• Horse slaughtering legal in US, but public won't bite

    By Daniel Arkin, Staff Writer, NBC News

    The discovery of horse DNA in food products sold throughout Europe has set off a scandal, shaking confidence in Europe's food industry and angering consumers.

    But believe it or not, it’s actually legal to slaughter horses for human consumption in the U.S. In November 2011, Congress quietly lifted a five-year ban on funding for horse processing inspections.

    Since the ban was lifted, no horse slaughterhouses have successfully opened, according to Holly Hazard, a senior vice president at the Humane Society of the United States who tracks equine rights issues.

    “We have yet to have a new [horse processing] facility open in this country,” Hazard said, adding that attempts to open slaughterhouses in New Mexico and Missouri last year were scrapped due to public outrage.

    Related: 'Criminal conspiracy' blamed for European horse-in-burger scandal

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture has said that if a horse slaughtering plant were to open, the agency would perform inspections to ensure it complied with federal laws.

    Before Congress defunded inspections in 2007, there were just three equine processing plants in the continental U.S. -- two in Texas, one in Illinois. All three facilities were shuttered when the slaughtering ban took effect, the Associated Press reported.

    At the peak of their production powers, these slaughterhouses primarily exported horsemeat to Mexico and Canada for human consumption, Hazard said. 

    One advocate of selling horse meat said that the removal of the ban allows the horse processing industry to regain a foothold in the market.

    "Eighty percent of a $102 billion-a-year industry was directly affected when they took slaughter away," said David Duquette, president of the United Horsemen, a group that lobbied to lift the ban. 

    Duquette added that there are ongoing efforts to revive the horse meat processing industry, but declined to provide additional information about those attempts.

    Animal rights activists, meanwhile, are confident that widespread repulsion at the thought of eating horse meat will keep it out of the mainstream.

    "There are certainly communities that have considered [reviving horse slaughtering]," said Nancy Perry, a senior vice president at the ASPCA. But the vast majority of Americans -- a staggering 80 percent, according to a recent ASPCA poll -- oppose the practice, Perry said.

    'Companions and partners, not food'
    Polling data and public opinion suggest it's highly unlikely horse meat will move to the center of American culinary culture. After all, they’re the stars of beloved children’s literature, Hollywood movies, and Wild West folklore.

    “We believe horses are iconic figures in American culture,” Hazard said. “The vast majority of Americans think they’re companions and partners, not food.”

    Hazard said she’s not aware of any attempts to introduce horse meat on restaurant menus. The one exception: a proposal, in September of last year, to serve Canadian-bred horse tartare -- also known as raw horse meat -- at a museum restaurant in New York City.

    However, M. Wells Dinette's prospective menu item at MoMA PS1 was scuttled after animal rights activists and public health officials cried foul.

    The restaurant’s chef and co-owner, Hugue Dufour, released a statement after the controversy subsided defending his exotic dish.

    “We thought about serving it because we like to offer customers new things,” the statement said. “Whatever else horses are – draft animals, companions, transport – their meat is also delicious and affordable.”

    Nevertheless, most Americans still consider horse meat off-limits, although that hasn't always been the case.

    At the close of World War II, when beef was in short supply, many Americans got their protein boosts from horse meat. Republicans blamed the meat scarcity on President Truman, giving him the nickname “Horsemeat Harry.”

    During the early 1970s, beef prices went through the roof, forcing cash-strapped shoppers to buy cheap horse meat instead. The custom was so common it showed up as a subplot on a 1973 episode of the sitcom “All in the Family.”

    Harvard University’s Faculty Club reportedly served horse meat for more than 100 years before it dropped the menu item in the 1980s.

    Related:

    'Fraud on a massive scale': Europe's horse meat scandal keeps on growing

  • ASPCA to pay $9.3 million to Ringling Bros. circus over claims about elephants

    Handout / REUTERS

    Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey elephants walk early July 10 to the Staples Center in Los Angeles before performances there.

    By Jonathan Allen, Reuters

    NEW YORK - A major animal welfare group has agreed to pay $9.3 million to the owners of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus to settle a lawsuit brought in response to now-dismissed legal claims of mistreated elephants.


