Resist appeals to prop up Oahu slaughterhouse

Hawaii's two largest kamaaina supermarket chains have agreed to stop selling freshly killed pork from a taxpayer-subsidized slaughterhouse on Oahu. The move could shut down island's only slaughterhouse for lack of profitability, but that would reflect supply and demand, with a significant nudge by animal rights activists. The state should refrain from intervening further after throwing good money after bad in recent years.

The possibility of the Oahu slaughterhouse surviving is questionable. Meat processors have been importing 11,000 to 14,000 live pigs a year, and 10,000 or so are butchered at the Campbell Industrial Park facility. Cattle ranchers say that since the loss of milk production on Oahu, few cattle are slaughtered at the facility, which is owned by the state and operated by Hawaii Livestock Cooperative.

A cutoff of fresh pork would be felt most in Chinatown, although, if need be, so-called hot pork could be flown in from neighbor island slaughterhouses. Leonard Oshiro, the cooperative's manager, estimates the two supermarkets' withdrawal will result in a 15 percent decline in business, causing layoffs of four of the 14 employees at the facility.

The slaughterhouse's future remains uncertain, following financial difficulties since the cooperative bought it in 2004 from Palama Meat Co. At that time, Palama had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy while facing $1.4 million in probable foreclosure; the U.S. Department of Agriculture paid the amount and still wants its money back.

The state lent the cooperative $600,000 two years ago, but the Legislature rightly rejected a bill this year that proposed spending $1.6 million to buy the facility. Russell S. Kokubun, chairman of the state Board of Agriculture, had supported the bill to buy the slaughterhouse for $600,000 and install a solar electricity system for $1 million to reduce operating costs; the state would have leased the new entity to a managing company. That idea died, but legislators did insert $750,000 to pay for the solar system. However, Gov. Neil Abercrombie has not released that money — and he should not, given the increased uncertainty for the slaughterhouse.

Privately owned slaughterhouses continue to operate in Maui, Kauai and Hawaii counties. While no slaughterhouse in the nation is operated by a state government, Kokubun points out that the facilities on Molokai and Hamakua are owned by the state and leased to private operators. Such an arrangement would be risky at Campbell Industrial Park in light of recent history.

The World Society for the Protection of Animals, supported by the Humane Society, Animal Rights Hawaii and the Animal Protection Institute, has reason to celebrate the decisions by Foodland and Times. The animal activists pointed to a report that 218 pigs died during shipment to Hawaii during a two-year period, or 1.4 percent, which is about seven times the death rate of pigs that typically die during transport within the mainland.

Foodland and Times obviously have decided that the shipment of pigs in cramped, filthy and possibly lethal containers in four- of five-day voyages from the mainland is not worth the controversy. It's up to the slaughterhouse cooperative, without taxpayer money, to decide whether a smaller operation can survive.