06/06/05 Border injunction appeal to be in Seattle

American Rancher June 6, 2005 The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court will hear USDA' appeal of that preliminary injunction against the rule opening the border to live Canadian cattle in Seattle July 13th. That's just two weeks before R-CALF USA's underlying lawsuit against the rule will be heard before federal Judge Richard Cebull in Montana. Meanwhile a coalition of cattle producer and consumer groups organized by an offshoot of the Organization for Competitive Markets has filed a friend of the court brief urging the Ninth Circuit to reject USDA's border rule on live cattle. Supporters of that effort include the Cattle Producers of Washington and the Oregon Livestock Producers Association. Attorney for the coalition David Domina alleges that it's almost a statistical certainty that BSE will be vectored into the U.S. cattle herd within one year if Canadian live cattle are allowed into the country. Domina: "I say that because the Canadian incidence rate of BSE and the cattle import numbers produce this mathematically inescapable conclusion." Domina suggested this could occur because blood from potentially infected Canadian cattle can still be fed to U.S. livestock. The National Cattlemen's Beef Association quickly responded to the comments made by the coalition saying that claiming BSE is transmitted through the blood of infected cattle is not based on fact and that members of the coalition like Public Citizen and the Center for Food Safety are activist anti-meat and anti-beef groups. The coalition also includes the National Farmers Union and the National Farmers Organization. I'm Bob Hoff.