Federal appeals court vacates ban on US horse slaughter

Fox News ^ | December 14, 2013 | AP

[jazusamo]

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A federal appeals court on Friday removed a temporary ban on domestic horse slaughter, clearing the way for companies in New Mexico, Missouri and Iowa to open while an appeal of a lawsuit by animal protection groups proceeds.

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.

[jazusamo]

HSUS uses this issue as a fund raising tool as they do with all their issues.

[jazusamo]

Ping.

[Meadow Muffin]

Next on the menu will be?

[Free Vulcan]

Got a good conservative friend who raises horses. She told me that ending horse slaughtering has killed the horse industry and the market. It ends up being worse for the horses because the owners can’t get rid of them and can’t afford to feed them at the end of their useful life, so many of them get starved and abused because of it.

[Slump Tester]

Now they can be killed here humanely instead of being trucked off to Mexico and being killed by sadists who have no rules or regulations they must follow.

I've seen some really sickening footage of horses in Mexican slaughter plants.

This is a good thing!

[NormsRevenge]

We as Europeans came and slaughtered the buffalo, the hunters thereof and then we went after the horses too.. oddly enough, I hear horse is a delicacy in some cultures.

Someday, taxpayers will be on the menu.. just ask the IRS for their recipe for TEA Party stew.

GiDDyUP!

[jazusamo]

Since the recession began there has been a pronounced increase in horse abuse cases, many horse owners can’t afford to feed them and the market is weak, then there are those who turn them loose on federal lands.

[freeangel]

“This is a good thing! “

Call me a negative Nancy, but my first thought was that stolen horses will now be taken to the slaughter houses.

[1rudeboy]

Next on the menu will be?

Horsemeat isn't that bad, actually. Marginally better than goatmeat, in my opinion.

[1rudeboy]

That’s not much of a business plan.

[nathanbedford]

As one who has owned many horses and have ridden under all kinds of conditions including riding to hounds, I am particularly affected by the plight of these poor animals so unnecessarily brought about by ignorant liberals. I wrote this reply in September 2009 contemplating the why of this unnecessary, inhumane tragedy:

This is one of a series of reports which has been occurring intermittently now for a couple of years as the unintended consequences of liberal follies which bring real and acute misery to these poor beasts.

Ignorant liberals have outlawed horse slaughter which produces meat for human consumption. Instead of policing the slaughterhouse and ensuring that the slaughter is done humanely they have so fouled up the marketplace that the poor animals are suffering terribly. Liberals have driven the price of feed through the roof because of the subsidies of biofuels and so the market is flooded with horses that people cannot afford to feed. Nor can they sell them. Many cannot afford to have a veterinarian euthanize them and dispose of the carcass. So the liberals have squeezed this traditional American relationship between man and horse from both sides and caused untold agony to the poor creatures. Many horses are trucked in indescribable conditions without water to Mexico for a thousand miles to slaughter.

If there ever was a example of the law of unintended consequences this surely must be a flagrant example. Liberals simply cannot refrain from doing good and they have done so much good on both sides of the equation that horses are suffering horrible and lingering deaths. For some incomprehensible reason they have eliminated slaughter to produce food for consumption. I cannot imagine why. If they thought they were eliminating the problem of inhumane slaughter, why did they not police the slaughter and ensure through inspections that it was done humanely? Did they think the horses would live for ever?

On the other end, liberals had more good to do. They jiggered the agricultural economy of America by subsidizing the burning of food for fuel and thus driving the cost of feed for horses beyond the ability of many horse lovers to properly maintain their stock and thus dumping tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of horses onto a market which could not absorb them. The good they were doing? The dubious elimination of consumption of fossil fuels for the even more dubious threat of global warming in the fatuously dubious hope that man can control the weather.

God knows what other intended consequences liberals will generate trying to undo these unintended consequences. If there is such a thing as cosmic justice, these Libs ought to be investigating the doctrines of repentance and forgiveness.

Instead of horses, think human beings, think the entire American economy and get a feel for the harm liberals do when they do good.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Well they generally DO believe in their cause, which is to view any human use of the beasts as blasphemous. You can’t fault them for being inconsistent here, whatever other faults they may have.

A more biblical view of the beasts is shared by other humane societies and (last I was aware) ASPCA. “A righteous man is kind to [regards the life of] his beast.”

It’s fine by God for a Christian society to sacrifice horses as humanely as practical for the sake of food, as best as I can tell from the bible. As the New Testament puts it, do not strangle them. Any means that is used for cattle would be okay for horses.

The ultimate idea to be kept is: respect God and respect the animals for the sake of God. God put life in the animals (especially the ones spoken of in Genesis as having souls, or nephesh, which includes horses) for the reason of His glory, and He wants that glory to be respected.

I have no absolute, positive scriptural proof of this — the bible doesn’t go into great detail — but I submit that it would be in keeping with the revealed character and power of God that animal souls may have a place in eternity and the glory they have there may reflect their sacrifices in this mortal coil. But anyone who abused an animal will have, at best, given up his own chance at a reward for that time in his life (when he could have been kind to that animal instead).

[jazusamo]

It sure isn’t...It’s a quick path to the graybar hotel or a load of buckshot in the rear:)

Ranchers and horse owners in rural areas still take a dim view of horse thieves and rustlers.

[Carriage Hill]

Mr Ed is not pleased.

[1rudeboy]

I endorse your message, and I have nothing to add.

[Free Vulcan]

There is no connection between ethanol and the price of feed for horses, and we are not ‘burning our food for fuel’ unless you want to consider soda pop food.

[HiTech RedNeck]

I wonder if anyone ever thought of asking Mr. Ed about God. No this is not going from the sublime to the ridiculous. “The lion roars and seeks its food from God.” Maybe the horse whinnies, etc., to the same end? And when the animals are not subject to the wild, then we have a responsibility before God to do it as right as we can?

[jazusamo]

Well said, it definitely is a liberal thing.

We had a horse slaughter industry for years and they appealed to the emotions (typical for liberals) to get it shut down. It’s created a huge problem in suffering for many animals and taxpayers are footing the bill for many thousands of horses being handled by the BLM because of overpopulation on federal lands.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Doing “good” isn’t bad in itself. Its when the idea of good is not centered around God that it gets all warped out of shape. It’s the folly of the Garden, egged on by you know who from hell.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Well, ultimately it’s a farmland use issue. The crude ethanol corn is not the same grade as from which we get animal fodder, the ever beleaguered HFCS, or our table maize.

The crude ethanol corn has become a symbol which is not worth it from an energy perspective. IMHO of course, and I’m not a petroleum engineer.