They die piece by piece : Investigation reveals rampant cruelty in industrial slaughterhouses
There is no relevance to morality when the latter is revered with no consideration to the former: life takes precedence over murder, anything else is blatant denial, but no matter how much you deny it, the animals suffer the depraved, bloody consequences of your comfortable conformity.
Editor’s Note: Although Temple Grandin is referenced as an expert in the “humane” treatment of animals, OC adamantly disagrees with such a distinction and believes Ms. Grandin has done more to harm than to help by fostering the inaccurate, immoral idea that animals can be killed humanely. No animal, human or non-human, can be characterized as treated humanely if killed violently, exploitively. The only humane observance is veganism; if you think otherwise, then you have no problem with the deliberate, premature, and bloody murder of human animals as long as they get knocked in the head 50 times out of 100.
Ten billion animals are killed annually for food, just in the United States, and that figure does not include marine, testing, and fur victims. Ten billion. There are no humane standards; the Animal Welfare Act specifically EXCLUDES animals commodified for food. Think about that.
Please understand that the animals about whom you may care – cats and dogs – are no different than animals you eat. Please be vegan. We are more than thrilled to help in any manner necessary, you need only ask, or scroll to the end for resources and links to information and free guides.
From The Washington Post
By Joby Warrick, Washington Post Staff Writer
In the blink of an eye: A secret video made by a worker at a meatpacking plant in Pasco, Wash., showed that this steer, which supposedly had been stunned, had blinking reflexes, indicating it was still conscious.
It takes 25 minutes to turn a live steer into steak at the modern slaughterhouse where Ramon Moreno works. For 20 years, his post was “second-legger,” a job that entails cutting hocks off carcasses as they whirl past at a rate of 309 an hour.
The cattle were supposed to be dead before they got to Moreno. But too often they weren’t.
“They blink. They make noises,” he said softly. “The head moves, the eyes are wide and looking around.” Still Moreno would cut. On bad days, he says, dozens of animals reached his station clearly alive and conscious. Some would survive as far as the tail cutter, the belly ripper, the hide puller. “They die,” said Moreno, “piece by piece.”
Records from 1997 and 1998 describe hogs that were walking and squealing after being stunned as many as four times.
Under a 23-year-old federal law, slaughtered cattle and hogs first must be “stunned” — rendered insensible to pain — with a blow to the head or an electric shock. But at overtaxed plants, the law is sometimes broken, with cruel consequences for animals as well as workers. Enforcement records, interviews, videos and worker affidavits describe repeated violations of the Humane Slaughter Act at dozens of slaughterhouses, ranging from the smallest, custom butcheries to modern, automated es-tablishments such as the sprawling IBP Inc. plant here where Moreno works.
“In plants all over the United States, this happens on a daily basis,” said Lester Friedlander, a veterinarian and formerly chief government inspector at a Pennsylvania hamburger plant. “I’ve seen it happen. And I’ve talked to other veterinarians. They feel it’s out of control.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture oversees the treatment of animals in meat plants, but enforcement of the law varies dramatically. While a few plants have been forced to halt production for a few hours because of alleged animal cruelty, such sanctions are rare.
For example, the government took no action against a Texas beef company that was cited 22 times in 1998 for violations that included chopping hooves off live cattle. In another case, agency supervisors failed to take action on multiple complaints of animal cruelty at a Florida beef plant and fired an animal health technician for reporting the problems. The dismissal letter sent to the technician, Tim Walker, said his disclosure had “irreparably damaged” the agency’s relations with the packing plant.
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“I complained to everyone — I said, ‘Lookit, they’re skinning live cows in there,’ “ Walker said. “Always it was the same answer: ‘We know it’s true. But there’s nothing we can do about it.’ ”
In the past three years, a new meat inspection system that shifted responsibility to industry has made it harder to catch and report cruelty problems, some federal inspectors say. Under the new system, implemented in 1998, the agency no longer tracks the number of humane-slaughter violations its inspectors find each year.
