Meat Industry Abuses
Whenever people are involved in anything, there will always be abuse. That's because a small percentage of people are flat out evil. Sometimes they are evil because they have been given unlimited power by an evil force -- think government. In agriculture, far an away there are really great people doing the very best they can for their livestock, their land, their families, and the many millions of people they feed. Just think about it, their incomes and profitability are dependent on it. This is true at every level from production through processing. To blame the majority for the acts of a few is not rational. This is true for any profession except maybe politicians. (That was intended to be humorous.) So here we try to present both sides of the story.
Animal Abuse
Below on this page is the "meat" of the story as presented by Katharine Mieszkowski. I found her article on this Web site. For the full story she wrote you can click on this link.
Extreme Acts of Animal Cruelty
The Humane Society investigator who spurred the biggest beef recall in U.S. history speaks to Salon about his alarming undercover video.
By Katharine Mieszkowski
Feb. 22, 2008
In October 2007, John Wrangler, not his real name, took a job as a livestock handler at the Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. in Chino, Calif., for a salary of $8 an hour. Working from 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., sx days a week, Wrangler herded cattle, many of them milked-out dairy cows, off trucks, and hustled them from pens towards the "kill box" to be slaughtered. Illinois Horse Slaughter Plant Remains Open
UNITED STATES: U.S. District Court judge allows horse slaughter plant to temporarily slaughter horses while lawsuit is underway.
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) denounces a decision made on Friday, June 1, by the Honorable Frederick Kapala of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois to allow a horse slaughter plant to temporarily evade prosecution under a newly-enacted Illinois law banning the slaughter of horses in the state for human consumption.
The measure, which was strongly supported by AWI's legislative arm, the Society for Animal Protective Legislation (SPL), passed overwhelmingly in both chambers of the Illinois legislature and was signed into law by Governor Rod Blagojevich on May 24th. PETA Ad Cleared in United Kingdom
UNITED KINGDOM: Advertising Standards Authority ruling on anti-meat campaign condemned as "wrong and perverse."
An advertisement by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) that showed a photograph of an overweight child eating a burger and stated, “Feeding kids meat is child abuse FIGHT THE FAT GO VEG,” has been cleared by the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority.
Now the ASA decision has caused a storm of protest among those who originally complained, and they have called for an independent review of the finding.
The ASA received complaints about the ad from The Ntional Farmers' Union, Hughes Butchers, the Guild of Welsh Lamb and Beef Suppliers, the International Meat Trade Association, and members of the public. Worker Abuse
WORKER ABUSE ALLEGED - The meat processing industry counters claims that it mistreats and neglects employees.
The New York City, New York-headquartered Human Rights Watch claimed that workers in U.S. meat and poultry processing plants are exposed to dangerous conditions, suffer debilitating injuries, fear being fired, and don’t receive all of the compensation to which they are entitled.
“Workers in American beef, pork, and poultry slaughtering and processing plants perform dangerous jobs in difficult conditions,” Human Rights Watch said in its 175-page report, Blood, Sweat, and Fear: orkers’ Rights in U. 300+ Health/Nutrition Essays
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