In Meat Wagon, we round up the latest outrages from the meat industry.
In the last edition of Meat Wagon, we mentioned the scandal at an industrial-scale slaughterhouse in California, where workers had been caught on videotape torturing severely sick ("downer") cows. Horrifically enough, the workers were abusing the enfeebled animals in an attempt to get them stagger to slaughter -- where their flesh would be mixed with that of other cows, and sent to market.
More horrifically still, the slaughterhouse in question is a major supplier of beef to the National School Lunch Program.
Evidently, the idea of tortured-downer-cow burgers gracing the menus of school cafeterias across the country was too much even for the USDA. In response to the videotape -- produced and distributed by the heroic Humane Society of the United States -- the USDA has imposed the most massive meat recall in U.S. history on the slaughterhouse, affecting a jawdropping 143 million pounds of frozen beef.
(According to a proprietary Meat Wagon formula, that's equivalent to approximately 572 million -- more than half a billion -- Quarter Pounders).
But the real jawdropper is this:
Officials estimate that about 37 million pounds of the recalled beef went to school programs, but they believe most of the meat probably has already been eaten.
The USDA is evidently shocked that industrial meat packers hustle downer cows to slaughter and into the nation's food supply. Funny how it took a scrappy non-profit rather than federal inspectors to uncover the story.
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Comments
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SMLowry Posted 9:23 am
18 Feb 2008
A missed opportunity
I'm sure there are other meatpacking plants where similar atrocities take place. What disappointed me with regard to the evening news presentation of the story, which ran two nights in a row, was it was limited to the potential for contaminated meat - not that that's a minor thing, especially when it went to the school lunch program. There was nothing about the humane issues and the videos were very upsetting. I mean really, who wants to think that their hamburger came fron an animal in such agony? It would have been a great opportunity to offer people other options than eating meat from animals so abused. You can not eat it or you can buy meat from locally-raised animals, where you can actually visit the barns if you want. People have to be encouraged to connect the reality of what's going on in the world with the choices they make. I know we can only expect so much of mainstream media, but still.
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ids Posted 9:33 am
18 Feb 2008
mis infonation
I saw media riduculing the recall by stating so far, no one has reported sick, when the human incubation is at least years, not mentioned.
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LGT Posted 9:54 am
18 Feb 2008
Human symptoms delayed?
Human symptoms like malignant brain tumors must be at advanced stages of development!
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leslie hatfield Posted 9:54 am
18 Feb 2008
What a waste
Imagine for a minute that the recall had been effective and all that beef had actually been disposed of. How many (relatively) healthy cows would have been mixed with the downers? How much water and food and energy would have been wasted? I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but maybe industrial agriculture (especially when we take into account the costs to the environment, the animals, the workers and the local communities are factored in) isn't the most effective way to feed the masses.
I work with an organization that makes it easier for conscientious eaters to find good food. Check out the Eat Well Guide to find small-scale family farms and the local businesses that distribute their goods throughout the US and Canada.
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amc89 Posted 11:12 am
18 Feb 2008
Tacos, chili and hamburgers
The NY Times article mentioned that the downer cows were turned into tacos, chili and hamburgers for the school lunch program. Tacos, chili and burgers can easily be made vegetarian by using a number of types beans, soy productcs or lentils, which are much more nutrient-rich and healthier and not likely to be have e-coli or give the kids mad cow disease.
It's amusing how astonished the meat industry spokespeople pretend to be when they probably know as well as the USDA and much of the public that this type of abusive behavior is unlikely to be unique to this particular slaughter facility.
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caniscandida Posted 1:36 pm
18 Feb 2008
"heroic" HSUS
Yes, absolutely, especially the under-cover photographer who worked for several weeks to capture those images, and gives himself the pseudonym "Brian" on the HSUS site.
AMC is right, that there is certainly nothing unusual about how these cows were treated. In fact, the HSUS presented another video just a few months ago, showing the horrendous treatment of cattle in India (of all places, where one would not expect cattle to be abused) as they were transported to slaughter for the sake of their hides.
And SMLowry is right to wonder why the issue of the health risk should dominate the MSM's coverage of the story, with little or no attention shown to the issue of cruelty.
Chickens are our cousins! So are fish! So are other sentient animals! Let us learn to be kind.
