meat.
Federal lawmakers' lifting of the ban on funding for horse meat inspections came about in part because of the recession, which struck just as slaughtering stopped. A federal report issued in June found that local animal welfare organizations reported a spike in investigations for horse neglect and abandonment since 2007. In Colorado, for example, data showed that investigations for horse neglect and abuse increased more than 60 percent — from 975 in 2005 to almost 1,600 in 2009.
The report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office also determined that about 138,000 horses were transported to Canada and Mexico for slaughter in 2010, nearly the same number that were killed in the U.S. before the ban took effect in 2007. The U.S. has an estimated 9 million horses.
Cheri White Owl, founder of the nonprofit Horse Feathers Equine Rescue in Guthrie, Okla., said she's seen more horse neglect during the recession. Her group is caring for 33 horses now and can't accept more.
"A lot of the situation is due to the economy," she said, "People deciding to pay their mortgage or keep their horse."
But White Owl worries that if slaughterhouses open, owners will dump their unwanted animals there instead of looking for alternatives, such as animal sanctuaries.
Animal rights groups also argue that slaughtering is a messy, cruel process, and some say it would be kinder for owners to have their horses put to sleep by a veterinarian.
"Euthanasia has always been an option," Pacelle said. But "if you acquire a horse, you should be a responsible owner and provide lifetime care."
The fight over horse slaughtering has pitted lawmakers of the same party against each other.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said the poor economy has resulted in "sad cases" of horse abandonment and neglect and lifting the ban will give Americans a shot at regaining lost jobs and making sure sick horses aren't abandoned or mistreated.
But U.S. Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., is lobbying colleagues to permanently ban horse slaughter because he believes the process is inhumane.
"I am committed to doing everything in my power to prevent the resumption of horse slaughter and will force Congress to debate this important policy in an open, democratic manner at every opportunity," he said in a statement.

CATTLE RUSTLING MAKES A COMEBACK!

Western states see comeback of cattle rustling

 

Cattle rustlers, casting aside saddle and spurs for modern horsepower, are roaming the West with four-wheel drive and GPS technology in a resurgence of livestock thievery considered a hanging offense on the old frontier.

Montana livestock officials said the increase in cattle crimes was linked to the slumping economy, soaring beef prices and the advent of handheld global positioning systems that allow rustlers to more easily navigate the wide-open range.

They said contemporary thieves may find it more convenient and lucrative to pick off a couple cows, worth as much as $2,000 a head, than to rob a convenience store.
"When the market is extremely high, the bad guys come out," Idaho State Brand Inspector Larry Hayhurst said.
Hayhurst said the incidence of cattle gone missing under suspicious circumstances in Idaho during the past three months had already surpassed the 250 such reports he received for all of last year. That coincides with spikes in cattle thefts in Colorado, Montana, Nevada, Wyoming and elsewhere.

Regionwide tallies for rustling are hard to come by because no uniform reporting system or central database exists.

However, Western state livestock agencies have put the value of cattle deemed lost, stolen, strayed or in questionable ownership in recent years in the tens of millions of dollars.
In Montana alone, investigators have recovered more than 7,300 stolen or missing cattle worth nearly $8 million during the past three years, numbers believed to account for just a fraction of the problem, officials said.
"What you see as far as figures from livestock departments is a drop in the bucket from what's been going on," said Kim Baker, president of the Montana Cattlemen's Association.

For ranchers in the open-range states of the West, the livestock brand -- a symbol of ownership imprinted on the animal's hide -- is considered a cow's only return address.
Brands provide vital clues for Western agricultural inspectors who are required to verify ownership of livestock when it is sold, shipped for slaughter or transported over certain distances.
But in a region where several hundred brand inspectors oversee millions of cows on rangelands stretching across some of the nation's most rugged and remote terrain, there are many ways to beat the system, said Rick Wahlert, veteran brand inspector with the Colorado Agriculture Department.

Today's rustlers bear little resemblance to the varmints of yore, whose crimes prompted the formation in the western United States of cattle associations that paid a bounty to bring cow thieves to justice.
For starters, rustlers are now equipped with trucks and trailers that allow them to easily haul cattle to distant slaughterhouses and auction barns where re-branded animals may draw less suspicion.
Western livestock owners who turn their cows out in the spring on sprawling grazing allotments they lease from the federal government expect to lose up to 3 percent of their stock to injuries, illnesses and predators.

 

But any such losses, or any missing animals suspected of having been stolen, typically go unnoticed until late fall, when ranchers gather in their herds and sort out which animals will be kept for breeding, put up for sale or go to slaughter.
Moreover, cattle can end up categorized as lost or missing, rather than stolen, even though evidence may suggest theft, said Terry Fankhauser, vice president of the Colorado Cattlemen's Association.
"We're ruling out alien abduction," he said.
Theft costs ranchers dearly in an industry that generates billions of dollars in revenues a year in Western states.
The losses are not tallied in dollars alone. Producers build up their herds while selecting for preferred traits over the course of generations, said Wyatt Prescott, vice president of the Idaho Cattle Association.
"Cows are professional mothers," he said. "It's their job to get bred every year, calve successfully and bring that calf home in the fall. You go through a lot trying to replace that cow."
The recent comeback in cattle rustling has stockmen on edge across the region.
After 200 cattle went missing last year in a four-county area of western Idaho, Tom Blessinger, a rancher north of Boise, said he was writing down the license plate numbers of any unfamiliar vehicles he sees.
"That's a lot of meat," he said. "This isn't a case of the cowboy with the good horse and the dog. This is too many."
Authorities in Montana and Nevada last month broke up a multi-state cattle-rustling ring in an investigation expected to bring criminal charges against suspects in Oregon, Nevada and Washington state, said Blaine Northrop, enforcement supervisor with the Nevada Department of Agriculture. The livestock bust has so far netted 61 head of cattle.
Officials said livestock thieves typically know how to handle animals and how to elude the industry's safeguards.
"Just anybody off the street can't walk in and steal a cow," Idaho's Prescott said.
Once snatched, cows are hard to get back. Recovery rates for stolen cattle can be as low as 10 percent.
Two years after the fact, authorities are still searching for rustlers who stole 21 cows and an equal number of calves from the Cross Ranch in northwestern Montana, and owner Mary Cross said her operation continues to suffer the effects of the thefts.
"It takes the profit right out," she said.

Wal-Mart Going Choice

Wal-Mart Going Choice

Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer announced last week that it is now selling choice-grade beef at all of its 3,800 U.S. locations after ramping up selections for the past three months. In keeping with its focus on low prices, Wal-Mart traditionally has sold only select-grade beef.
With over $130 billion in U.S. grocery sales, the new strategy has already had an impact on the choice-select spread. Choice beef has gotten more expensive, while select has become cheaper. The result is the price difference between the two grades of meat has exploded to 19 cents a pound from 3 cents a pound just a few months ago.
Choice and select ratings are placed on beef by federal inspectors on a voluntary basis. About 63% of meat graded for quality is classified as choice, while 29% is classified as select. The remainder is prime or one of several lower grades

MAFES Horse & Cattle Sale

MAFES Horse & Cattle Sale

The 29th Annual MAFES Sale will be held Thursday, November 17th at the Mississippi Horse Park. Interactive bidding sites are Forrest County Extension office and Central R&E in Raymond.
Horses sell at 10:30 a.m., lunch is served at noon, and cattle sell at 1:00.