Otter, Simpson voted no on bill to keep 'downers' out of food voted no on bill to bar 'downers'

Idaho Statesman
Decembr 31, 2003

Idaho rancher and lawmaker says he welcomes ban

The federal government on Tuesday banned the slaughter for human consumption of so-called downer cows.
A similar ban failed to make it through Congress last summer when Idaho´s two Congressmen, Mike Simpson and C.L. "Butch" Otter, voted against it.

Opponents like Otter and U.S. Sen. Larry Craig said they believed an across-the-board ban on slaughtering downer cattle for human consumption would eliminate stock that is suitable for consumption - animals with broken legs, for example.

"Certainly, downer cows that do not have mad cow ought to be allowed to at least be turned into ground meat," Craig told the Twin Falls Times-News in a telephone interview Monday, the day before the Bush administration announced the rule change.

Efforts to reach members of the delegation on Tuesday were unsuccessful.

Simpson and Otter were in the narrow majority that defeated a ban on downer cows last July. The ban was approved by the Senate on an unrecorded voice vote but then dropped during negotiations on the federal budget.

Otter´s spokesman, Mark Warbis, said Otter, a beef producer himself, didn´t vote for the ban because of its "all-or-nothing approach," in which any livestock that was unable to walk could not be salvaged for slaughter.

"You might have a perfectly healthy calf with an injured leg that cannot walk unassisted at a slaughterhouse," Warbis said.

But retired Twin Falls veterinarian Charles Lenkner supported the unequivocal ban.

"Those who have not had the opportunity to do a post-mortem on a Holstein that has lain around, flopped around, crawled around on hard dirt or concrete or even mud for a few days may not appreciate the tissue damage done just by weight and pressure," Lenkner said.

And while Idaho´s elected officials in Congress seemed cool to the new ban, it gave politician-rancher Bruce Newcomb exactly what he wanted.

"Ranchers would never do that," said Newcomb, a Republican and speaker of the Idaho House of Representatives who runs a cattle ranch in south-central Idaho. "When I get a downer cow, I put a bullet in her."

Typically downer cows that can no longer walk are old dairy cows whose meat can bring dairy farmers a little extra revenue. The USDA estimates that 130,000 are brought to slaughterhouses nationwide every year, and those showing symptoms of mad cow disease are tested.

State statistics were not available on the number of Idaho dairies sending downer cows to slaughter for human consumption, but veterinarian Bill Stouder of Wendell said the number is minimal.

Newcomb believes the ban should extend to cows with high temperatures or other symptoms of illness as well.