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  • From: su do <speakingbeareturns@yahoo.com>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Did anyone hear about this?
  • Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2008 18:58:12 -0800 (PST)

Video: Humane Society slaughterhouse investigation
(WARNING: Graphic
content)
<http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-humane31jan31_hl,0,5947748.hyperlink>

- - - -

U.S. probes Chino slaughterhouse, supplier to school
lunch program

Sick animals were abused to get them to stand up to
pass inspection,
undercover video shows. Use of meat from 'downer' cows
is banned.

By Sarah D. Wire
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
January 31, 2008
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-humane31jan31,0,6750146.story


WASHINGTON --- The U.S. Department of Agriculture
announced Wednesday
that it was investigating a Chino-based supplier of
meat to the National
School Lunch Program after release of a video showing
slaughterhouse
workers using inhumane and illegal practices on weak
and sick cows.

The video, presented by the Humane Society of the
United States at a
news conference Wednesday morning, showed workers at
Hallmark Meat
Packing using forklifts to pick up and roll animals
too weak to stand
and forcing sick or weak cows to stand by shooting
high-pressure water
sprays into their nostrils or repeatedly shocking them
with electricity.

Federal and California laws prohibit the slaughter of
"downer" cattle --
those that cannot stand or walk -- for the human food
supply, to prevent
both animal cruelty and the consumption of meat from
unhealthy animals.

Meat processed at Hallmark is distributed by Westland
Meat Co., also of
Chino. According to the USDA, Westland sold 27 million
pounds of frozen
meat last year to federal food and nutrition programs,
including those
that provide school lunches and meals for the poor and
elderly. Nearly 8
million pounds of that meat went to programs in
California; of that
amount, more than 5.7 million pounds was used in the
Los Angeles area.

The Humane Society said the hidden-camera video was
taken by a person
who worked at the plant for six weeks last year as
part of an undercover
investigation by the group. Within hours of the
video's release, the
USDA suspended Westland's participation in the food
and nutrition
programs and placed a hold on all products destined
for the programs.

Steve Mendell, president and chief executive officer
of both Westland
and Hallmark, was meeting Wednesday afternoon with
USDA officials and
was not available for comment. The company released a
statement in his
name saying it had "taken immediate action to
terminate the two
employees and suspend their supervisor pending his
explanation."

The USDA inspects animals ready for slaughter at
Hallmark in the morning
and afternoon. Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane
Society, told the
news conference that the abuse took place before the
inspector arrived
at the slaughterhouse in the morning.

The undercover investigation found workers using
"Herculean efforts to
get 'downers' into the kill box," Pacelle said.

"The attempt was to make them so distressed and to
cause them so much
suffering that these animals would get up and walk
into the
slaughterhouse," he said. "If they could walk past
[the inspector] or
even just stand, they would pass."

Westland's general manager, Anthony Magidow, said the
workers' actions
on the video do not reflect the company's standard
practices. He said
the slaughterhouse was audited monthly by the USDA and
a private firm to
monitor employee practices.

"We got on this the moment we found out," Magidow
said. The company
obtained the video Tuesday after the Washington Post
reported its existence.

Magidow said the employees shown in the video had
worked in the
slaughterhouse for many years and "felt they knew how
to handle these
animals better than we do."

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer issued a news
release late
Wednesday expressing confidence in the food inspection
system, while
adding that he was "deeply concerned" about the Humane
Society's
allegations. But he faulted the society, which he said
"did not present
this information to us when these alleged violations
occurred in the
fall of 2007. Had we known at the time the alleged
violations occurred,
we would have initiated our investigation sooner and
taken appropriate
actions at that time."

In response, the society said it had turned over the
results of its
investigation to the "appropriate California law
enforcement officials."

Local authorities, the society said, had asked for
"extra time" before
the information became public.

The USDA banned the use of "downer" cows for slaughter
in 1989 after
bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, began to
spread across the
United Kingdom.

Regulations were tightened in 2003 after a cow with
BSE was identified
in Washington state.

Studies by several universities have shown a
correlation between
"downer" cows and those with BSE, popularly known as
mad cow disease.

Of the 15 cases of mad cow disease found in North
America -- most of
them in Canada -- 12 have been from "downer" cows.
Although it is rare,
people can contract a form of the disease by eating
meat from cows with BSE.

"By allowing 'downers' in our food supply, we are
putting consumers at
risk," said Dr. Michael Greger, the Humane Society's
director of public
health and animal agriculture.

"The American food supply is safe, but it could be
safer. We wouldn't be
raising the food safety issue if it wasn't an issue."

sarah.wire@...

*

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