Brown

This is an interlocutory appeal from a preliminary injunction prohibiting the enforcement of California Penal Code § 599f, which bans the slaughter and inhumane handling of nonambulatory animals, against federally regulated swine slaughterhouses.

I

On January 30, 2008, The Humane Society released a video depicting images of nonambulatory cows — cows that are unable to stand or walk without assistance- — • being kicked, electrocuted, dragged with chains and rammed with forklifts at California’s Westland/Hallmark slaughterhouse. Footage also showed some workers trying to get nonambulatory cows to stand by spraying pressurized water into their noses to simulate drowning. Public health professionals warned that meat from these “downer” cows was more likely to be diseased, partly because animals can become nonambulatory due to disease and partly because downer animals grow sicker as they end up rolling around in other animals’ refuse. The video triggered the largest beef recall in United States history.

California responded by amending California Penal Code § 599f to provide that:

Cal. Pen. Code § 599f. Together these provisions: (1) ban the receipt and slaughter of downer animals,…