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Meet Your Meat
Ask the Experts:
“Isn’t slaughter regulated?”
Laws specific to the transport of animals raised for food are almost nonexistent.
The only law regarding transit to slaughter refers to transport by train, though 95 percent of animals are moved by truck, where they are subjected to weather extremes, overcrowding, hunger, and thirst. Every year, untold numbers of animals die from heat exhaustion or freezing to death during transport. Sometimes animals freeze to the sides of the trucks and have to be pried loose.  At the slaughterhouse, animals are often skinned and dismembered while still fully conscious.
Gail Eisnitz, author of Slaughterhouse |
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Pigs, cows, and chickens are individuals with feelings—they experience love, happiness, loneliness, and fear, just as dogs, cats, and people do. More than 25 billion animals are killed by the meat industry each year—in ways that would horrify any compassionate person. The average American meat-eater is responsible for the abuse and death of about 90
Down on the Dairy Farm
Most small family farms have been replaced by corporate-owned factories where cows are chained by the neck on concrete in huge sheds and treated like milk machines.
To boost production, many farmers inject cows with synthetic growth hormones, which increase the cows’ risk of developing mastitis, a painful infection. Cows produce milk for the same reason that humans do: to nourish their babies. Their calves are traumatically taken from them shortly after birth. Female calves are added to the dairy herd or are slaughtered for the rennet in their stomachs (used to make cheese). When their milk production wanes after about four years, the mother cows are killed and ground up into burgers.
Dairy’s Connection to Veal
Even on small family dairy farms, unwanted male calves are sold to the veal industry and raised in dark sheds. Chained by their necks inside tiny stalls that reek of ammonia from accumulated waste, they are unable to take even one step in any direction, turn around, or lie down comfortably. Motherless and alone, they suffer from anemia, diarrhea, pneumonia, and lameness and see the light of day only on their way to slaughter.
What Happens to “Beef Cattle”?
“Beef cattle” spend most of their lives on overcrowded feedlots. Ranchers have found that they can maximize profits by giving each steer less than 20 square feet of living space—the equivalent of putting a dozen half-ton steers in a typical American bedroom! Steers undergo painful procedures like branding, castration, and dehorning without anesthetics. They often die of pneumonia, dehydration, or heat exhaustion from spending long periods without food or water in overcrowded trucks while being transported to feedlots or slaughterhouses.
 The true story of one anonymous animal born into the meat industryThe truck carrying this cow was unloaded at Walton Stockyards in Kentucky one September morning. After the other animals were removed from the truck, she was left behind, unable to move. The stockyard workers used the customary electric prods in her ear to try to get her out of the truck, then beat and kicked her in the face, ribs, and back, but still she didn’t move. They tied a rope around her neck, tied the other end to a post in the ground, and drove the truck away. The cow was dragged along the floor of the truck and fell to the ground, landing with both hind legs and her pelvis broken. She remained like that until 7:30 that evening.
For the first three hours, she lay in the hot sun crying out. Periodically, when she urinated or defecated, she used her front legs to drag herself along the gravel roadway to a clean spot. She also tried to crawl to a shaded area but couldn’t move far enough. Altogether, she managed to crawl a painful 13 to14 yards. The stockyard employees wouldn’t allow her any drinking water; the only water she received was given to her by Jessie Pierce, a local animal rights activist, who had been contacted by a woman who witnessed the incident. Jessie arrived at noon. After receiving no cooperation from stockyard workers, she called the Kenton County police. A police officer arrived but was instructed by his superiors to do nothing; he left at 1 p.m. The stockyard operator informed Jessie that he had permission from the insurance company to kill the cow but wouldn’t do it until Jessie left. Although doubtful that he would keep his word, Jessie left at 3 p.m. She returned at 4:30 p.m. and found the stockyard deserted. Three dogs were attacking the cow, who was still alive. She had suffered a number of bite wounds, and her drinking water had been removed. Jessie contacted the state police. Four officers arrived at 5:30 p.m. State trooper Jan Wuchner wanted to shoot the cow but was told that a veterinarian should kill her. The two veterinarians at the facility would not euthanize her, claiming that in order to preserve the value of the meat, she could not be destroyed. The butcher eventually arrived at 7:30 p.m. and shot the cow. Her body was purchased for $307.50.
When the stockyard operator was questioned by a reporter from The Kentucky Post, he stated, “We didn’t do a damned thing to it,” and referred to the attention given the cow by humane workers and police as “bullcrap.” He laughed throughout the interview, saying that he found nothing wrong with the way the cow was treated.
This is not an isolated case; in fact, it’s so common that animals in this condition are known in the meat industry as ”downers,” and no effort is made by industry insiders or the U.S. Department of Agriculture to see that they are treated more humanely. It is standard practice for stockyard workers to find “downed” animals, tie them to the back of a pickup truck, and drag them to an area where they are piled on top of each other to await the butcher. The handling of “downer” animals has proved that the meat industry cannot monitor itself. It’s up to the public to demand change and to refuse to purchase the products of this miserable industry. |
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