BLM selling wild horses to slaughter advocate

The Bureau of Land Management, which is running short of space to keep wild horses, has sold more than 1,700 of them – up to 240 at a time, and for $10 a head this spring – to a longtime advocate of horse slaughter, Dave Philipps reports for ProPublica. (Phillips photo: Nevada mustang that escaped a BLM roundup last winter)

Tom Davis "signs contracts promising that animals bought from the program will not be slaughtered and insists he finds them good homes," Philipps writes, but he "has ducked Colorado law to move animals across state lines and will not say where they end up. He continues to buy wild horses for slaughter from Indian reservations, which are not protected by the same laws. And since 2010, he has been seeking investors for a slaughterhouse of his own."

"Hell, some of the finest meat you will ever eat is a fat yearling colt," Davis told Philipps. "What is wrong with taking all those BLM horses they got all fat and shiny and setting up a kill plant?"

BLM officials say they carefully screen buyers and have no indication that Davis is taking the horses to slaughter in Mexico, Canada or elsewhere. "Some BLM employees say privately that wild horse program officials may not want to look too closely at Davis," Philipps writes. "The agency has more wild horses than it knows what to do with, they say, and Davis has become a relief valve for a federal program plagued by conflict and cost over-runs." (Read more)

Wolves in Rockies going off endangered list; activists say hunting laws will threaten them

Wolves in the northern Rocky Mountain region of Wyoming are finally poised to be removed from the endangered species list by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, but activists fear new state laws that expand hunting and trapping of wolves will threaten their newly established numbers. (Yellowstone National Park photo)

The agency announced the wolf population in Wyoming is officially "recovered," just like those in Idaho and Montana. When the decision takes effect in September, it will mark the end of a 17-year wolf recovery process in the region, Kim Murphy of the Los Angeles Times reports. Wolves had recovered so much in some places, ranchers were reporting frequent deaths of livestock, and state laws had been expanded to allow ranchers to protect herds with killing and trapping. In some instances, state agencies had employed helicopters to aerially kill wolves.

Legal action is expected from activists in Montana, where they contend newly authorized wolf traps could threaten Canada lynx, and in Wyoming, where critics argue that the state's wolf-control laws could "leave them vulnerable to wholesale killing through most of the state," Murphy reports. In Idaho, a proposed law would allow live-baiting of problem wolves with dogs, something attorneys for Earthjustice said has been discussed in Wyoming, too. (Read more)

Humane Society looks to Wall Street to prompt change in pig-production practices

The Humane Society of the United States has bought shares in four major financial services companies in a bid to use shareholder pressure to force two of the nation's largest pork producers to stop housing pregnant sows in gestation stalls. The animal rights group said that its small investment is large enough to introduce proposals during shareholder meetings. The group, reports P.J. Huffstutter of Reuters, has successfully used such shareholder advocacy in the past to pressure food and agriculture companies to change corporate buying habits and production practices. (Wikipedia photo)

"By not changing over to alternative animal housing, claims the group, Tyson Foods Inc. and Seaboard Foods are putting their lucrative contracts with these customers at risk," reports Huffstutter. "McDonald's, the nation's top hamburger chain by sales, vowed in May that its U.S. business would only buy pork from farmers and other sources that do not use gestation stalls for housing their pregnant sows by 2022. Such stalls are used to confine sows during the breeding and post-birth process."

Seeing little success from the producers, "the Humane Society decided to a less-direct route and press its case with Tyson investors: JP Morgan Chase, , the biggest U.S. commercial and investment bank by assets; BlackRock, the world's biggest asset manager; Jennison Associates, a subsidiary of Prudential Financial, the second-largest U.S. life insurer; and Ameriprise Financial, a financial services company," Huffstutter reports. Tyson told her in an email that it is committed to humane animal treatment at all stages of food production, and expects the same from those farmers who supply products to it. Seaboard, the nation's third-largest pork producer, could not be reached for comment. (Read more)

Shortage of livestock veterinarians is growing

Rural America is short on large-animal veterinarians, and the deficit is growing. Just 17 percent of veterinarians nationwide work in food-animal medicine, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association, and that percentage is expected to fall to 12 or 13 percent by 2016, reports Walker Moskop of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. (Strib photo by Richard Sennott: Food-animal vet student Joe Armstrong)

AVMA President Rene Carlson told  the shortage is partly the result of too many students entering the pet-care field. She also said "simple economics" is a factor. Some rural areas don't have enough large animals to make a clinic pay, especially when considering student loan debt for vet school. Food-animal vet work can be demanding, Moskop reports. Many are on call nights and weekends, and have to cover a lot of territory. The shortage has gotten so bad in some areas that rural vets that have reached retirement age have to keep working so their community will have a veterinarian.

