It turns out that a slaughterhouse's cruel practices are behind the massive nationwide recall of beef, the largest in US history. Excerpt:
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."We don't know how much product is out there right now. We don't think there is a health hazard, but we do have to take this action," said Dr. Dick Raymond, USDA Undersecretary for Food Safety.
Federal officials suspended operations at Westland/Hallmark after an undercover video from the Humane Society of the United States surfaced showing crippled and sick animals being shoved with forklifts.
Two former employees were charged Friday. Five felony counts of animal cruelty and three misdemeanors were filed against a pen manager. Three misdemeanor counts - illegal movement of a non-ambulatory animal - were filed against an employee who worked under that manager. Both were fired.
Authorities said the video showed workers kicking, shocking and otherwise abusing "downer" animals that were apparently too sick or injured to walk into the slaughterhouse. Some animals had water forced down their throats, San Bernardino County prosecutor Michael Ramos said.
No charges have been filed against Westland, but an investigation by federal authorities continues.
About 150 school districts around the nation have stopped using ground beef from Hallmark Meat Packing Co., which is associated with Westland. Two fast-food chains, Jack-In-the-Box and In-N-Out, said they would not use beef from Westland/Hallmark.
Most of the beef was sent to distribution centers in bulk packages. The USDA said it will work with distributors to determine how much meat remains.
Federal regulations call for keeping downed cattle out of the food supply because they may pose a higher risk of contamination from E. coli, salmonella or mad cow disease since they typically wallow in feces and their immune systems are often weak.
Watch the undercover video that sparked the recall here. WARNING: this is strong stuff.
When are voters going to get sick enough of this crap to force legislative changes to end factory farming? We don't have to wait for Congress or state legislatures to act. Stop buying factory-farmed meat now! Buy from your local small farmers -- as far as I can tell, Jo Robinson's website has the most comprehensive national list of meat producers who refuse to follow factory-farming methods. Take a look at it -- you might be surprised how many such farms are in your area. Some of them even ship.
I dare you to watch that video, even the first few seconds showing the sick downer cow on its side, screaming in fear as the forklift shoves it along to slaughter, and still say you want to trust the industrial food system to provide healthy meat. I dare you to plausibly defend the morality of a system of animal husbandry that depends on that sort of thing to keep going.
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"But I think Rod's emotions get the better of him, and his "solution" is borderline naive."
Sort of like a bleeding heart liberal. But at least our blog host has a heart.
Threads like this are just so amusing to read. Conservatives tying themselves up in knots to cover their butts as the dark side of free-market policies come back to haunt them. One commonality with Abu Ghraib remains: blame the stiffs caught in tape, but management gets off with just a dusting of a dirty look.
Please write more on this and these kind of issues. Of your 8 last posts, we've got four anti-Muslim articles with one on procreation and, given your past posts, I'm sure the threat of the barbarians at the gate was in the back of your mind. Where'd the crunchy go? This recall is big news, other blogs say this is a big crunchy con issue, but you've got mostly a cut-and-paste job here with a couple of of your own sentences thrown in. Sure, there's plenty out there denouncing factory farming, but there's very little written from the conservative perspective. That conservatives don't like Muslims - I'm pretty sure that's covered.
(As a side note -- whenever you denounce Rowan I wonder if I missed the transformation of Texas into Texistan when a court there allowed arbitration of a family matter by an Islamic tribunal. Hope you're holding out okay down there while under siege!)
Trust the industrial food system? Not in a million years. The HSUS notes that the abuse occurred even though USDA had a number of inspectors at the slaughter plant. Every time something like this happens it's called an "isolated" incident. This kind of abuse takes place behind closed doors so who knows how much of it is going on.
If we saw dogs and cats being treated this way we'd be screaming bloody murder.
I've learned to cook so many wonderful dishes since becoming vegetarian I don't miss meat at all. I'm not about to subsize this kind of barbaric behavior with my hard earned dollars.
By the way, I understand Tyson is under investigation -- again -- for abuses occurring at a couple of its poultry plants. Same old, same old. They'll pay the fine and its business as usual.
All the comments by vegetarians here make me want to eat a cheeseburger. I'll scarf one down and think of y'all.
...and if any of you should actually run into the UB,
http://images.wikia.com/marvel_dc/images/d/dd/Beefeater.JPG
buy it a gin-and-tunic on all of us - and, from the looks of things, pitching in for a free tube of mega-SPF sunscreen wouldn't hurt, either...
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