Saturday, April 14, 2012

NM governor asks feds to stop horse slaughterhouse

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez said Friday she is asking federal officials not to allow a southeastern New Mexico company to open the nation's first slaughterhouse for horses since 2007. Martinez plans to send a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture asking it deny a Roswell meat company's request for inspections that would allow it to operate. "Despite the federal government's decision to legalize horse slaughter for human consumption, I believe creating a horse slaughtering industry in New Mexico is wrong and I am strongly opposed," Martinez said in a statement. Valley Meat Co. has filed an application with the U.S. Department of Agriculture for its 7,300-square-foot plant outside of town. Documents obtained by the Humane Society of the United States and Front Range Equine Rescue show that horses would be "custom slaughtered" and processed for human consumption at the plant, the Albuquerque Journal reported. Valley Meat didn't immediately returns calls from the Associated Press on Friday. A spokesman for New Mexico Attorney General Gary King said his office so far has found no legal basis for stopping the plant, but a lawyer has been assigned to continue looking into the matter. "A horse slaughtering plant in Roswell is a terrible idea. Such a practice, while not illegal, is certainly abhorrent to public sentiment, and I strongly suggest it be abandoned," King, a Democrat, said in a written statement. "Horses are different and should be treated differently," he said...more

Something about the strong arm of the government slamming down on an entrepreneur is "abhorrent" to me. In this case you have the Governor and the Attorney General siding with the animal rightists and other anti-agriculture and anti-hunting groups. This time it's horses, but what is next?  Deer?  Cattle?

I guess the Governor doesn't  realize the cruelest thing done to horses has been the banning of the slaughter industry in the U.S.   Apparently she would rather have the horses abandoned and slowly starve to death. See here, here, here, here and the official GAO report Action Needed to Address Unintended Consequences from Cessation of Domestic Slaughter.

It also seems strange that neither the Governor nor the Attorney General mentioned the crippling and death-causing injuries to horses perpetrated by the horse racing industry in N.M., which has the worst safety record in the U.S.  Come on Governor.  You have direct control over the racing industry.  Are you going to ban that too?

5 comments:

Thomas Molitor said...

Frank,
This is a clear example of state intervention into the free-market system. The governor speaks of "creating jobs" in New Mexico and here we have an entrepreneur trying to make a living and create jobs through a legitimate business proposition. I think for Gov. Martinez to intervene at the federal level and AG King to impose his subjective feelings about a particular entrepreneurial venture, and Ray Powell to utter nonsense such as "horses are an icon of our heritage" is, well, a bunch of horseshit. As Mises said, "there are in the free market economy a harmony among rightly understood interests." Clearly, this is an abuse of power for Martinez to leverage her platform and impede an act of legitimate entrepreneurship. I plan to do a story on it.

horse owner said...

Horses are livestock and as such are not a protected species. They are not endangered and are perfectly edible by humans. It is ludacris that the sentiment mentioned above should have anything to do with a horse slaughter plant being denied. Jobs are needed and there are too many horses that good people are struggling to care for. Horses are seen by some as pets which they are not. Generally those people who are the most sentimental have never owned or cared for a horse of their own. I have 8 horses and have owned horses for over 50 years. My spring shots and coggins and some dental work just cost me $1500 which is more than one of my horses is worth right now. Its sad.

Luka said...

I wouldn't be so fast to stake whatever credibility you may have in defending this proposed horse slaughter plant owner. First off, he has trouble keeping his stories straight--he started off by saying he was going to be a "custom" butcher, killing only a few horses a day. As the story circulates, that number has gone up. He won't release the name of his partner, and then there's the not-so-little matter of why he truly shut down his cattle slaughtering operation, a fact you failed to mention. He was shut down by USDA/FSIS pulling inspectors for inhumane handling of animals during slaughter. At some point you would think he would come clean, but like all horse killers, the only way they can accomplish their barbaric act is to dupe the American people.

Maybe this is why 80 percent of Americans do not want to see horse slaughter in USA because it's a nefarious business conducted by despicable people.

Thomas Molitor said...

Luka,
The character of the entrepreneur is not relevant to the argument I am making. The argument I am making is whether the bureaucratic control (Martinez/King/Powell) or the system of economic freedom is more efficient in a free-market economy. The rights of man as codified in the various bill of rights are promulgated for the protection of the individual against governmental arbitrariness. As Frank says, "Something about the strong arm of the government slamming down on an entrepreneur is 'abhorrent' to me." It is the state arbitrary intervention regarding one business over the other that is the economic freedom violation that affects us all.

Luka said...

Good try with the free enterprise/free market hooey....not even close and certainly no cigar. Alas, it is you who is being irrelevant. Martinez/King/Powell are ONLY petitioning the USDA to continue defunding inspectors and not to make the money available for inspectors for this proposed horse slaughtering facility, which they would need to start carving up horses for foreign consumers of American horsemeat.

Actually, they're being good public servants and cognizant of public health and how that can fall by the wayside when horse killers come to town. Given the myriad of problems the last three foreign-owned horse slaughterhoses caused on US soil and that all three were finally ordered to be shut down, partly because of public outcry against them, three states now have total bans on horse slaughter, CA, IL and TX. I imagine you would think bogus claims of free trade should trump laws and what the populace wants.

Oh and it does matter that this slaughterhouse owner couldn't humanely slaughte cows. Now he wants to try his hand at slaughtering the definitive flight animal. Temple Grandin cannot humanely slaughter horses and this twit thinks he can? By taking up his case for slaughtering horses, you're letting him hide behind a cloak of "free enterprise."

"But does the free-market really have anything to do with freedom? In reality, the free market creates freedom for a few people to oppress the rest of us. Among human beings today, it is not true that everyone wants everybody to share the wealth. Some are more greedy and powerful than others, and they dominate the 'free' market.'"

The free market is freedom for the wealthy and powerful capitalists. Under the free market, the boss can fire you for no reason. He can keep your wages low, and you can do nothing about it. He will force you to work in unsanitary and unsafe conditions.

And the free marketer that you support will slaughter animals without any adherence to, oh, you know, humane slaughter laws. It isn't too big a stretch then to see your "free marketer" paying no heed to environmental laws and jeopardizing public health and safety.

"The government gives us regulations that allow the benefits of capitalism and freedom to be enjoyed by more of the people. The government has provided minimum wage laws, anti child-labor laws, anti-discrimination and civil rights laws, consumer protection laws, the 8-hour day, laws guaranteeing the right to organize unions, the GI bill and housing assistance, public education that creates universal literacy, libraries, social security and medicare, unemployment insurance, our money and coinage, the post office, our court system, our police and fire departments, our coast guard and civil defense, disaster relief funds, anti-pollution laws, national and local parks and recreation areas, lighting and plumbing systems, the space program (which spurred the development of computers), and more.

This isn't a violation by any government official of the free market.