University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine professor John Fetrow told Moskop the demanding hours, low pay and less-than-ideal working conditions often forces those who start their careers as food animal vets to switch to pet care. The university is offering an accelerated program that allows students to earn their bachelor's and doctoral degrees in seven years, a year early, to entice more students to take the food animal path. Graduates are also offered up to $25,000 a year if they work in a rural area. But, budget cuts this year could threaten incentives for students. North Dakota is offering a similar loan repayment program to veterinary graduates, and Alaska will allow out-of-state vets to practice free of charge in rural areas of the state without veterinarians. (Read more)

Meat industry video shows cattle slaughter process

The American Meat Institute and noted Colorado State University animal science professor Temple Grandin have released a video depicting and explaining cattle processing at a large, unnamed slaughterhouse, Rita Gabbett of Meatingplace reports.

The video's release coincides with the temporary closure of a California meat plant over human handling concerns, but the Meat Institute's Janet Riley said the video was in production long before. She says in a blog post that Grandin "talks about many aspects of handling and slaughter and she specifically explains that after animals are stunned to make them unconscious prior to slaughter, a step that is required by law, it is normal to see some uncoordinated movement, especially of the unrestrained rear leg. She notes that this does not mean that an animal is conscious, and much research will support this."

The video, narrated by Grandin, "takes the viewer from live cattle being unloaded from the truck through the stunning and slaughter process, and is perhaps a response to recent slaughterhouse videos recorded secretly by animal-rights groups. The video comes with a warning: "We do want to caution viewers that the scenes are graphic at some points. In an effort to provide true transparency, we are shining a light on the complete process." (Read more)

Horse rescue groups overwhelmed as drought-plagued owners give up without access to hay

Horse rescue groups have struggled to care for a growing number of animals abandoned since the recession began in 2008, but leaders say their work has become even more difficult and expensive as drought and wildfires burned up pastures and sent hay prices skyrocketing. Many people who held on to their horses in the downturn are now letting them go because they can't find or afford feed that has more than doubled in price, reports Grant Schulte of the Associated Press. (AP photo by Nati Harnik)

This is what drought looks like to rescue organizations: Jami Salter at the Double R Horse Rescue Ranch in Riverdale, Neb., said she's still getting three or four calls a week from people asking her to take their horses, and at one point, people were abandoning one or two animals a week. "People would just drop horses off without asking me," Salter said. "Every morning, I went out to water them, and I'd have more horses than the day before."

Most farmers and ranchers have had trouble growing hay this year because of the drought that stretches from Ohio west to California, reports Schulte. Salter said a company that donates to her rescue got 46 bales last year from a 22-acre plot but this year expects only six or seven.  "There's no place to go with a horse you can't feed," said Iowa Horse Council President Bill Paynter, of New Virginia, Iowa. And, say advocates, it's only going to get worse.

(See also a Financial Times story on hay a as key U.S. commodity here. The viewing is free but readers must register to be allowed onto the site.)

Humane Society tells 51 pork producers it will sue, alleging failure to report environmental violations

The Humane Society of the United States plans to sue 51 pork producers in North Carolina, Iowa and Oklahoma for alleged unreported ammonia releases. The organization said it identified the producers "after months of research," and said they release hundreds of pounds of ammonia each day. The research methods used to determine this were not revealed.

