McCloy v. United States Department of Agriculture

PAUL KELLY, JR., Circuit Judge,

dissenting.

The court adopts the USDA’s position that an owner is liable regardless of knowledge or fault for a sore horse. See Crawford v. USDA 50 F.3d 46, 50-51 (D.C.Cir.1995). In so doing, the court ignores the language of the statute and does not consider the language as a whole and rejects an interpretation that would require the USDA to prove that the owner is somehow responsible for the soring, either by authorizing, condoning, or remaining deliberately ignorant about it. See Lewis v. Sec’y of Agric., 73 F.3d 312, 315-16 (11th Cir.1996); Baird v. USDA 39…