January 25, 2012

The US Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday (Jan 23) that California's ban on the sale of pork from "downer" pigs cannot be enforced due to a less stringent federal law regulates slaughterhouse inspections.

State lawmakers enacted the ban in 2008 after a Humane Society video showed immobile cows being kicked, dragged, shocked and rammed with forklifts at a warehouse in San Bernardino County. Advocates said meat from those animals was more likely to be diseased.

Federal law forbids the sale of meat from animals suffering from serious diseases, a ban that recent regulations extended to cattle that were unable to walk. But federal law allows meat sales from downer pigs and other non ambulatory animals, like sheep and goats that pass federal inspection.

Court challenges from meat processors and packers prevented the California law from taking effect. A federal appeals court upheld the California statute in 2010, but the Obama administration joined the National Meat Association in a successful Supreme Court appeal.

The high court said federal law was intended to set uniform standards for humane handling and slaughter at the nation's slaughterhouses by prohibiting states from imposing additional requirements on the slaughterhouses.

California violates that restriction because its law "regulates how slaughterhouses must deal with non ambulatory pigs on their premises," said Justice Elena Kagan in Monday's ruling. She said pork that could be sold legally elsewhere would be outlawed in California.

The ruling dismayed the Humane Society of the US, which has unsuccessfully lobbied Congress and the USDA for nationwide rules like California's.

"The meat industry has the USDA and Congress in its tight grips," said the society's president, Wayne Facelle.

Steven Wells, lawyer for the National Meat Association, said allowing a state to make its own rules "would have been very disruptive to the meat inspection system."