    The settlement, announced by the parties on Friday, removes the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, from litigation by Ringling Bros. against the Humane Society, the Animal Welfare Institute and a former elephant handler for the circus.

    The ASPCA and others originally filed suit in 2000 against Feld Entertainment, producer of the circus, accusing the Virginia-based company of mistreating the Asian elephants that perform in its shows.

    The case, which cited the Endangered Species Act, was initially dismissed.

    But an appellate court allowed the former elephant handler, Tom Rider, to pursue an individual claim that he was emotionally injured by the company's treatment of its elephants. Rider was responsible for watching over and feeding the elephants while working for the circus as a "barn man" between 1997 and 1999.

    Following a trial in 2009, a District of Columbia district court judge ruled in favor of Feld Entertainment, finding that Rider had overstated his love of elephants and was not a sufficiently credible plaintiff for the case to proceed.

    The judge declared Rider to be essentially a "paid plaintiff," finding that his only source of income during the previous eight years had been the animal-welfare groups involved in the case and media companies producing reports about it.

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    Feld Entertainment, in turn, sued the various animal welfare groups and Rider, accusing them of abuse of process, malicious prosecution and violation of federal racketeering laws through unfounded litigation.

    ASPCA President Ed Sayres said his group decided it was in its best interest to settle the dispute and that the agreement was not an admission of wrongdoing.

    "We are glad to put this matter behind us so we can focus most effectively on our life-saving work, preventing cruelty and improving the welfare of animals," he said in a statement, noting that the courts never ruled on "the merits of the elephant abuse allegations."

    Kenneth Feld, chairman of Feld Entertainment, which says its shows are seen by 30 million people a year, called the original litigation an attempt to destroy a family-owned business.

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    "Animal activists have been attacking our family, our company, and our employees for decades because they oppose animals in circuses," he said in a statement. "This settlement is a vindication ... for the dedicated men and women who spend their lives working and caring for all the animals with Ringling Bros."

    The circus currently has 45 elephants, most of which were born in captivity, and has met or exceeded legal requirements regarding the animals' welfare, company spokesman Steve Payne said.

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  • 'Ray of light': Lab chimpanzees to retire to sanctuary

    Chimpanzees at Chimp Haven in Keithville, La.

     

    By Lisa Myers and Diane Beasley, NBC News

    More than 100 chimpanzees that have lived virtually their entire lives in scientific laboratories will be sent to retire at a national sanctuary called Chimp Haven, the National Institutes of Health said Tuesday.


    “These animals have made important contributions to research to improve human health, but new technologies have reduced the need for their continued use in research,” NIH Director Francis S. Collins said in a statement.

    The 113 chimps currently live at the New Iberia Research Center at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where they’ve been used to research diseases and test and develop medicine. Most of them have never walked on grass or seen the sky without bars.  

    The NIH had previously announced that just 10 chimps from New Iberia would move to Chimp Haven in Keithville, La., with the remaining 103 being sent to Texas Biomedical Research Institute in Texas. But animal rights activists objected. After months of negotiations, the NIH, the Humane Society of the United States and Chimp Haven agreed on the plan announced Tuesday.

    “This is a ray of light for captive chimpanzees,” Humane Society President Wayne Pacelle said. 

    Dr. Linda Brent, president of Chimp Haven, hailed the plan as the result of unprecedented cooperation.

    “We look forward to continuing efforts on behalf of additional chimpanzees retired in the future,” Brent said.

    Related: Ken & Rosie: Inside chimpanzee research lab
    Related: Goodall praises NIH decision to remove some chimps from research
    Related: Beagles rescued from lab get normal homes

    Chimp Haven currently houses 106 chimps owned by the federal government. Brent said the sanctuary focuses on giving the primates relative freedom and choices they don’t have at a lab. 

    To implement the plan, Chimp Haven must raise $2.3 million to build additional enclosures. The Humane Society has agreed to donate $500,000. The New England Anti-Vivisection Society said it would provide a matching gift of $100,000.

