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Battle Over Ban on Canadian Cattle Moves into Seattle Court

Posted on: Friday, 15 July 2005, 00:00 CDT

Jul. 14--The battle over an injunction banning Canadian cattle imports took center stage in Seattle yesterday as U.S. government attorneys argued in federal appeals court that Canadian cows pose little or no risk of mad-cow disease and that the ban should be lifted.

Department of Justice attorney Mark Stern told a panel of three judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that no one in the United States or Canada has died from the human form of mad-cow disease.

"There is no measurable risk to human health at all," Stern said.

The ban was first issued after a cow in Alberta, Canada, tested positive in May 2003 for bovine spongiform encephalopathy -- more commonly known as mad-cow disease. A second infected cow, imported from Canada, was identified near Yakima in December 2003.

The government moved to lift the Canadian cattle ban in March 2004, arguing that safeguards were in place to protect consumers.

Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund (R-CALF), a ranchers and consumers group based in Billings, Mont., then sued to keep the ban.

U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull of Montana issued a temporary injunction in favor of R-CALF.

The government appealed, leading to yesterday's hearing.

Bill Bullard, chief executive officer of R-CALF, said the U.S. Department of Agriculture moved too quickly and tried to implement unsatisfactory safety guidelines when trying to lift the ban last year.

"This disease is not a disease that we should be complacent about," Bullard said in an interview. "We are directly challenging the USDA's authority to implement these rules."

The judges did not immediately rule on the appeal yesterday.

Cowboy hats, jeans and belt buckles replaced the usual courtroom attire as more than 100 ranchers, beef producers, lawyers and reporters filled two courtrooms, including one arranged for the overflow crowd.

Before the ban, Washington state feedlots and meat producers frequently imported Canadian cattle for the U.S. market.

Wes Matlock said he and other ranchers from the Cattle Producers of Washington began driving from the eastern part of the state late Tuesday night to attend yesterday's hearing.

"The issues that we're talking about threaten our livelihood," said Matlock, who lives in Stevens County and owns about 100 cows. He said many of the ranches are a stone's throw from the Canadian border and that lifting the importation ban would hurt those operators because of increased competition from cheaper Canadian cattle.

But Washington feedlot owners have a different view.

Cody Easterday owns a feedlot outside Pasco and said he sells between 30,000 and 35,000 cattle each year. Many of his cattle came from Canada before the ban.

"The real fact here is the economic impact of what will happen if the border stays closed," Easterday said. Without imports, he said, meat processors will reduce their buying in the Northwest because production is reduced.

"It's going to be economically devastating," he said.

Darrell Mark, livestock-marketing specialist at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, said that may be true. Some meat producers have already closed and many have had laid off workers since the 2003 ban.

Canadian cattle comprised less than 4 percent of cattle -- about 1.25 million head -- slaughtered in the United States in 2003 before the ban, Mark said.

The ban has cost the Canadian beef industry about $7 billion in the past two years.

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Source: The Seattle Times

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