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Kit Stolz Posted 2:41 pm
18 Feb 2008
bad meat and Republicans
Eric Schlosser, of "Fast Food Nation," commented on this story this evening in a radio interview show based in L.A.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/373go6
He said:
"I think the Clinton administration was making a sincere effort to try and impose some tough rules on the meat-packing industry, and it was the right wing of the Republican party in Congress that was blocking these proposals, again and again. Once President Bush took office, the meat-packing industry was essentially empowered. And it's very difficult to tell the difference between USDA policy and the policy of the American meat-packing industry. It's tragic, because this should be a non-partisan issue. All Republicans and Democrats have to eat, but the right wing of the Republican industry has very close ties to the meat-packing industry and has prevented any kind of meaningful reform."
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Angry African Posted 2:16 am
19 Feb 2008
We eat meat - get used to it
One of the (many) challenges we face is that we in Africa love our meat. And we don't want people to look down at us for doing this. We get enough of that. we don't look down at people who don't live according to our culture - like vegans etc. But we are environmentalist. Maybe we are willing to face what we eat and not hide from it. Most meat eaters in the west think that it falls from the sky or somewhere and are unwilling to face the reality of what they eat. It doesn't grow on tree. You have to kill it. Live with it. Or don't eat it. More on my African view on meat on my post in my blog at http://angryafrican.wordpress.com/2008/01/24/we-eat-meat- ...
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miqcie Posted 2:17 am
19 Feb 2008
Did HSUS take too long?
I don't like that these cows were abused and just as bad ended up in our food supply, especially for school lunch programs (!), but I just get concerned that HSUS saw all this bad terrible stuff going on and didn't tell USDA about it once it happened? Why didn't they just release the video right away?
I'm not sympathizing with the company at all, but if they weren't following the rules, why didn't somebody tell the inspectors?
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amazingdrx Posted 2:37 am
19 Feb 2008
Standard practice
This is all standard for the CAFO meat industry. Boardroom scum and their political allies keep this all going in their race to the bottom..line.
With industry self (no) regulation the most corrupt operators are rewarded with the most profit. The only affordable and effective cure for this is random inspection and real enforcement.
The first time that arrests are made all the way up the corporate food chain for atrocities like this, the rest of the board roomates will take heed. But not before.
Who was punsihed for atrocities at Abu Ghraib? Grainer and his g/f. That's it. Who was punsihed for My Lia? Cally and Medina. No higher ups who order the system that uses sadism are ever held accountable.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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Geraldine Clarke Posted 9:08 am
21 Feb 2008
Did HSUS take too long?
Well, I think I know the answer to that question. I've been following the HSUS for several years now, ever since stories surfaced after the Katrina animal rescue efforts where HSUS hindered the other rescuers, the "pit bulls" they took in just "disappeared" and they never satisfactorily accounted for how they spent the many millions that people sent in, expecting that it would go to the rescue and care for the animal victims of Katrina. The Louisiana Attorney General is investigating this.
HSUS takes in over $100,000,000.00 a year that people think will be going to help the sad-faced animals in the HSUS ads or go to help animals in their local Humane Society shelters. HSUS operates NO shelters, they do not support local Humane Societies and their money goes to finance a well thought-out campaign to promote their radical vegan agenda.
Any truly humane person who saw and filmed that horrible treatment of animals would have sent the footage to the USDA and the media IMMEDIATELY and informed the management of the slaughterhouse that he had done so and that that treatment must stop NOW!
But HSUS waited for weeks before reporting it and, we must assume, the horrible treatment continued. I am convinced that HSUS decided that the story would get much bigger coverage if they waited until the meat from the downer cows had been distributed and consumed. HSUS does great research so I'm sure that they knew that much of the meat would go to school lunch programs. And it worked! The media is eating up (no pun intended) the story and is not questioning why the abuses were allowed to continue for so long after they were discovered.
This is just another instance where HSUS has ignored animal suffering to further their political aims.
HSUS took a radical turn into fanaticism some years back when Wayne Pacelle took over the organization. If you want to know what he is thinking and planning, there are verified quotes from him at: http://www.naiaonline.org/articles/archives/animalrightsq ...
I abhor the treatment depicted in this footage. But I equally abhor that individuals would let it continue for political purposes.
I know vegetarians will disagree with me (I won't even attempt to deal with vegan ideology - anyone who thinks that taking eggs from a chicken or milk from a cow is cruelty knows absolutely NOTHING about those animals), but it is possible to humanely slaughter animals. The fact that so much of the meat industry has employed the techniques developed by Temple Grandin shows that management is not insensible to humane considerations.
I do my best to buy grass-fed meat from local farmers who treat their animals well. It's hard to do but grass-fed meat from small farmers is starting to show up in my local supermarket. It still costs more but I'm happy to eat less meat so I can support local farmers.