    Ken and Rosie are 30-year-old chimpanzees that were born in research labs and have spent most of their lives in labs dedicated to finding cures for human diseases. The use of chimpanzees in invasive medical research has long been debated. Primatologists like Jane Goodall argue against the use of chimpanzees in medical research, while some researchers say testing is crucial and has saved human lives. Lisa Myers reports.

    “This group of chimpanzees has endured so much” said Kathleen Conlee, vice president of animal research issues at the Humane Society. “We hope that those who have used these animals in the past, including the pharmaceutical industry, will contribute to this effort so that the chimpanzees can now live in the sanctuary that they deserve.”

    The primates will be moved in two phases beginning in January or February. The first group of chimps will fill out existing houses at Chimp Haven. The second group will move when enough money has been raised for construction, which is expected to be finished within 12 to 15 months.

    The New Iberia primates include eight young chimps that were born in the lab and that will move to the sanctuary with their mothers.

    Four members of the chimp colony will not move on with the others, however, as veterinarians have determined they are too sick to transfer. They will live out their lives at the New Iberia lab.

    A chimp is sedated to draw blood in the effort to find a cure for Hepatitis C at Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas.

    Dr. John Pippin of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine said Chimp Haven is the retirement the chimps deserve.

    “I look forward to the day when all chimpanzees are made ineligible for experimentation and can spend their days in sanctuaries,” Pippin said. 

    The doctor said he will renew his efforts to retire another 14 chimps that were transferred two years ago to Texas Biomed from a facility in Alamogordo, N.M. They were slated to be used for hepatitis research but they have not yet been used. Pippin said they are old and have medical conditions.

    “We believe it is clear that they are not needed for research and should be retired,” he said.

    An NIH advisory committee is now developing recommendations on how to deal with hundreds of other NIH chimpanzees still in labs in light of recent findings that most current invasive research on our closest biological relative is unnecessary.

    Donations for the construction of retirement housing at Chimp Haven can be made to Chimp Haven, the Humane Society and the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health. 

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  • Piglets twirled, pigs kicked by farm workers, activist video shows

    A farm manager vows to take swift action after Humane Society cameras reveal pig abuse. KUSA's Nick McGurk reports.

    By Miguel Llanos, NBC News

    Officials are investigating allegations of animal abuse at a Wyoming pig farm after undercover video showed workers kicking pigs and tossing and twirling piglets — incidents that even a co-owner of the farm said looked like major abuses that warranted firings.


    The Wyoming Livestock Board is investigating Wyoming Premium Farms in Wheatland, Wyo., and Doug DeRouchey, a co-owner and manager of the farm, told NBC affiliate 9NEWS.com that an investigation was under way after the Humane Society of the United States released the video on Tuesday.

    "There's probably possible major abuse," he said, "and that's a termination."

    "We will not tolerate abuse," DeRouchey added. "It's just not tolerable. And we've had isolated incidents in the past — and we've terminated the people."

    Steve Keigley, sheriff for Platte County, where the farm is located, told msnbc.com that an investigation is under way and being led by the livestock board. The Humane Society provided "quite a bit of documentation," he said, adding that any charges would probably amount to a "high misdemeanor" with a maximum of several months in county jail and a fine.

    Humane Society of the United States

    A Wyoming Premium Farms worker twirls a piglet in a screen grab from the video taken by a Humane Society activist.

    A Colorado State University animal sciences professor who reviewed the video blamed management. "That was just poorly supervised employees," Temple Grandin told 9NEWS.com. "That's the kind of stuff that goes on with bad management. I've seen it over and over again."

    The Humane Society said the video was shot over 27 days last month by someone who worked there and alleged the farm was a supplier to Tyson Foods.

    The food conglomerate denied a direct connection, saying in a statement that:

    "Tyson Foods does not buy any of the hogs raised on this farm for our pork processing plants.

    "We do have a small, but separate hog buying business that buys aged sows; however, these animals are subsequently sold to other companies and are not used in Tyson's pork processing business.

    "We've seen the video and we are appalled by the apparent mistreatment of the animals. We do not condone for any reason this kind of mistreatment of animals shown in the video."

    In response, the Humane Society noted that Tyson did not deny purchasing pigs via a company it owns. The group also presented a farm statement that shows older sows were sold to that Tyson affiliate as recently as last month. 

