USDA to review Calif. slaughterhouse. (Associated Press)
Newly installed Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said the department was taking the allegations seriously after video footage showed workers at the Hallmark Meat Packing Co. repeatedly kicking cows and ramming them with the blades of a forklift as the animals squealed in pain.
Schafer said “appropriate actions will be taken” if violations are found in the facility but he said there was no evidence that the nation’s beef supply was at risk.
“There is no immediate health risk that we are aware of,” he said.
Hallmark, based in Chino, Calif., supplies the Westland Meat Co., which processes the carcasses. The facility is a major supplier to a USDA program that distributes beef to needy families, the elderly and to schools through the National School Lunch Program. Westland was named a USDA “supplier of the year” for 2004-2005 and has delivered beef to schools in 36 states.
The video, released Wednesday by The Humane Society of the United States after a six-week undercover investigation, also showed plant workers jabbing in the eyes and applying electrical shocks to the “downed” dairy cows — those who are too sick or injured to walk — in an effort to force them into the federally inspected slaughterhouse.
In one scene, the workers shoot high-intensity water sprays up the cows’ noses in what The Humane Society described as a form of animal “waterboarding,” or torture that simulates drowning.
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January 31st, 2008 at 5:53 am
wendy
The bastards who are absuing those animals need to be prosecuted as far as possoble. They are clearly twisted sons of bitches who, themseleves, do not desreve life. Ideally, they would be incarcerated at a max facility and have something similar done to them. BOYCOTT MEAT–these are not isolated onditions.
If you are clueless enought to beleive animal care legislation protects any livestock or lab animlas from abuse, fill out an aplication and WORK in one of these facilitues. I speak from experience. I worked at a chimp lab which was ALLEGEDLY one of the most caring adn humane facilities in the world. BULLCRAP. One of our workers actually shot at a chimp and regularly tortured them. he also brought a baby chimp home once (god only knows what he did to it), and sewed up an animal who ws cut by him. What happened when the adin found out? They let him go WITH a letter of recommendation. A number of the lab workers were decent folk, however, the overall treatment was cruel and abusive. THe animals care oversight committee was REGULARLY bullied by our Director into agreeing to procedures forbidden by govt legislation—in order to get contracts. I was TOLD not to let the FDA see our records because our records were innacurate and revealed contradcitions and errors.
January 31st, 2008 at 8:42 am
William
What a bunck of whacko’s! How often do you people get together and worship your golden calf…or what ever animal you put above God or as God. I have seen you put animals on the same level a humans. You are a group of mindless whimps. By the way I am having Bar B Que for lunch…mmmm
January 31st, 2008 at 8:43 am
William
What a bunch of whacko’s! How often do you people get together and worship your golden calf…or what ever animal you put above God or as God. I have seen you put animals on the same level a humans. You are a group of mindless whimps. By the way I am having Bar B Que for lunch…mmmm