Horse slaughter hits roadblock

Missouri meat processor mired in emotional brouhaha

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/TINA PARKER - 12/19/2013 - David Rains, 56, stands outside Rains Natural Meats. The facility is one of three slaughter facilities in the U.S. approved by the USDA to process horses.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/TINA PARKER - 12/19/2013 - David Rains, 56, stands outside Rains Natural Meats. The facility is one of three slaughter facilities in the U.S. approved by the USDA to process horses.

GALLATIN, Mo. - On a sleet-covered gravel road in rural Missouri, a sign warns motorists that the road ahead is closed. But it isn’t because of inclement weather. It’s closed to keep people away.

The county road ends at Rains Natural Meats, a meat-processing plant that has been converted to process horse meat. The plant’s owner, David Rains, requested that the county close the road to deter horse-slaughter opponents from entering his property.

After he was granted approval in 2012 by the U.S.Department of Agriculture to process horse meat, he says, death and arson threats became common. His processing plant is the closest horse-slaughtering facility to Arkansas. It has yet to open but is expected to next month.

Three weeks ago, an FBI agent met with Rains about letters that threatened his life and the lives of his family members, he said.

“We’re taking this serious. They threatened our lives and to burn the plant down,” Rains said.

The letters and messages left for him weren’t from his neighbors, he said. They were, he said, from horse lovers and animal-welfare advocates far removed from the rural town an hour outside of Kansas City.

Slaughtering horses is a highly emotional and intense matter, people on both sides of the issue say.

Opponents contend that horses are pets and to slaughter them for food is “inherently inhumane” and should be “banned indefinitely.” Others say horse meat is not safe for human consumption because horses are given a slew of medications, ranging from dewormers to sedatives.

Dewight Smith of Gallatin said he does not understand why people get upset about slaughtering horses because horses are the same as any other livestock.

“Nobody bitches and raises hell about pigs and cattle, so what’s the difference?” Smith said. “It’s not going to be forced down anyone’s throat,” he said of horse meat.

Wayne Pacelle, president and chief executive officer of the Humane Society of the United States, has led the effort to block horse-slaughtering plants from opening because “trade in horses is inhumane and barbaric.”

“We have led the effort to bar USDA funding for the inspection at plants, and we filed a lawsuit to block the opening of plants in the U.S.,” Pacelle said.

In 2006, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to end horse slaughtering, but that bill never went to a vote in the Senate.

Opposition to horse slaughtering in Texas closed two plants. And a plant in Illinois was closed because of community opposition. So, horse slaughtering moved to Mexico and Canada.

In 2011, Congress restored funding for the slaughters, but until last year, the USDA did not grant approval for any processing plants to resume operation.

And just as some plants were preparing to resume horse-meat processing, a Humane Society of the United States request for a temporary restraining order was granted by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. That order expired Oct. 31.

The Humane Society of the United States quickly filed an appeal for an emergency injunction to stop plants from processing horse meat, which was granted pending further evidence.

On Dec. 13, the Humane Society’s efforts were blocked, the ban was lifted and now horse slaughtering can resume.

Under the Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906, the Food Safety Inspection Service, a branch of the USDA, is required to inspect slaughterhouses to ensure that they meet federal standards. The inspections cover a wide variety of animals, including horses, according to the federal statute.

Congress banned funding for USDA inspections of horse slaughterhouses in 2006. (All meat sold for human consumption must be inspected by a Food Safety Inspection Service inspector to ensure that it meets U.S. food standards, even if the meat will not be consumed in the United States.)

Rains Natural Meats is one of three slaughterhouses in the United States that has been approved to process horse meat. The other two are Valley Meat Co. in New Mexico and Responsible Transportation LLC in Iowa. On Thursday, New Mexico Attorney General Gary King filed a lawsuit in state district court to try to block horse slaughtering in that state.

EXPORT MARKET

Although there is not a large U.S. market for horse meat, other than meat for zoos, there is a demand for it in Italy, Belgium, France and Japan, where it is considered a delicacy.

Frances Hesse is a horse lover and owns Trophy Club Training Center in Garland County. She believes everyone should be free to decide whether to send their horses to slaughter.

“It’s not our responsibility or our business to tell another country that for centuries have eaten horse meat that they cannot,” she said. “And I don’t think we should force views on people - not the Humane Society, not me, not you.”

Although some people see horses as livestock, Pacelle argues that society generally doesn’t see horses as food but as pets.

“Horses had a role in the settlement and expansion of our country. They carried us to war, and they have been messengers. They have a very special place in our culture,” Pacelle said.

Before the slaughter ban, there were three commercial slaughterhouses operating in the United States. They processed more than 104,000 horses in 2006, the most horses slaughtered under USDA inspection to date. After the ban, U.S. horses were loaded into trailers and taken to Canada and Mexico, where some people said they were not well-treated.

Temple Grandin, professor of animal science at Colorado State University and a leader in the humane handling of slaughter livestock, said horses sent to Canada were treated responsibly because Canada has humane treatment standards. But once the horses crossed into Mexico, humane treatment could no-longer be enforced, she said.

“Canada has standards, but once horses cross the Mexican border, there is no control on how they do things,” Grandin said. “They cross the border, and they switch the horses into jammed cattletrucks.”

The long ride to the country’s border is hard enough on the horses, and subjecting them to unregulated care is far worse than slaughter in the United States, she said.

“If we can cut down transport, it is a positive thing because Missouri is a shorter trip than Mexico,” Grandin said.

CONTAMINANTS

Pacelle said many horses are given medications that are unsafe for humans to consume and that the USDA does not account for contaminants in horse meat.

“There are waste-disposal issues and water issues from medications used on horses,” he said.

Andrew R. Varcoe, the USDA’s general counsel, argued in an appeal filed with the 10th Circuit that the allegations about contaminants are based on incomplete information and speculative fears.

Food Safety Inspection Service “regulations and directives for the inspection, testing, handling and labeling of livestock, including equines, include a drug residue testing program for all livestock. Any detection of drug residue will result in the carcass being condemned,” according appeal documents filed Nov. 7.

Rains said he has to meet requirements to open for business, and among them is testing.

“We will test every horse for medications, antibiotics and other things,” he said.

If one tests positive, the meat will not be used and the seller will not get any money for the horse.

“It’s a pretty good incentive to bring in clean horses,” he said.

Grandin said testing for drug residue is the best way to ensure clean meat, and that the incentive program is a way to reinforce that.

“Sometimes you’ve got to hit the pocketbook to make it happen - just test them all,” she said.

ROADBLOCK

Despite USDA approval, Rains met with another roadblock when the Missouri Department of Natural Resources denied him a wash-water permit.

“In the federal courts we’re good to go, but the Missouri Department of Natural Resources put an exclusion on my lagoon,” he said.

The lagoon was approved for wash water for other livestock, but department officials said that did not include horses. Wash water is runoff from water used to clean blood from the slaughter area.

“This was never an issue before,” Rains said “The lagoons are good for other animals. What they’re doing is excluding horses.”

Rains can take his wash water to the city of Gallatin for discharge, said A. Blair Dunn, legal counsel for Rains processing plant. But Rains would prefer to use his lagoon.

“The Missouri DNR is trying to get in the way of [Rains opening for business],” Dunn said. “Ultimately, it is something that will be negotiated and resolved.”

Business, Pages 71 on 12/22/2013

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