    "Despite Tyson's misleading claims, the connection between this investigation and Tyson Foods is crystal clear," Matt Prescott, food policy director for the group, told msnbc.com.

    The video also shows hundreds of female pigs confined to "gestation crates" that prohibit them from turning around. Those are legal, but the Humane Society has lobbied food companies and supermarkets to stop buying pork from farms that use that system.

    McDonald's, Wendy's and Burger King have said they will stop buying from such farms, the Humane Society noted, and Safeway on Monday said it would do the same. Smithfield Foods and Hormel plan to phase out the crates within five years, the group added.

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  • Judge clears way for killing of salmon-gulping sea lions

    By msnbc.com news services

    Richard Clement / Reuters, file

    Sea lions rest inside an open cage on the Columbia River at the Bonneville Dam in North Bonneville, Wash., in April 2008.


    Oregon state authorities can resume killing California sea lions that feast on endangered salmon bottled up at a dam on the Columbia River, but fewer than one-third as many as federal biologists previously had authorized, a judge has ruled.

    U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg in Washington, D.C., on Thursday denied the Humane Society of the United States' request to stop the killing at the Bonneville Dam while a lawsuit challenging the program goes forward. But he limited the killing to 30 animals a year instead of the 92 authorized by federal authorities, and ordered that none of them may be shot. 

    "Obviously we are very disappointed that this program was not halted," said Sharon Young, marine issues field director of the Humane Society. "But, we are grateful that the court put some restraints on it."

    It was the group's third attempt to permanently halt the killings since they started in 2008.

    The floating traps are out and if any of the 92 California sea lions branded as regular salmon eaters are seen inside them, the gates will be sprung, and the animals killed by lethal injection, said Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Jessica Sall. She said they have no plans to shoot any animals. California sea lions that hang around the dams eating salmon, and refuse to leave despite hazing by rubber bullets and firecrackers, go on a kill list.

    Adult salmon and steelhead returning to spawn get bottled up at the fish ladders over Bonneville, located east of Portland, Ore. California sea lions, which are federally protected as marine mammals, but not as threatened or endangered species, swim about 145 miles upriver to the dam to feed on the fish in the spring.

    Since 2008, 28 sea lions have been killed and 10 placed in institutions under similar salmon-protection programs overseen by the Fisheries Service.

    The limits imposed by the judge should not pose a problem, Sall said. The department did not anticipate killing more than 30 animals in any one year. Over the past four years, only 41 have been trapped and killed or sent to a zoo or aquarium. The current authorization from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service is good for four years.

    The Humane Society lawsuit contends that the Fisheries Service erred when it decided that sea lions eating up to 4.2 percent of the fish passing over the dam amounted to a significant obstacle to the restoration of endangered salmon, when fishermen are allowed to take up to 17 percent. It adds that killing sea lions will have no effect on restoring salmon, which face a greater threat from fishermen and predation by walleye and bass introduced into the river for sport fishermen to catch.

    The department, a co-defendant in the case, counters that while sea lions kill some protected salmon, fishermen are only allowed to kill hatchery-bred fish. The department says it is able to estimate how many wild fish die after being released, and to shut down the season if necessary.

    Salmon returns to the Columbia Basin in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana have declined steadily from harm caused by dams, logging, agriculture and urban development since settlement of the region began in the 1840s. Only a small percentage of the fish are wild, with the great majority produced in hatcheries. There are 14 different types of wild salmon and steelhead in the Columbia Basin protected by the Endangered Species Act.

    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • As black bear numbers increase, so do hunts

    National Park Service via AP, file

    A mother black bear and her cub are seen along Indian Grave Gap Trail near Townsend, Tenn.

    By msnbc.com staff

    Decades after President Theodore Roosevelt triggered a Teddy bear craze, the black bear nearly went extinct.

    But as Nashville Public Radio reported, the shy creature has made such a comeback in some areas of the country, officials are debating whether to allow hunting seasons to manage their numbers.  

    In Tennessee, there were several hundred black bears in the 1970s; now there are 4,000 to 5,000, including many who have ventured out of the forest and onto people’s properties.

