NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
New pen may allow sale of horses for slaughter
U.S. Forest Service
builds corral in
California to bypass
federal restrictions
pleasant,” Justice Depart-
ment lawyers representing
the agency wrote in its most
recent filing last month.
“The Forest Service is tak-
ing a step to reduce what is
universally recognized as a
natural catastrophe.”
Horse advocates have
been suing the government
for two decades over mus-
tang roundups that private
ranchers say are necessary
to curb growing herds that
reduce the forage on federal
lands they lease for cattle
and sheep grazing across the
U.S. West. The region holds
roughly 90,000 wild horses.
A sharp reduction in
demand in recent years for
a federal program that offers
the horses for adoption to the
public has left little room in
existing corrals. Horse advo-
cates argue the mustangs are
federally protected and that
taxpayers subsidize the live-
stock grazing on U.S. land.
A hearing is scheduled
Jan. 31 in federal court in
San Francisco on a motion
filed by the Animal Legal
Defense Fund and American
Wild Horse Campaign seek-
ing an injunction to block the
sale of the horses captured
in the Modoc National For-
est in October and Novem-
ber for possible slaughter.
The new pen is in the forest,
about 170 miles northwest
of Reno.
By SCOTT SONNER
Associated Press
RENO, Nev. — The U.S.
Forest Service has built a
new corral for wild horses in
Northern California, which
could allow it to bypass fed-
eral restrictions and sell the
animals for slaughter.
The agency acknowl-
edged in court filings in a
potentially precedent-setting
legal battle that it built the
pen for mustangs gathered
in the fall on national for-
est land along the Califor-
nia-Nevada border because
of restrictions on such sales
at other federal holding
facilities.
The agency denies claims
by horse advocates it has
made up its mind to sell the
more than 250 horses for
slaughter. But it also says it
may have no choice because
of the high cost of housing
the animals and continued
ecological impacts it claims
overpopulated herds are
having on federal rangeland.
“While slaughtering wild
horses does not present a
pleasant picture, the reality
of this dire situation is not
AP Photo/Scott Sonner, File
In this June 5, 2013, file photo, some of the hundreds of mustangs the U.S. Bureau of Land
Management removed from federal rangeland peer at visitors at the BLM’s Palomino Valley
holding facility about 20 miles north of Reno in Palomino Valley, Nev.
Forest Service Chief Vicki
Christiansen announced late
last year she would postpone
any sales for slaughter until
at least Feb. 18.
The protection groups
say it would be the first time
in nearly a half-century the
government has sold mus-
tangs “without limitation,”
or for any purpose, includ-
ing slaughter.
TODAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
A p.m. rain or snow
shower
Cloudy with a little
rain
Cloudy
Mostly cloudy with
a little rain
Mostly cloudy with
a little rain
38° 32°
43° 37°
38° 31°
42° 35°
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
45° 37°
52° 42°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
53° 39°
49° 40°
51° 43°
OREGON FORECAST
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
48/42
40/34
38/29
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
39/33
Lewiston
48/40
38/32
Astoria
50/44
Pullman
Yakima 38/32
47/36
43/34
Portland
Hermiston
46/40
The Dalles 38/31
Salem
Corvallis
45/40
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
41/37
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
47/42
42/34
45/41
Ontario
39/33
Caldwell
Burns
33°
32°
41°
28°
63° (1961) -10° (1950)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Albany
46/40
Today
Thu.
NE 4-8
ENE 4-8
N 3-6
NNE 4-8
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
53/39
Trace
0.18"
0.62"
0.18"
0.43"
0.62"
WINDS (in mph)
43/37
38/31
0.00"
0.12"
0.81"
0.12"
0.53"
0.81"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 39/33
48/40
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
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HERMISTON
Enterprise
38/32
39/34
29°
27°
41°
27°
68° (1974) -8° (1907)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
48/36
Aberdeen
37/30
34/30
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
51/43
of wild horses. Congress
approved an appropriations
amendment in 2004 that
allows the Forest Service,
under its parent Agriculture
Department, to sell horses
without limitations if they’re
over age 10 and have been
offered for adoption three
times unsuccessfully.
But in most years since
then, Congress has specifi-
Senators ask FDA to update
rules on certain pot products
Forecast for Pendleton Area
51° 40°
Horse slaughterhouses
are prohibited in the U.S.
but legal in many other
countries, including Canada,
Mexico and parts of Europe
where horse meat is consid-
ered a delicacy.
The Wild Free Roam-
ing Horse and Burros Act
that President Nixon signed
into law in 1971 prohibits
the inhumane destruction
cally prohibited the Bureau
of Land Management, under
the Interior Department,
from using any appropri-
ations for such purposes.
