No changes involving animals came about in Colorado elections

FOOD SAFETY NEWS – On Tuesday, three of nine ballot issues Denver voters had to decide dealt with animals and animal products. But nothing changed because all of them were slaughtered at the ballot box.

One of the ballot issues called for prohibiting any slaughterhouse from operating in the City or County of Denver. That would have applied only to Superior Farms, the last remaining slaughterhouse in the Mile High City.

Superior Farms produces as much as 20 percent of the nation’s lamb meat. Had it been forced to close, the Regional Economic Institute at Colorado State University (CSU) figured $861 million in current economic activity and 2,787 jobs would be lost.

The employee-owned Superior Farms is one of only a few lamb processors in the United States.

Mainly because of Superior Farms, Colorado has 21 USDA-inspected sheep and lamb slaughter facilities with an annual capacity of 400,000, with Superior accounting for 300,000.

Industry opposed the Denver ballot measure by $729,000 compared to $3543,000 spent by the animal activists.

Only 35.44 percent of Denver voters supported the proposed ban. The remaining 64.56 percent of No votes may have been persuaded by city Democrats who opposed Ordinance 309 as a job killer at an employee-owned business. Also, some chefs with Lamb on their menu wondered what activists might want to remove next.

Those who called for the ban did roll out a video of Superior’s process, but Temple Grandin, an expert in humane treatment of livestock for slaughter, was unconcerned by it.

Ordinance 308 did only slightly better. Only 42.03 percent voted to ban fur products. Hats and fishing flies, have long used fur products that 308 sought to ban.

Then, there was Proposition 127 on the Colorado State ballot. It would have banned the regulated hunting of mountain lions and bobcats.

Individuals or Parks and Wildlife officials could still remove big cats that became a threat.

The opposition vote to Prop 127 was close to 60 percent on the day after Election Day.

Meanwhile, Superior Farms, which has been in business since the 1950s, does not have to close. It will continue to ship lamb to most Colorado restaurants and grocery stores and to customers across the West.