California Plant Accused of Torturing Unfit Cows
Date: 31-Jan-08
Country: US
Author: Russell Blinch
The Humane Society displayed a video from its own undercover investigation that it said showed abuse by workers at the Hallmark Meat Packing Co of Chino, California. However, the name of the plant was not visible in the video.
The video showed workers kicking cows, ramming them with forklift blades, applying electric shocks and even using a hose to simulate the feeling of drowning so the animals would revive long enough to pass federal inspection.
"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," Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States, told reporters,
The company was not immediately available for comment.
Pacelle said the plant supplies meat to the Westland Meat Co, which is the second-largest supplier of beef to the USDA Commodity Procurement Program Branch. This branch distributes beef to needy families, the elderly and to the national school lunch program.
He said the plant's use of injured and sick cows was not an isolated incident in the United States and he called on the USDA to tighten regulations regarding the ban on processing of "downer" cows.
Westland said in a statement that it had received the video from the Humane Society that showed two of its employees "acting in disregard" of the company's standards. It said operations have been suspended and the two employees fired. The supervisor was also suspended.
"We are shocked, saddened and sickened by what we have seen today," the company said in a statement posted on its Web site.
US Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said he was convinced there was no health risk involved but the matter was being investigated.
"First of all, this issue is taken very seriously by the USDA employees responsible for this area. Obviously, there is a full investigation and inspection going on today."
(Additional reporting by Charles Abbott in Washington, editing by Matthew Lewis)
