patrick.net

How can you miss treat a cow that you are slaughtering?

Think the cow is concerned with the cattle prod up the bung hole, or the sounds of the short lived screams of cows getting a steel rod punched through their forehead, up the queue?

Every predator in the Animal kingdom is capable of toying with their food, before they kill it. This is purely a Peta/Vegetarian self righteous witch hunt, probably wasn't even illegal until a video popped up, then the law was just assumed.

Are these people sick individuals, and are they people you would want to associate with? NO, but I don't think I could hang out with meat packers that don't abuse animals. And I know damn well I couldn't work in a meat processing plant regardless their SOP.

Well Jesus, give the USDA more 24 hours. This video came out Aug 21, It's Aug 23 today.

I see some seriously sick and unhealthy animals. I see a chaotic, amateur process. It should be "Boom, 1,2,3". Instead it looks like untrained, unskilled illegal immigrant workers are having a hard time getting the job done. Why invest in proper machinery and training? Why pay more?

I see what should take a couple of minutes turn into a multihour ordeal. No wonder the beef tastes like shit in the US.

Instead of the USDA, bring ICE into the facility. That'll fix it.

f the cow can't walk into the slaughterhouse on it's own feet, IMHO, and possibly state or federal law (not sure) - it's not fit for human consumption. Manhandling and shocking cows too sick to stand up is a bad idea, twitch, twitch, twitch.

Figures this facility deals with the School Lunch Program. The level of ineptitude seen in the video qualifies it at the lowest possible quality.

If this is how the slaughterhouse side of the plant works, I'd hate to think what the packing part of the plant looks like.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/ZRS-kzgoRq0

The video prompted the National Cattlemen's Beef Association to issue a statement Wednesday.

"We firmly believe that those knowingly and willfully committing any abuse to animals should not be in the business -- period," Dave Daley, a professor at California State University, Chico, said in the statement released by the marketing group. "The actions depicted in these videos are disgraceful and not representative of the cattle community."
...
"I got all over him," Grandin later told The Bee. "I told him his employees should not be doing that. That's a management issue."

The video shows cows in a chute on the way to slaughter being stung on the face by an electric prod to force them to back out.

"An electric prod to the face? That's a violation of every international guideline on handling cattle," Grandin said. The proper procedure is to wait five or 10 minutes for the cows to calm down, then place a white coat in front of the animal like a curtain and it will back up on its own, she said.

http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/08/22/2961149/hanford-meat-plant-says-its-working.html

Yep, lack of training, minimal oversight. Why pay more?

The investigation will determine whether sick cows were slaughtered and whether meat products from the company should be recalled, said Justin DeJong, a spokesman for the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service.

...

Federal regulations say that to avoid unnecessary suffering during slaughter, animals must be rendered unconscious by a single shot to the head from a pneumatic gun that fires a bolt through the skull to pierce the brain.

http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/08/21/2959823/usda-eyes-whether-tainted-beef.html#storylink=mirelated#storylink=cpy

You don't need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows, and you don't need to be a vet or a farmer to see that cows that can't stand up by themselves are sick.

You know what will cure it? Unionizing the plant.