HSUS is sending letters of notice to producers affiliated with the National Pork Producers Council, which represents the U.S. pork industry, Rod Smith of Feedstuffs reports. The groups acknowledged that some producers are "attentive" to animal welfare and environmental issues, but some of the wealthiest "apparently refuse to comply" with public health laws. NPPC said HSUS is not alleging environmental harm, but paperwork violations. (Read more)

Walking horse group sues USDA over new rules requiring penalties, set to start next week

A USDA inspector looks at the feet
of a Tennessee walking horse
(Dipti Vaidya, The Tennessean)

A leading Tennessee Walking Horse industry group sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture last week to block the federal effort to impose minimum penalties for soring and otherwise abusing horses, reports Duane Gang of The Tennessean.

Earlier this month, USDA announced it would require organizations that inspect horses on its behalf to assess minimum penalties to violators of the Horse Protection Act, the 1970 law that makes it illegal to show or transport a sored horse. SHOW Inc. filed the lawsuit in Texas, claiming that the new rules violate the constitutional right to due process. The lawsuit seeks to prevent USDA from putting the rule into effect next Monday, July 9. In a statement, SHOW said the new rules punish organizations that are working to change the industry.

Gang explains: "Soring is the practice of using chemicals and other methods, including putting foreign objects in the horses’ hooves, to produce a higher gait. Dripping harsh chemicals on the horses’ front feet forces them, because of pain, to lift their legs higher. The walk is prized in walking horse competitions." In announcing the new rules this month, the government said it will now require horses found in violation of the act to be dismissed from the show. If a horse is sored, those responsible are to be suspended from participating in shows, exhibitions, sales or auctions.

A recent analysis by The Tennessean showed a significant difference between the number of violations issued by the industry when USDA officials are present and when they leave the inspections up to industry groups, notes Gang: "When the USDA was present, horse industry inspectors found seven times as many violations of the Horse Protection Act."

House panel votes for new ban on horse slaughter

Horse slaughterhouses would again be effectively banned in the U.S. if the House Appropriations Committee has its way. The panel voted Tuesday to bar the Department of Agriculture from spending any money on inspection of horse abattoirs, thus preventing their operation. Such a ban was imposed several years ago but was dropped in a House-Senate conference committee last year.

No horse slaughterhouses have opened since then, partly because of the uncertainty about federal policy, and clues were scant Tuesday about the future of the amendment by Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., to the USDA appropriations bill. Sara Gonzalez of Agri-Pulse reports that the amendment passed on a voice vote after Moran said, “Industrial slaughter of horses should not be condoned by the U.S. government. We have to put an end once and for all to this practice.”

Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said "It is more inhumane to let a horse die by the side of the road" than to kill it in a slaughterhouse. Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., chairman of the agriculture appropriations subcommittee, said the government needs to allow U.S. producers to meet demand for horse meat in Asia and Europe. "This is a 100 percent emotional issue," he said. Agri-Pulse notes that the ban "is a long-standing priority of the Humane Society of the United States."

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Officials of Western states want to keep possibly endangered species off federal list; scientists say alternatives won't protect the animals

"Candidate conservation agreements" are plans to keep an animal or plant species from being placed on the federal endangered-species list to prevent restrictions on land use that includes habitat of the species. Keeping dwindling species off the endangered list through these agreements is a growing trend in the West, where the fate of more than 1,000 species will be decided by 2018 under settlements between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and two environmental groups, Joshua Zaffos of High Country News reports. (HCN photo by Noppadol Paothong: endangered-list candidate Gunnison sage grouse)

Fish and Wildlife had a backlog of species to be considered for listing, and WildEarth Gaurdians and the Center of Biological Diversity filed lawsuits and listing petitions to speed up the process. Those groups have agreed to curtail those after the agency agreed to process the backlog. Zaffos reports wildlife managers have to determine if the conservation agreements are "producing meaningful results" before the agreements between the agency and environmental groups can affect listings.

Scientists and environmentalists are questioning "on-the-ground benefits" of candidate conservation agreements, Zaffos reports. Some agreements require landowners and users to "continue current practices and preserve existing vacant habitat without trying to restore populations or address major threats," he writes. College of Idaho professor Eric Yensen told Zaffos the agreements can "prevent poisoning, shooting and similar responses," and ease reintroductions. But, they don't stop habitat loss or development, Yensen said. Despite that, Fish and Wildlife plans to extend conservation agreements, and is accepting public comment on the how to improve them through July. (Read more)