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SMLowry Posted 6:22 am
22 Feb 2008
Make them pay
DrX is right. The atrocities recently filmed and shown on the evening news have been going on for many, many years. And they are going on in other meat packing plants right now, absolutely.
About 15 years ago I researched and wrote a long paper on the meat industry that looked into labor issues (the meat packing industry is one of the most dangerous, right up there with mining, believe it or not), health and cleanliness issues (the industry's response to meat contamination? Irradiate it!), impacts on the environment, and animal welfare issues. I doubt much has changed. In fact, there's less federal money now for inspections and many if not most of those in charge of regulating and inspecting the plants have been hand picked from the industry itself (the good old revolving door). So things are probably worse now than they were then.
I have to wonder about the implications of feeding meat from animals who have been so abused and terrorized to children. Even if the meat doesn't make them sick physically there are other aspects to consider - emotional, spiritual for example. I think I remember reading somewhere that when an animal is as terrified as those poor creatures were, they produce certain chemicals that might be harmful. Does anyone know about this?
Absolutely arrest the assholes who are in charge of the plants. All of them from the top. Put them in jail and make them pay for their cruelty, I won't say how, but use your imagination.
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caniscandida Posted 10:17 am
24 Feb 2008
"Arrest the assholes!"
Right, SMLowry. Except that assholism, regarding exploitation of animals, with lots and lots of overlooked cruelty, is systemic.
Geraldine, on the HSUS:
I like the HSUS very much, and have long given them a bit of my pocket change. They are very good in providing information; I like their wildlife coverage especially; their Canadian director, Rebecca Aldworth, reporting on the harp seal slaughter, is a hero. So I am certainly not dissuaded from supporting the HSUS.
I generally like PETA too, and enjoy much information that they have provided, though I have never given them anything, not liking their activist tactics.
The biographies of Wayne Pacelle and Ingrid Newkirk strike me as irrelevant. They are both physically attractive spokespersons for their organizations, and no doubt that impresses many donors.
By contrast, the NAIA (National Animal Interest Association) is up to no good at all. It is plain that they are set up to defend a purely anthropocentrist agenda. And anthropocentrism is simply evil.
Not unexpectedly, a Catholic priest who is both an MD and a bioethicist, is a senior consultant of NAIA: Michael Manning, of New Jersey. One can only hope that old Catholic ethics will be able to separate the wheat from the chaff before long, before the whole crop gets marginalized as disgusting and irrelevant.
The NAIA's list of quotes from animal-rightsist leaders needs to be reflected upon. If anyone comes away from reading it, thinking that the animal-rightsists are disgusting monsters, then they have been majorly deceived. I happen to agree with a great many of those statements. And as for what I disagree with, I would want to have the context of the quotes, and I would want to have the opportunity to question the speakers.
On BANGOs and BINGOs, "big American" and "big international" NGOs: They inevitably receive criticism, once they have their hands on lots of money. We should remember that the basic causes of environmental and animal-welfare organizations are great. Also, they now have lots of different pies into which they may poke fingers. So, it is not surprising if they do not get everything everywhere just right.
Also, it is a serious problem that BANGOs do not do more for local chapters. My understanding is that local chapters of Audubon do great work, and could do even better, if only they were supported better by the national Audubon Society. Meanwhile, they manage to run a column in their magazine on the praiseworthy initiative of local activists -- if you want to call that hypocrisy, go ahead.
So, as for the downer-cow footage, it is hard to know how to judge the HSUS's handling of it. I do certainly believe that in good faith, we must not suspect that the HSUS are insensitive to the suffering of these or other cattle. Indeed, such a suspicion would be entirely contradictory to the implication of the NAIA's list of quotations, which suggest that the animal-rightsists would gladly prefer the murder of human beings to the suffering of non-human animals.
From the information that I have, it seems that the HSUS may have delayed publishing their filmed account of abuse, until after the meat of the slaughtered cattle entered the food chain, precisely because they calculated that would make the impact of the footage all the more powerful. I.e., the health of human beings ALWAYS comes first, ALWAYS gets top coverage in the media.
They may have calculated that publishing their data as soon as they had it would not have saved the lives of many cattle; but that reserving it till when they did was much more effective.
But I do not know. And I do not wish to defend the HSUS. All I know is, I am not dissuaded at all from supporting the HSUS.
Chickens are our cousins! So are fish! So are other sentient animals! Let us learn to be kind.
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