Post by Christine on Feb 28, 2008 5:48:12 GMT -5
Why does everyone go running to the government whenever a problem needs to be solved? It's rational to conclude that the inspectors knew this was going on, and turned a blind eye. Further, it also makes sense that this kind of stuff happens everywhere, and is allowed to continue because it's out of sight of the average person.
Again, my answer is to stop buying meat and dairy from the supermarket and restaurants, and instead buy it from local farms where I can monitor animal conditions, and where slaughter numbers are far below the factory conditions that provide the food in the mainstream market. This is no guarantee of anything, but it will keep my dollars from ending up in the pockets of the people who perpetrate these outrages.
If each person (this means you) fails to speak up on this issue, who will? The animals have no one to advocate for them. If we remain quiet, we're just as culpable.
Kip
________________________________________
Films spark similar slaughter law debates
Documentary in 1950s galvanized humane kill act
By Frederic J. Frommer, Associated Press | February 28, 2008
WASHINGTON - A film showing slaughterhouse workers abusing animals spurs demands for the federal government to put a stop to the behavior. That happened this year - and also a half-century ago, when a Seattle animal rights activist filmed hogs being mistreated at a Washington state slaughterhouse.
The 1950s film helped trigger a fierce debate on Capitol Hill over whether animals deserve some federal protection in their final moments. Congress ultimately decided they did, and 50 years ago this summer, lawmakers passed the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, which required that meat the federal government purchased come from processors who kill their livestock humanely.
Now Congress is taking another look at slaughterhouse practices following undercover video filmed by the Humane Society of the United States. The video showed workers at Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. in Chino, Calif., shoving and kicking sick, crippled cattle, forcing them to stand using electric prods, forklifts, and water hoses. In response, the Agriculture Department shut down the plant, citing "egregious violations of humane handling regulations." Two fired workers have been charged with crimes.
The department has since ordered the recall of 143 million pounds of the company's beef - the largest in US history - because Westland/Hallmark did not prevent "downer" cattle from entering the food supply. Downers, those too sick or injured to walk, pose a greater risk of illnesses such as mad cow disease.
In response to the beef recall, Congress is again holding hearings, starting today in the Senate Appropriations agriculture subcommittee, which has oversight of the USDA budget.
Fifty years ago, the hog slaughter film by Arthur P. Redman similarly galvanized animal welfare advocates to pursue legislation. The film was shown at a congressional hearing in 1957 and Congress passed the landmark humane slaughter law the next year.
Speaking during debate on the day of the bill's passage, Senator Hubert Humphrey, a Minnesota Democrat and future vice president, said: "We are morally compelled, here in this hour, to try to imagine - to try to feel in our own nerves - the totality of the suffering of 100 million tortured animals. The issue before us today is pain, agony and cruelty - and what a moral man must do about it in view of his own conscience."
Humphrey, perhaps best known for his championing of civil rights, also pushed humane slaughter legislation for years, first introducing a bill in 1955. Initially, he wanted to make humane slaughter mandatory, but wound up settling for a compromise that made it a condition of doing business with the federal government. In 1978, the year Humphrey died, Senator Bob Dole, a Kansas Republican, won passage of legislation making compliance mandatory, fulfilling Humphrey's vision.
The law required slaughterhouses doing business with the federal government to render livestock insensitive to pain, by, for example, a single blow or gunshot.
The legislation took aim at so-called "knockers" who would stun animals with a sledgehammer. Humphrey said this led to animals being "hammered into unconsciousness . . . The hammer knocks off horns, mashes noses, breaks jaws, pounds out eyes."
Senator Herb Kohl, a Wisconsin Democrat, will hold a hearing today; his House counterpart, Representative Rosa L. DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat, has called for the USDA to be stripped of its oversight of food safety, and plans her own hearings next month.
Meanwhile, animal welfare advocates are using the California slaughterhouse incident to help spur calls for more inspectors, as well as legislation including a total ban on downer cattle being slaughtered for food. In 2003, the USDA announced such a ban, but last year, in finalizing it, the department said cattle that get injured after they pass inspection will be reevaluated to determine if they are eligible for slaughter.