    Cute, yes. Cuddly, not so much.

    "We are receiving complaints from the public that say they don't want the bears there, that we need to do something to get rid of them," Daryl Ratajczak, the chief of wildlife for Tennessee's agency that oversees hunting, told WPLN News. "And we understand their feelings."

    Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland have also been debating how to manage the growing black bear population. Bears do, after all, tug at human heart strings.     

    When New Jersey officials decided to launch a fall bear hunt to cull the bear population, animal rights activists appealed to the courts and went toe-to-toe with hunters as they checked in their kills, according to NJ.com.

    In New Jersey, more than 260 black bears were hunted on the first day of a controversial, state-sponsored culling.

    "I can tell you that 20 years ago, I never saw a bear in the woods. Now, I would say I see them more than I see deer or squirrel," John Noon, 50, told the Star-Ledger. "And when you have 800-pound bears — bigger than Alaskan grizzly bears — roaming around, and you have an overpopulation of large-size bears in residential areas, that needs to be managed."

    If New Jersey state biologists determine that there are still many black bears in northwestern New Jersey, they may give a green light to a hunt next year.

    Nationwide, 28 states allow bear hunting, according to the Humane Society. Nineteen require a bear hunting license.    

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  • Widespread abuse alleged at two pig farms

    The Humane Society says this image was taken at the Seaboard Foods' pig farm in Goodwell, Okla., in late 2011. The pigs are in stalls that measure two by seven feet, a practice that had been routine until other major pork producers announced plans to do away with them.

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

    Aiming to pressure two of the largest U.S. producers of pork, one of them a Walmart supplier, into changing how they treat pigs, the Humane Society of the United States on Tuesday said it had staged undercover operations that revealed atrocious conditions.

    Alleged abuses against the animals include the use of extremely confined crates as well as the cutting off of tails and testicles with no painkillers.

    "Lame pigs, pigs with gross abscesses, torn ears and noses, and ripped genitals and piglets sickened by 'greasy pig' disease were not seen by veterinarians," the group said in a statement released along with what it said was undercover video.

    The allegations focus on two pig farms in Goodwell, Okla., one owned by Seaboard Foods and the other by Prestage Farms.

    The Humane Society also filed federal complaints against Seaboard alleging that it made false and misleading statements about treating its animals humanely.

    Seaboard has a public "Commitment to Animal Care" that states: "We are committed to proper animal care and have a moral and ethical obligation to the humane treatment of animals. We believe food animals can and should be raised, transported and processed using procedures that are safe and free from cruelty and neglect."

    On Tuesday, Seaboard posted a statement on its website saying it strongly disputed "any allegations of abuse."

    Ron Prestage, who owns Prestage Farms with his parents and siblings, told Reuters the video did not appear to show any neglect or abuse at their farm. He added that the company has initiated an internal investigation to ensure company policies are followed.

    "There is nothing for me to defend in the video. We have both systems (gestation crates and group pens) and have for years," Prestage said.

    The video shows pigs penned in cages that the Humane Society described as "so small the animals can't even turn around, rendering them virtually immobilized for their entire lives."

    The group said its undercover operatives also "found workers cutting piglets testicles and tails off with no painkiller, injured piglets with their legs duct taped to their bodies, gestation crates overflowing with feces and urine and employees hitting pigs’ genitals to force them to move from one crate to another."

    Gestation crates are stalls where female pigs are placed during pregnancy.

    STORY: Smithfield vows breathing room for pregnant pigs

    Both companies are "lagging behind" competitors like Cargill and Smithfield Foods, the Humane Society said, noting that those had recently pledged improvements such as ending the use of gestation crates by 2017.

    In its statement Tuesday, Seaboard said that its "integrated system uses both stalls and group pens to house gestating sows. Animal welfare experts and professional groups have found no one method for housing gestating sows that is clearly better than the other when managed properly."

    Prestage said that "there are times when each system has its advantages. If you have an animal that's gotten injured, it's much easier to treat them if they are in an individual crate. If they happen to be on the bottom of the pecking order, the other ones are just going to beat them up.

    "On the other hand, if there is no fighting, you might decide they are happier in a group pen," he added.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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