Daily News Update, Feb. 25, 2008

Supreme Court asked to review ruling shutting down Ill. horse processing plant

An Illinois law that closed a state horse processing plant, and the federal appeals court decision upholding the law, have effectively exempted 40,000–60,000 horses from humane slaughter.

That is a key reason why the U.S. Supreme Court should hear the appeal of the decision by the plant, Cavel International, Inc., according to an "amicus curiae" (friend of the court) brief filed on Feb. 22 by Livestock Marketing Association.

LMA filed the brief on behalf of its members. Nancy Robinson, LMA's vice president for government and industry affairs, said LMA was very grateful to its industry partners for helping fund the preparation and filing of the brief.

Those partners are the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, Kansas Livestock Association, Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association and Texas Cattle Feeders Association. LMA represents over 800 livestock marketing businesses, including livestock markets, across the United States.

When the Court of Appeals for the 7^th Circuit upheld the Illinois law that closed the DeKalb, Ill., plant last year, it "failed to address the adverse impact" of the law, LMA's brief said.

As a result, "tens of thousands of horses…will die each year because they are at the end of their useful lives, (and) which will now die of neglect or be killed using procedures which are outside the protection accorded by the Humane Slaughter Act."

Cavel slaughtered 40,000-60,000 horses annually, all under provisions of the Humane Slaughter Act, which only applies to U.S. plants. The court rulings "have provided an incentive for the export of horses to foreign slaughterhouses, and are contributing factors in an increase of equine neglect," the brief said, citing news accounts on this topic.

Agreeing to review the case "provides the (Supreme Court's) last and only opportunity to restore the…Slaughter Act's coverage in connection with horses."

The Appeals Court also said it upheld the Illinois law because the law was "somewhat tenuously supported by a legitimate state interest."

The amicus brief disagreed, saying "the de facto exemption" of the thousands of horses slaughtered by Cavel from provisions of the Humane Slaughter Act "more than outweighs" that somewhat "tenuous…state interest."

The horse meat processed by Cavel was exported for foreign consumption. The "speculative rationalizations" the Appeals Court used to uphold the Illinois law "are insufficient to justify any burden on either foreign…or interstate commerce," LMA's brief said.

The Illinois law in fact creates an "unconstitutional burden upon the interstate commerce conducted at livestock markets," which previously supplied horses to Cavel, according to the brief.

The Appeals Court decision is also in error because it allows state legislation "which is not directly protective of the health or safety" of Illinois citizens, to "displace the constitutional rights of citizens of other states to participate in interstate and foreign commerce…" the brief said.

At a minimum, the brief said, the Supreme Court should grant Cavel's review request to resolve a conflict between this Appeals Court decision and an earlier decision from the First Circuit Court of Appeals, which also dealt with burdens on U.S. foreign commerce.