President Donald Trump
proposed allowing such
sales in his 2017 budget,
but Congress refused to go
along.
The Forest Service nor-
mally holds the horses it
gathers at pens belonging
to the BLM, which man-
ages 385,000 square miles
of public lands in the West.
With few exceptions,
lawsuits have targeted the
bureau because it captures
the vast majority of the
horses. BLM lands hold
an estimated 83,000 wild
horses, while national for-
ests managed by the Forest
Service hold about 8,000.
The Forest Service gath-
ered 932 horses in the
Modoc National Forest late
last year and shipped about
260 to the new corral, while
placing about 650 at a BLM
facility in nearby Susanville,
California.
Justice Department law-
yers acknowledged in the
December filings “BLM is
not permitted to humanely
destroy healthy, unadopted
horses or conduct any sale
that could ultimately result
in their destruction, which
includes any Forest Service
horse in BLM custody.”
By ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press
SALEM — Oregon’s two
senators on Tuesday urged
the head of the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration to
update federal regulations to
permit interstate commerce
of food products containing a
key non-psychoactive ingre-
dient of cannabis.
The appeal by Sens. Ron
Wyden and Jeff Merkley
came after Congress legal-
ized the production and sale
of industrial hemp and hemp
derivatives, including can-
nabidiols, known as CBD.
Wyden and Merkley had
been behind a hemp provi-
sion that Congress passed
and was included in the 2018
Farm Bill.
But after President Don-
ald Trump signed the bill in
December, FDA Commis-
sioner Scott Gottlieb restated
his agency’s stance that CBD
is a drug ingredient and there-
fore illegal to add to food or
health products without his
agency’s approval. The FDA
has sent warning letters to
some companies making
health claims for CBD.
In a letter to Gottlieb,
the senators asked the FDA
to update “outdated regu-
lations” that prohibit food
products containing CBD
from being sold across state
lines.
“Farmers in Oregon and
nationwide are poised to
make real economic gains for
their communities once these
regulations are updated,”
they wrote. They said it was
Congress’ intent in the bill
to ensure producers and
consumers have access to
hemp-derived
products,
including CBDs.
The Oregon Democrats
asked the agency to clarify
to the public several issues,
including its authority in the
production and marketing of
hemp and its derivatives, and
whether the FDA will con-
sider issuing a regulation to
allow hemp derivatives in
food, beverages or dietary
supplements that cross state
lines.
CBD oils are increasingly
popular in lotions, tinctures
and foods. Proponents say
CBD offers health benefits,
including relieving pain and
anxiety.
Scientists note there
have been few comprehen-
sive clinical studies on how
CBD affects humans. Har-
vard Medical School said the
strongest scientific evidence
is for its effectiveness in
treating childhood epilepsy
syndromes that typically
don’t respond to anti-sei-
zure medications. The FDA
recently approved the first
ever cannabis-derived medi-
cine for these conditions that
contains CBD.
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
45/33
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
7:32 a.m.
4:38 p.m.
12:53 p.m.
2:32 a.m.
Full
Last
New
First
Jan 20
Jan 27
Feb 4
Feb 12
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 70° in Marathon, Fla. Low -39° in Antero Reservoir, Colo.
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
BRIEFLY
Contagious kids with measles
at Portland airport
Tri-Cities groups pushing
support for Snake River dams
VANCOVUER, Wash. (AP) — County
health officials in southwest Washington
state are warning people who may have
crossed paths recently with unvaccinated
children contagious with measles at the
Portland International Airport in Oregon.
KATU-TV reports that the Clark County
Public Health department said the two chil-
dren — one a young child and the other an
adolescent — are known to have visited
Concourse D and the Delta Sky Lounge at
the Portland airport on January 7 and the
Church of Truth in Vancouver on January 6.
Anyone who may have been exposed
and is experiencing symptoms should con-
tact health officials to contain the spread of
the infection.
Symptoms include fever, cough, runny
nose, red eyes and rash.
There is one other confirmed case of
measles in the county, and also 11 other sus-
pected cases.
KENNEWICK, Wash. (AP) — A plan
to spend $750,000 of state taxpayer money
to study the impacts of tearing down four
dams on the lower Snake River is not sit-
ting well with Tri-Cities area supporters of
the dams.
They’ve drafted a letter to Washington
Gov. Jay Inslee saying the study would be
a waste.
The Tri-City Herald reports the lat-
est push to remove the dams is tied to the
decline of killer whales off the Washington
coast. The orcas rely on chinook salmon,
including from the Snake River, for most of
their food.
Opponents say the study proposed by the
governor duplicates federal studies.
The letter is intended to highlight the
benefits of the hydroelectric dams, which
are located in eastern Washington, and
about 17 local governments and agencies
are expected to sign on.
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