Preliminary Injunction Halts Enforcement of California Slaughterhouse Law

A federal court has granted the meat industry’s motion for a preliminary injunction and ordered California not to enforce a law, adopted on January 1, 2009, that would have required the immediate euthanization of nonambulatory animals in slaughterhouses regulated by the Federal Meat Inspection Act. Nat’l Meat Ass’n v. Brown, No. 08-1963 (E.D. Cal., decided February 19, 2009). The court found that the plaintiffs had a strong likelihood of success on the merits of their claim that the state law is expressly and impliedly preempted by the federal statute and that they were likely to suffer irreparable harm because some proscribed conduct is punishable by criminal fines and the state is immune from paying for other potential monetary losses. Balancing the public interests involved, the court found that the safety of the public food supply and the humane treatment of animals are adequately protected by the federal law. According to a news source, the plaintiffs will seek a permanent injunction and declaratory judgment that the state law is preempted as it pertains to non-ambulatory animals that the Food Safety and Inspection Service allows to be processed. See Meatingplace.com, February 23, 2009.