Again, my answer is to stop buying meat and dairy from the supermarket and restaurants, and instead buy it from local farms where I can monitor animal conditions, and where slaughter numbers are far below the factory conditions that provide the food in the mainstream market. This is no guarantee of anything, but it will keep my dollars from ending up in the pockets of the people who perpetrate these outrages.
If each person (this means you) fails to speak up on this issue, who will? The animals have no one to advocate for them. If we remain quiet, we're just as culpable.
Kip
________________________________________
Films spark similar slaughter law debates
Documentary in 1950s galvanized humane kill act
By Frederic J. Frommer, Associated Press | February 28, 2008
WASHINGTON - A film showing slaughterhouse workers abusing animals spurs demands for the federal government to put a stop to the behavior. That happened this year - and also a half-century ago, when a Seattle animal rights activist filmed hogs being mistreated at a Washington state slaughterhouse.
The 1950s film helped trigger a fierce debate on Capitol Hill over whether animals deserve some federal protection in their final moments. Congress ultimately decided they did, and 50 years ago this summer, lawmakers passed the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, which required that meat the federal government purchased come from processors who kill their livestock humanely.
Now Congress is taking another look at slaughterhouse practices following undercover video filmed by the Humane Society of the United States. The video showed workers at Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. in Chino, Calif., shoving and kicking sick, crippled cattle, forcing them to stand using electric prods, forklifts, and water hoses. In response, the Agriculture Department shut down the plant, citing "egregious violations of humane handling regulations." Two fired workers have been charged with crimes.
The department has since ordered the recall of 143 million pounds of the company's beef - the largest in US history - because Westland/Hallmark did not prevent "downer" cattle from entering the food supply. Downers, those too sick or injured to walk, pose a greater risk of illnesses such as mad cow disease.
In response to the beef recall, Congress is again holding hearings, starting today in the Senate Appropriations agriculture subcommittee, which has oversight of the USDA budget.
Fifty years ago, the hog slaughter film by Arthur P. Redman similarly galvanized animal welfare advocates to pursue legislation. The film was shown at a congressional hearing in 1957 and Congress passed the landmark humane slaughter law the next year.
Speaking during debate on the day of the bill's passage, Senator Hubert Humphrey, a Minnesota Democrat and future vice president, said: "We are morally compelled, here in this hour, to try to imagine - to try to feel in our own nerves - the totality of the suffering of 100 million tortured animals. The issue before us today is pain, agony and cruelty - and what a moral man must do about it in view of his own conscience."
Humphrey, perhaps best known for his championing of civil rights, also pushed humane slaughter legislation for years, first introducing a bill in 1955. Initially, he wanted to make humane slaughter mandatory, but wound up settling for a compromise that made it a condition of doing business with the federal government. In 1978, the year Humphrey died, Senator Bob Dole, a Kansas Republican, won passage of legislation making compliance mandatory, fulfilling Humphrey's vision.
The law required slaughterhouses doing business with the federal government to render livestock insensitive to pain, by, for example, a single blow or gunshot.
The legislation took aim at so-called "knockers" who would stun animals with a sledgehammer. Humphrey said this led to animals being "hammered into unconsciousness . . . The hammer knocks off horns, mashes noses, breaks jaws, pounds out eyes."
Senator Herb Kohl, a Wisconsin Democrat, will hold a hearing today; his House counterpart, Representative Rosa L. DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat, has called for the USDA to be stripped of its oversight of food safety, and plans her own hearings next month.
Meanwhile, animal welfare advocates are using the California slaughterhouse incident to help spur calls for more inspectors, as well as legislation including a total ban on downer cattle being slaughtered for food. In 2003, the USDA announced such a ban, but last year, in finalizing it, the department said cattle that get injured after they pass inspection will be reevaluated to determine if they are eligible for slaughter.