Mad cattlemen

If there's one thing you can't criticize about R-CALF, it's the group's devotion to the cause even in the face of virtually certain defeat:

R-CALF USA has requested that all 11 judges who sit on the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals review a ruling made by three judges on July 14 that overturned a temporary ban on young Canadian cattle imports. "The three-judge panel . . . missed or misunderstood numerous key aspects of this case," Bill Bullard, chief executive officer of R-CALF, said from Billings, Mont...

Russell Frye, R-CALF's chief lawyer, said if the Appeal Court agrees to review the case, and then rules in their favour, the border would close again to live Canadian beef.

"Probably the effect would be the preliminary injunction that had kept the USDA rule from coming into effect in March would be reinstated," Frye said from Washington, D.C.

The latter statement seems particularly optimistic on the part of R-CALF, as there's no compelling reason for the preliminary injunction to be reinstated. In essence, R-CALF will be left arguing against itself, trying to claim that the recent imports haven't done enough damage to make the injunction pointless, while at the same time claiming that future imports under precisely the same conditions would cause irreparable harm.

The article points out that 89,000 Canadian animals have already crossed the reopened border, and there's no particular reason for the court to conclude that cow #89,001 will prove fatal to the U.S. beef industry. Which means that Canadian producers should have little to worry about from the ongoing court process.