OBAMA ADMIN BANS DOWNER COWS FOR CONSUMPTION, CLOSES LONGTIME LOOPHOLE
March 2009, THE ENDLESS CAMPAIGN - Over 12 years ago, Kinship Circle's first alert asked U.S. lawmakers to pass the Downed Animal Protection Act to ban slaughter of cows, pigs, sheep and all farmed animals too sick and crippled to move. A federal law for every animal used as food still does not exist. The Obama administration has passed a measure to permanently forbid slaughter of non-ambulatory cows. Ultimately, an enforceable law should ban transport, marketing and slaughter of pigs, sheep, goats and other downed animals. Any animal too sick or injured to stand should be humanely euthanized, not forced to suffer until USDA inspection. President Obama's signature closes a loophole that left special-circumstance downer cows unprotected. The measure solidifies a flimsy Agriculture Department BAN. It is still not a codified LAW.

WHY WE CARE - Sick animals make sick food, from mad cow disease to E. coli or Salmonella. But Kinship Circle already advocates a plant-based diet. We care because no dying animal should be rammed upright with tractors, forklifts and chains. Hauled, electro-shocked, water-hosed, pounded. So meat makers can eke about 30 dollars out of her tortured body. Kinship Circle will continue to push for a Downed Animal and Food Safety Protection Act that protects all disabled animals, calls for merciful euthanasia, and forbids violent means to move downed animals.

Every year thousands of downed cows are dragged onto trucks and taken to USDA approved slaughterhouses. This cow, like most downed animals, came from an industrialized dairy operation. Photo from Farm Sanctuary.

A dying calf is left to suffer at a stockyard. Photo from Farm Sanctuary.

Pigs who died in transit are dumped behind a truck at a slaughterhouse. Photo from Farm Sanctuary.

A downed sheep slowly dies at a Texas stockyard. Farm Sanctuary.

U.S. MAD COW SCARE PUTS USDA ON ALERT, SORT OF
2003 - U.S. Department of Agriculture authorizes a downer ban in response to a Washington state dairy cow with bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE. But by 2007, Big Meat convinces Bush regulators to dilute USDA's administrative rule. Collapsed cows with apparent central nervous system disease are covered. But those who seem to have orthopedic injuries alone, like broken legs or ripped tendons, are kept alive to make hamburgers.

• JANUARY 2008 - Humane Society of the U.S. goes undercover at Westland-Hallmark Meat Packing Company in Chino, CA. The story explodes over newswires. Mainstream eaters learn what "downers" are and see electric prods shock the heads, necks, spines and rectums of animals crumpled on concrete. They see eyes blink as organs fail, crushed bones and torn ligaments dragged over pavement. They hear cows moan as forklifts toss their giant bodies like rag dolls. They see concentrated water jets fired in the noses and throats of cows.


• FEBRUARY 2008 - In the nation's largest recall, USDA quarantines 143,383,823 pounds of Hallmark-tainted beef. Legislators cry foul and demand stronger oversight. Yet at a 2/28/08 hearing to assess inspection blunders, former Agriculture Secretary Edward Schafer asks a Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee to strike down a ban on slaughter of non-ambulatory cows. In a country more obsessed with profit margins than animal cruelty and human safety, it is still okay for diseased cows to slip into the food supply.

In a still excerpted from HSUS undercover video footage, a Westland-Hallmark worker shoots painful water jets into the face of a downed cow to make her stand. Once down, organs slowly collapse. An animal cannot rise, even with violent coercion.

Video footage showed workers at Hallmark Meat Packing repeatedly kicking cows and ramming them with forklift blades as animals squealed in pain. At time, Westland-Hallmark was a major beef supplier to the U.S. School Lunch Program. HSUS, Rampant Animal Cruelty at California Slaughter Plant

• 4/17/08 - USDA routinely hides downer abuse, claims the head of a union representing 6,000 federal food inspectors. In testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Domestic Policy Subcommitte, convened to assess slaughterhouse methods following Westland-Hallmark humane violations, Union Chief Stan Painter says USDA officials try to intimidate workers who report violations. In the aftermath of a 2003 mad cow scare, Painter told superiors that food safety regulations were not uniformly enforced at kill plants. Painter was ordered to drop the matter. When he did not, agency officials grilled him and and placed him on disciplinary investigative status. Painter says supervisors instruct employees to "let the system work" rather than become whistleblowers.


• 4/22/08 - In a big flip-flop, meat and dairy industry groups American Meat Institute, National Meat Association and National Milk Producers Federation now back a total ban on slaughter of downed cows in the human food chain. When watchdog groups and some lawmakers lobbied for a ban after the Westland-Hallmark beef recall, industry had balked at regulatory changes.


• 4/30/08 - In papers obtained by Associated Press under a Freedom of Information request, U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service audits reveal noncompliance issues for National Beef Packing Co. in Dodge City, KS and Cargill Meat Solutions in Fresno, CA. Overall, 18 slaughterhouse show improper stunning, overcrowding, and electrical prod use to move downed animals. FSIS performed audits after violations at Westland-Halllmark Meat Co. led to a massive beef recall.


• 5/8/08 - HSUS exposes more downer cruelty when its investigators document abuse and neglect at Hereford Livestock Exhchange in the Texas Panhandle Region.


• 9/28/08 - U.S. Senate rejects a motion to proceed to debate on the Economic Stimulus package, which includes language to ban non-ambulatory cows from entering food stocks.


• DECEMBER 2008 - After the Hallmark-Westland debacle, Ag Secretary Ed Schafter requests an Office of Inspector General investigation. OIG summarizes glaring problems:
  • Food Safety Inspectors cannot show if oversight is sufficient.
  • Non-veterinarians are allowed to perform ante-mortem inspection without formal training or supervision.
  • A Public Health Veterinarian for Hallmark-Westland shortcuts inspections, delegating tasks to Hallmark-Westland staff.
  • In an audit of 10 kill plants, half fail to gain passing grades. A 50 percent malfunction rate usually qualifies as systemic breakdown within an industry. Secretary Schafer vows to ban downed-cow slaughter without exception, but delays pledge.