with Horse and Hound

November 5, 2013

Temporary Injunction Delays Resumption of Horse Slaughter

On Monday, November 4, a federal appeals court granted an emergency request by animal rights groups to temporarily block the expected reopening of horse slaughter plants in the U.S. After eleven years, horse slaughter was expected to resume as early as this week after a U.S. District judge in New Mexico last Friday threw out a lawsuit brought by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and other animal protection groups. The lawsuit by HSUS et al alleged that the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), responsible for inspection of processing plants, failed to carry out environmental reviews before granting approval to the three companies scheduled to resume slaughter. The district judge in New Mexico dismissed the suit on Friday, clearing the way for horse processing to resume. HSUS et al responded on Monday, in their emergency request to the 10th Circuit, by arguing that an emergency injunction was necessary to prevent environmental harm. A two-judge panel granted the request. The anticipated resumption of horse slaughter was enabled mainly by a General Accounting Office (GAO) report to Congress that their 2006 legislation resulting in the closing of all horse processing plants in this country actually turned out to be detrimental to horse welfare. For more details, click to read Terry Baynes’s Reuters article. Posted November 5, 2013
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Leith Griswold, Matriarch of Maryland Hunting Family

Leith Symington Griswold, matriarch of a Maryland riding and foxhunting family, died at the age of ninety-seven, on Tuesday, October 29, 2013 at her home in Monkton. Her favorite sport was foxhunting, and she hunted not only in Maryland, but in England and Ireland as well. It was in Ireland at Molly Cusack-Smith’s Bermingham House in Tuam, County Galway where I met her and her late husband Benjamin Griswold III. Joan and I stayed there for our hunting holidays, as did the Griswold family, who all hunted enthusiastically. I remember her for her utter charm and self-possession in any situation. Ultimately, Leith and Ben purchased an old rectory in County Tipperary, where she raised roses and pursued her other passion of gardening. She was a founding trustee of the Ladew Topiary Gardens in Maryland and was honored by the Garden Club of America for her work. Leith suffered a riding accident in 1979 and switched her equine attentions to steeplechasing. Her horses won major races including the Maryland Hunt Cup. Leith was the daughter of industrialist/sportsman John Fife Symington and Arabella Hambleton Symington. She graduated from the Bryn Mawr School and attended the Peabody Conservatory of Music. She also attended a school in Rome, spoke French and Italian, and traveled extensively in those countries. Click for Jacques Kelly’s tribute in the Baltimore Sun. Posted November 5, 2013
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