Published on Wednesday, August 22, 2012 by Common Dreams

USDA Closes Slaughterhouse After Video Showing 'Sickening' Animal Cruelty
- Common Dreams staff

Video documentation of "sickening" animal cruelty has prompted the USDA to suspend operations at a California slaughterhouse, another revelation of the industrial food system's cost to animal welfare and public health.

Still from video taken by Compassion Over Cruelty. Video taken by an undercover worker from the DC-based animal advocacy organization Compassion Over Killing shows workers at the Central Valley Meat Co. (CVM) slaughterhouse in Hanford, Calif. repeatedly abusing cows, treatment the group says violates state and federal animal welfare requirements.

"The horror caught on camera is sickening," said Erica Meier, executive director of Compassion Over Killing.

The group details the mistreatment:

*Downed cows, unable to walk to the kill floor, shot in the head two, three, even four times, and workers often walking away while the animal continues to struggle and kick.

*Some downed cows who were still alive after being shot in the head were then suffocated by workers who stood on their mouths and nostrils preventing the cows from breathing.

*Cows being tortured - repeatedly hit, jabbed, electrically shocked, and sprayed with hot water - in a narrow chute leading to the kill floor. One cow was electrically shocked over 40 times.

*Sick or injured cows repeatedly being shocked and workers pulling or lifting them by their tails in an attempt to force them to stand and walk.

*Improper stunning of animals prior to slaughter - many cows were thrashing, kicking, and clearly breathing after being shot in the head. Yet these animals are moved through the slaughter process onto a conveyor belt and then hoisted upside-down by one leg.

The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service shut down operations at CVM on Sunday and said an investigation was underway.

The group says the meat from the facility provides meat to the National School Lunch Program, and ABC News reports that CVM "currently holds a $3.8 million, two-month contract with the government." CVM also provided meat to the fast-food chain In-N-Out Burger, though the chain ended its relationship with CVM after hearing of the investigation.

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COK has video below. Warning: Disturbing content.

   

Welcome to the world where your food comes from.

   

Seriously

   

And the beat(ing) goes on...at least it stopped for a week. Sorry, I didn't mean to give anyone the impression that 'the system works'.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/08/central-valley-slaughterhouse-reopens.html

   

   

Yup. I worked on the Gainers kill floor for a few weeks as part of a meat cutting course I was taking.

This is just the stuff caught on camera. I've probabally seen worse. I won't watch that video for the same reasons as I won't watch other animal abuse vids or stories. I don't need to see any more of that shit.

I think that Kosher slaughter is the worst, and alas most abbatoirs are going Kosher/Halal by default. Animals aren't as stupid as we think, and prolonging their misery is just that much worse.

   

I can't watch that either. Just sickening.

   

"Downed cows, unable to walk to the kill floor, shot in the head two, three, even four times, and workers often walking away while the animal continues to struggle and kick. "

I'm not sure what the complaint is. Should the workers have shot the animal more time in the head? Should they have watched it die before going on to do more work?

"Some downed cows who were still alive after being shot in the head were then suffocated by workers who stood on their mouths and nostrils preventing the cows from breathing."

If shooting the animal in the head doesn't kill it, how else would you suggest it is killed? Cutting it to bleed it would be messy and spill blood if they didn't have the proper equipment to handled that.

"Cows being tortured - repeatedly hit, jabbed, electrically shocked, and sprayed with hot water - in a narrow chute leading to the kill floor. One cow was electrically shocked over 40 times."

Because asking the cow to move in an orderly manner didn't work. Sure it seems cruel and I wouldn't tolerate that sort of action for the treatment of a human, but we don't eat people. So long as the action wasn't cruel just to cause pain, I can only accept this as part of the process needed to process our meat.

"Sick or injured cows repeatedly being shocked and workers pulling or lifting them by their tails in an attempt to force them to stand and walk."

A cow is a large critter, you are not going to pick it up and carry it, anything that can be done to get it to move under it's own power saves time and money. I'm open to suggestions on how to get a sick or injured animal to move without pulling it's tail.

"Improper stunning of animals prior to slaughter - many cows were thrashing, kicking, and clearly breathing after being shot in the head. Yet these animals are moved through the slaughter process onto a conveyor belt and then hoisted upside-down by one leg."

This I can agree with, an animal should be properly stunned or killed at the proper time and place in the process. Failure to do so is a failure to meet standard practices and should be something someone (some company) is subject to discribed punishment for.

   

Good god man, what's wrong with you?

   

That's still up for debate but he does have a lot of "Eureka" moments.

   

I accepted that wrong doing was happening. However what do you want workers to do?

Lets say you are working in a slaughterhouse and you go and shoot a cow in the head, only it doesn't die. Now what?

You are moving animals forward onto the processing floor and one stops moving, it doesn't move when you poke it or when you shock it. What do you do next?

   

Really? You don't see anything wrong with someone who isn't trained properly to kill an animal as required by law? Unconsciousness should be immediate, otherwise it's just torture.

   

I never had any certification, except hunting licenses. We butchered our own beef, pork, chickens and turkeys. The cattle and butcher sows were always separated and led away and out of sight of the other animals. If it was a steer or heifer, they were given a pail of chop or grain, then one of us would walk up behind it and brush it for a bit. I don't remember it ever taking more than one shot. They weren't afraid of humans because we were in amongst them daily from the time they were born. I had 3 of my own weaners that I hand raised and butchered. The first time I visited a family farm in Manitoba, for holidays, my father made me watch them butcher a heifer. I was 4 or 5

   

Let's say you are working as a heart surgeon and you go to operate on a patient using the steak knife you brought from home only, it's not sharp enough to cut all the way through the bone. Now what?

   

I like a lot of people would find it very unpleasant to view a slaughter house in action even there were no abuses. We meat eaters who are squeamish about this need to keep in mind this is where those nice juicy steaks come from.

Given all of that the way these downed was horrible. The point is that this stuff needs to done as painlessly as possible. The folks operating these plants need to know and do that.