If they can't legislate they'll sue!

In another demonstration showing the anti's disregard for public policy, animal rights groups have sued to prevent the USDA from inspecting horse carcasses for processing. The problem is that the inspections were taking place per fee to the slaughterhouse after funding for the inspectors salaries were cut by a conservative congress that seems to bow to every liberal demand. Read more here.

The problem with this is it sets a precedent against free market. If people are willing to pay for horsemeat, there will be a producer. If the producers are willing to pay to have the meat inspected--there will be inspectors regardless if the government is footing the inspection bills. However, this attempt to prevent a lawful business from obtaining proper health inspections is a blatant disregard for the law. Congress removed funding for the inspectors but did not block payed inspections.

Lets consider the situation. These horse are treated well as livestock for a specific purpose, providing meat. Many of these horses are past their prime for the purpose for which they were bred. The alternative to slaughter is to relocate the horses to non-profit shelters? Show me the space and where the money is coming from! I suspect if the anti groups are able to prevent payed inspections that we will see a decrease in the quality of these horses lives and a decrease in living conditions coincident with increased abuse. I am sure the horses will be much happier in poor, abused living conditions. Maybe they will have to be destroyed due to a lack of money for care. Then they become a wasted resource. This is a much worse fate as we are not honoring the animal by at least utilizing it as a resource.

For those who are involved in the suit due to your homes' proximity to a slaughter house and are claiming reduced property values; I say, everywhere is going to have detracting values, yes some are worse than others, but we all have a choice. If you don't like where you live, sell your house (if at a loss it is part of the risk of investment, here in Ann arbor we are facing a market that is about to adjust down in value about 20 percent), move somewhere else. The problem is that undesirable buildings (prisons, slaughter houses, mega markets) can be built anywhere, again this is the risk of owning a home. If you aren't willing to take this risk, RENT.