Horse News

Animal Law Expert Wants Court to Ban Horse Slaughter in the U.S.

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SOURCE:  Food Safety News

By    Dan Flynn

Four months into litigation aimed at preventing horses from being legally slaughtered in the United States, animal law attorney Bruce A. Wagman is already citing Front Range Equine Rescue v. Vilsack as one of the “illustrative representations” of his experience.  Others might just call it a win.  M. Christina Armijo, chief U.S. District Court judge for New Mexico, has already granted Wagman’s clients a temporary restraining order in the case.  He wants a permanent injunction against USDA inspecting any horse-slaughter facilities in the U.S.Wagman and Rocky N. Unruh, an expert in complex trials, are San Francisco attorneys from the national Schiff Hardin law firm, which has 400 attorneys based out of Chicago.  Among the 15 plaintiffs Wagman and Unruh represent is one definitely large enough to pay their fees, the Humane Society of the United States.

With prestigious offices on L Street in Washington, D.C., and annual revenues that were approaching $200 million when last reported two years ago, HSUS is a nonprofit that can easily keep Wagman and Unruh in its legal stable.

In addition to more than two decades of experience litigating animal law cases, Wagman literally wrote the book on the subject.  His “Animal Law: Cases and Materials” is in its fourth edition as a law school textbook.

Wagman’s job this time is to stop three small businesses located in rural areas of Iowa, Missouri, and New Mexico that saw an opportunity two years ago when the federal government’s ban on horse slaughter was lifted.  All three went through an extensive process in requesting a so-called “grant of inspection” from USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).

Plaintiffs filed to block that from happening just as USDA decided to provide inspection services to the three businesses, Responsible Transportation in Iowa, Rains Natural Meats in Missouri, and Valley Meats in New Mexico.  All three planned to pack horsemeat for export.

That’s when Wagman won the temporary restraining order.  Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys for the three named defendants in the case — Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Under Secretary for Food Safety Elisabeth Hagen and FSIS Administrator Al Almanza — then suggested speeding up the case by skipping all preliminary arguments.

Wagman and Unruh agreed.  For the past six weeks, there’s been a flurry of motions and arguments going back and forth. And while there has been no scheduled or target date announced for Armijo’s ruling on the merits of the case, Wagman seems to be winning the preliminary decisions.

For example, Armijo ruled against the government when USDA sought to have the Declaration of Dr. Daniel L. Engeljohn entered as a supplement to the administrative record.  Engeljohn is arguably USDA’s top expert on horse slaughter and was the official directly in charge of the administrative process.

Also, the magistrate judge responsible for processing requests for injunction bonds denied the request of Rains Natural Meats. Valley Meats and Responsible Transportation, which were both included in the original injunction, did require bonds, but Rains was not because it came later.

However, since USDA was enjoined by additional court action from providing inspection services to Rains, that business faces similar jeopardy.

In addition to the plaintiffs represented by the Schiff Hardin attorneys, the State of New Mexico has intervened on their side of the case. Assistant Attorney General Ari Biernoff is representing New Mexico.

DOJ attorneys Alison D. Garner, Andrew A. Smith and Robert G. Dreher are representing USDA.  Dreher is the Acting Assistant Attorney General of the U.S. for environment and natural resources.

The three business and numerous others have intervened on the government side.  The most active attorney among several for those interests is A. Blair Dunn of Albuquerque.

Meanwhile, the law the Oklahoma Legislature passed last May to permit horse slaughter in that state takes effect on Friday, Nov. 1. Under the new law, any horse-slaughter facility would require approval from USDA, and officials say there are no applications in the works at this time.

Categories: Horse News, Horse Slaughter

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17 replies »

  3. I just would not understand why this law would not be passed to stopped the horse slaughter plants from reopening in the U.S. As we all know Americans are against horse slaughter so why is horse slaughter in the U.S. always an issue. It appears that the low lifes that want to run these kind of businesses must have someone backing them.

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    • There are many groups and individuals that profit from being able to ship US-based horses to slaughter. The American Quarter Horse Assn (AQHA) and the American Association of Equine Practioners (AAEP) are just two such groups. This 2008 piece by Duanne Burright is an excellent primer on “why?”. Sadly, this remains the status quo and US horses ship to slaughter in Canadian and Mexican plants:
      http://www.horsetalk.co.nz/features/horseslaughter-139.shtml#axzz2jX7ZQb3a

      As of 10/19/13, 83,906 US horses shipped to slaughter in Mexican slaughter plants this year. For the same period in 2012, 89,032 shipped to slaughter in Mexico. (These figures do NOT include US horses shipped to Canada for slaughter there.)

      Current quantities of US horses shipped to slaughter in Mexico:
      http://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/al_ls635.txt

      ACT NOW and contact your two US Senators and one US Congressman in Washington, DC, and request that they cosponsor and actively support the current bills banning horse slaughter: S.541 and HR.1094: The Safeguard American Food Exports Act (SAFE) of

      Click to access safeguard.pdf

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      • K., thanks for sharing this. I abandoned my long membership in the AQHA and in so doing explained my primary reason was their position on horse slaughter. Perhaps more folks should consider doing the same.

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  5. No to horse slaughter–“US horses are not raised or regulated as food animals and should never enter the food chain. You can remind them of the horsemeat scandal in Europe that compromised their beef supply as well as bute detected in some of the compromise beef. The USDA Secretary has already gone on record stating that it could happen here if horse slaughter plants were to open on our Soil” ——NO TO HORSE SLAUGHTER NOW OR EVER!

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    • Shirley, all good information. I would add, though, that I’ve read some “officials” spouting that the bute is in such small amounts it would not harm human health. I think we all need to remind folks that there are dozens of vaccines and drugs in regular use by horse owners and veterinarians which are all labeled as “not for animals to be used for human consumption.” Bute is not the only one, nor the most persistent one.

      Heck, even some of the daily wormers may linger in horses, I don’t know. I couldn’t get straight answers from any manufacturers about lingering effects of various paste wormers in manure which was composted and used in my garden. I can honestly state that I don’t think I have any internal parasites, though!

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  9. The only reason the slaughter plant in OK isn’t opening up tomorrow is because of the lawsuits against the other three. They don’t want the cost of a lawyer on their neck to have to pay seeing as they just might lose.

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  10. Mr. Wagman lives in my county and is the lawyer for Humane Society here. Many years ago the Humane Society picked up several horses that someone had on their property. They were out eating weeds and other non nutritious stuff. These were domesticate horses rather than wild ones.

    Of course the mares were pastured bred by the stud. They were given no special care. After several months of going back and forth the Humane Society seized the horses. And then it got tied up in Court for another 2/3 years. The mares gave birth to two live foals–although a bit small they seemed to be fine. The stud eventually was gelded and adopted out. The mares were also adopted out. As were the foals when that time came.

    I think Mr. Wagman defended the Humane Society on this one. It was a pretty big case and cost A WHOLE BUNCH OF MONEY.

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  13. May I make a suggestion? Cattle farmers need to be against horse slaughter. Horse meat will enter the meat market in the USA. People will raise young drug free horses for sale as low fat meat.
    Horse owners will have to compete with horse feed lots foe hay.So cattle farmers is your beef competitive with horse meat?

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