Lawsuit to include Dallas-area plants; industry is defended
WASHINGTON – Animal-rights
groups plan to ask a federal court today to block an Agriculture Department
plan that would allow two Dallas-area slaughterhouses to continue turning
horses into meat.
The groups argue that Congress
intended to shut down the industry when it voted last year to cut off funds for
horse inspectors.
At the slaughterhouses'
request, the Agriculture Department decided last week to continue inspecting
horses at the plants' expense starting March 10, the day taxpayer-funded
inspection must cease. Horse advocates say that subverts the will of lawmakers.
"Congress was absolutely
clear in its intent when it said it didn't want appropriated funds going to
inspect horses for slaughter," said Jonathan Lovvorn, vice president for
litigation at the Humane Society of the United States, which will file the
lawsuit in Washington, D.C. "The federal food safety laws are so complex,
and they're trying to take advantage of that. ... We think it violates the act
of Congress as well as the federal meat inspection act."
The Humane Society is filing
the suit on behalf of several animal advocacy groups and neighbors of the
plants whose complaints include smelling putrid odors, hearing horses' cries
and experiencing lowered property values.
The Dallas-area plants –
Beltex Corp. in Fort Worth and Dallas Crown in Kaufman – as well as Cavel
International in DeKalb, Ill., have argued that they follow humane procedures
typical of meat processing.
The Agriculture Department's
Food Safety and Inspection Service is almost certain to defend the
fee-for-service plan in court, and litigation could take months.
"We feel our actions are
fully consistent with our responsibilities under the federal Meat Inspection
Act," said spokesman Steven Cohen. "We're obligated to inspect horses
for slaughter and inspect the meat to ensure that it's safe and wholesome, and
our obligations didn't change with the passage of the agriculture
appropriations bill."
A spokesman for the
slaughterhouses, former Abilene congressman Charlie Stenholm, who works at a
Washington law firm that has lobbied for the industry, said the suit would run
counter to the Humane Society's own warnings that there is a shortage of
shelter space for unwanted horses.
"On the one hand, they
acknowledge there's a problem; on the other hand they're going full bore to try
to stop a legal industry that's doing a very good service for horse
owners," he said. "The USDA is doing what they are required to do by
law. They are required to inspect horses. What the amendment in question said
was taxpayers cannot pay for it in 2006."
Lawmakers have been trying to
prod Congress to adopt an outright ban on the slaughter of horses for human
consumption. Roughly 88,000 horses are slaughtered each year, with the meat
sold in France, Belgium, Japan, Mexico and a handful of other countries. The
industry is tiny compared with the beef market, but it accounts for most U.S.
meat exports to Europe.
E-mail tgillman@dallasnews.com
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