Judge Christina Armijo of Federal District Court issued a restraining order in a lawsuit brought by the Humane Society of the United States and other groups in a case that has set off an emotional national debate about how best to deal with the tens of thousands of unwanted and abandoned horses across the country.
Judge Armijo scheduled another hearing for Monday in the lawsuit. The move stops what would have been the resumption of horse slaughters for the first time in seven years in the United States.
The groups contend the Department of Agriculture failed to do the proper environmental studies before issuing permits that allowed the companies to open horse slaughterhouses, which they had said they planned to open as soon as Monday.
The horse meat would be exported for human consumption and for use as zoo and other animal food.
The Valley Meat Company of Roswell, N.M., has been at the fore of the fight, pushing for more than a year for permission to convert its cattle plant into a horse slaughterhouse.
The Agriculture Department in June gave the company the go-ahead to begin slaughtering horses. Federal officials said they were legally obligated to issue the permits, even though the Obama administration opposes horse slaughter and is seeking to reinstate a Congressional ban that was lifted in 2011.
Another permit was later approved for Responsible Transportation in Sigourney, Iowa.
The move has divided horse rescue and animal welfare groups, ranchers, politicians and American Indian tribes about what is the most humane way to deal with the country’s horse overpopulation.
Some American Indian tribes, including the Navajo and Yakama nations, are among those who are pushing to let the companies open. They say the exploding horse populations on their reservations are trampling and overgrazing rangelands, decimating forage resources for cattle and causing environmental damage.
On the other side, the actor Robert Redford, former Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, current Gov. Susana Martinez and the attorney general, Gary King, are among those who strongly oppose a return to domestic horse slaughter, citing the animals’ longtime role as companion animals in the West.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/03/business/federal-judge-halts-plans-to-start-horse-slaughters.html?partner=rss&emc=rss