A proposal in Congress to ban the transportation of horses in double-deck trailers would place "undue burden on rodeo operators across Montana and the country," says Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.
Baucus has joined a chorus of opposition to the provision, which is part of the Senate's proposed Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Enhancement Act of 2011. The law, hailed by animal welfare groups, including the U.S. Humane Society, was approved Friday by the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
In a letter sent last month to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Baucus said the ban would unfairly zero in on rodeo contractors.
"Put simply, we need common-sense policies in place to achieve safe conditions on our roads that don't include arbitrary bans on trailers that our constituents rely on," Baucus wrote. "Rodeo operators in particular have a need for trailers that are specially adapted for their hauling purposes."
Senate Bill 1950, sponsored by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., was spurred by a spike in truck accident fatalities, even as motor vehicle accidents in general have declined. The bill came out of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee in December as part of the committee's contribution to the transportation reauthorization bill, otherwise known as the highway bill.
It proposes, in part, to levy a fine of $100 to $500 per horse transported "in a motor vehicle containing two or more levels stacked on top of each other."
Congress prohibited in 2006 the use of double-decker trailers to transport horses directly to slaughter, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture tightened up a loophole concerning the "directly" part last fall.
The USDA has voiced support for a broader ban, but Baucus called the idea "regulation for regulation's sake."
Horses helped settle Montana, he argued, and they remain important today for transportation, work, recreation and competition such as rodeos.
"Rodeos are an important part of our Western culture and the local economies in which they are held," Baucus said, adding that most stock contractors use "specially modified double-deck trailers to safely haul horses, bulls, steers and calves to the events."
Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., joined Lautenberg in introducing the proposed ban last June. Kirk referred to an accident he witnessed in Wadworth, Ill., in 2007, when a double-decker tractor trailer carrying 59 Belgian draft horses crashed, mangling the trailer and killing 15 of the horses.
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Proponents of the ban say double-deck trailers were designed to haul smaller animals such as cattle, hogs and sheep. The taller horses can't comfortably raise or lower their heads for balance.
In addition, the steep and narrow metal ramps can cause horses to slip and fall, and horses are "forced to jump down into a narrow opening leading to the bottom deck." Injuries "often" result, they say.
"Besides being an inhumane way to transport horses, double-deck trailers pose a major safety threat to the drivers of the imbalanced, oversized vehicles, as well as to other motorists," Kirk said in published reports last year. "Unfortunately, crashes due to these factors have occurred, and the results of the accidents are devastating."
But a coalition of agriculture groups echoed Baucus' opposition. The National Chicken Council, National Turkey Federation and National Pork Producers Council were among those to join the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and Professional Rodeo Stock Contractors Association in a letter to the House Committee on Transportation in January.
"We are very concerned that Congress prohibiting one form of transportation for one species will set a dangerous precedent for Congress to establish transportation prohibitions for all livestock," the groups wrote. "Furthermore, it is very dangerous for Congress to make laws prohibiting or restricting well-established industry practices without first consulting with the affected industry."
Doug Datisman, foreman at the Missoula Livestock Exchange, said older double-deck stock trailers often leave insufficient head room for horses.
"You don't see them a lot any more," Datisman said. "I'm going to say in the last 10 to 15 years the trailers have gotten big enough where you can double-deck the tallest animals, on the nose and on the tail end, which you used to not be able to do. They've made them as tall as they can now, legally, so it's a lot better."
