Tortured cows

[bobquasit]

I'm very upset about the torture of cows that was revealed today in the news. The Humane Society released a videotape which was made secretly at the Hallmark Meat Packing Co. in California. It shows workers torturing "downed" cows to get them to walk before being slaughtered.

Here's a link to the video, but please be aware that this is EXTREMELY GRAPHIC CONTENT:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWmAJlwLnQI

Teri and I are VERY upset about this. We need to do something about it.

I'm also very concerned that this may only be the tip of the iceberg; it's my understanding that over the past seven years the FDA's inspection and enforcement budget has been slashed to the bone, and lobbyists from the meat industry have been placed fully in charge of the meat-regulating role of the FDA. The Bush administration has done the same thing in virtually every OTHER industry...so what ELSE is going on that we don't know about?

I'm just sick about this. It kills me that most of that meat has already been eaten, and that the majority of it was for SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAMS and poor families. I'm damned sured that Bush and everyone else who made a buck off all of this eat only the healthiest, most carefully-inspected beef...right this minute I want every single one of them to be treated the way those poor cows were.

Comments

[audacian.livejournal.com]

If you haven't read Fast Food Nation, now might be a good time. The meat lobby is absolutely gross, worse than you could possibly imagine.

[bobquasit.livejournal.com]

I asked a question about this over on Askville. Since it might be deleted, I'm copying it here.

http://askville.amazon.com/Animal-torture-slaughterhouses/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=8161373&nc=0


"Animal torture in slaughterhouses - what will you do?"


Topics: animals, health, federal government, food, ground beef, cruelty
Asked by: ->Peter - 2 mins ago ( make me anonymous)


Details:


The Humane Society just released a videotape which was made secretly at the Hallmark Meat Packing Co. in California. It shows workers torturing "downed" cows to get them to walk before being slaughtered.

Here's a link to the video. Please be aware that this is EXTREMELY GRAPHIC CONTENT:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWmAJlwLnQI

143 million lbs. of meat from that slaughterhouse have been recalled, but most of that meat has already been eaten. It was primarily sold for school lunch programs and to poor families. Were you aware of this? Should it take a private organization to discover this massive abuse of animals and violation of food safety?

Over the past seven years the FDA's inspection and enforcement budget was slashed to the bone, and lobbyists from the meat industry were placed in charge of the meat-regulating role of the FDA.

What else do you think might be happening to our food and health that we don't know about? What will you do about it - if anything?

[mom-o-cass.livejournal.com]

it's stories like that that make me not eat a lot of meat in general. i am so saddened and sickened by this and i agree with you and Teri 100%.

[donnad.livejournal.com]

They just had a news story on the channel 7 news at noon about this, they did say that originally they were told that none of the meat was distributed in New England, but now they have learned that some of it went to the Rhode Island School system. They said they were hold meat in a warehouse in RI. They didn't say if any of it has been consumed by RI school children.

I am a meat eater, I like my steak, and cows are raised specifically to be meat in many cases (except when they are dairy cows.) But there is such a thing as humane euthanization. They do not need to torture those poor beasts just because they are on their way to slaughter anyway.

[unquietsoul5.livejournal.com]

The Food Supply is less than 1% inspected by the government. We are almost as bad off as the days of Upton Sinclair's Jungle. There just aren't enough inspectors and enough time for them to do their jobs. To get the food supply even near what it should be in regards to inspection of meats and imports under the current laws and regulations (never mind anything else) would take them hiring 10 times as many inspectors as they have now.

Same with Health Inspectors in every city and state that are supposed to check food service. We have, according to what I've been told, 500 places that serve food in Cambridge last count, and 1 (one) guy to inspect them all. And we're one of the cities in good shape. Our guy is Full time and has an assistant and a secretary to type his reports etc last I heard. Some only have someone working part time if at all.

[zarhooie.livejournal.com]

My uncle is a cattle farmer, and the only time I've ever seen his animals in such conditions is when they're either in the trailer to be brought to market or when they're in the clamps to be checked for pregnancy / get antibiotics (when they're needed) / castrated.

Still, it's important to understand that cattle are dumb. Dumb dumb dumb dumb DUMB. There is no such thing as an intelligent cow. They need to be manhandled otherwise they can get dangerous.

[klyfix.livejournal.com]

I saw this yesterday. Hadn't really thought about the obvious; that Bush and the Republicans in Congress are largely opposed to any industry regulation and of course aren't adequately funding, well, any form of regulation.

Of course near as I can tell the Libertarian way of dealing with this sort of thing is to sue after you get sick, or assume that the Free Market prevents anything like this happens, so things could actually be worse.