Some inspectors are so frustrated they’re asking outsiders for help: The inspectors’ union joined with the Humane Farming Association last spring and urged Washington state authori-ties to crack down on alleged animal abuse at the IBP plant in Pasco. In a statement, IBP said problems described by workers in its Washington state plant “do not accurately represent the way we operate our plants. We take the issue of proper livestock handling very seriously.”
But the union complained that new government policies and faster production speeds at the plant had “significantly hampered our ability to ensure compliance.”
“Privatization of meat inspection has meant a quiet death to the already meager enforcement of the Humane Slaughter Act,” said Gail Eisnitz of the Humane Farming Association, a group that advocates better treatment of farm animals. “USDA isn’t simply relinquishing its humane-slaughter oversight to the meat industry, but is — without the knowledge and consent of Congress — abandoning this function altogether.”
The USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service, which is responsible for meat inspection, says it has not relaxed its oversight. In January, the agency ordered a review of 100 slaughterhouses. An FSIS memo reminded its 7,600 inspectors they had an “obligation to ensure compliance” with humane-handling laws.
The review comes as pressure grows on both industry and regulators to improve conditions for the 155 million cattle, hogs, horses and sheep slaughtered each year. McDonald’s and Burger King have been subject to boycotts by animal rights groups protesting mistreatment of livestock.
‘They blink. They make noises. The head moves, the eyes are wide and looking around.’ Still Moreno would cut. On bad days, he says, dozens of animals reached his station clearly alive and conscious. Some would survive as far as the tail cutter, the belly ripper, the hide puller. ‘They die,’ said Moreno, ‘piece by piece.’
As a result, two years ago McDonald’s began requiring suppliers to abide by the American Meat Institute’s Good Management Practices for Animal Handling and Stunning. The company also began conducting annual audits of meat plants. Industry groups acknowledge that sloppy killing has tangible consequences for consumers as well as company profits. Fear and pain cause animals to produce hormones that damage meat and cost companies tens of millions of dollars a year in discarded product, according to industry estimates. Industry officials say they also recognize an ethical imperative to treat animals with compassion.
Clearly, not all plants have gotten the message.
A Post computer analysis of government records found 527 violations of humane-handling regulations from 1996 to 1997, the last years for which complete records were available. The offenses range from overcrowded stockyards to incidents in which live animals were cut, skinned or scalded. Through the Freedom of Information Act, The Post obtained documents from 28 plants that had high numbers of offenses or had drawn penalties for violating humane-handling laws. The Post also interviewed dozens of current and former federal meat inspectors and slaughterhouse workers. A reporter reviewed affidavits and secret video recordings made inside two plants.
Among the findings:
* One Texas plant, Supreme Beef Packers in Ladonia, had 22 violations in six months. During one inspection, federal officials found nine live cattle dangling from an overhead chain. But managers at the plant, which an-nounced last fall it was ceasing opera-tions, resisted USDA warnings, saying its practices were no different than oth-ers in the industry. “Other plants are not subject to such extensive scrutiny of their stunning activities,” the plant complained in a 1997 letter to the USDA.
* Government inspectors halted cproduction for a day at the Calhoun Packing Co. beef plant in Palestine, Tex., after inspectors saw cattle being improperly stunned. “They were still conscious and had good reflexes,” B.V. Swamy, a veterinarian and senior USDA official at the plant, wrote. The shift supervisor “allowed the cattle to be hung anyway.” IBP, which owned the plant at the time, contested the findings but “took steps to resolve the situation,” including installing video equipment and increasing training, a spokesman said. IBP has since sold the plant.
* At the Farmers Livestock Cooperative processing plant in Hawaii, inspectors documented 14 humane-slaughter violations in as many months. Records from 1997 and 1998 describe hogs that were walking and squealing after being stunned as many as four times. In a memo to USDA, the company said it fired the stunner and increased monitoring of the slaughter process.
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* At an Excel Corp. beef plant in Fort Morgan, Colo., production was halted for a day in 1998 after workers allegedly cut off the leg of a live cow whose limbs had become wedged in a piece of machinery. In imposing the sanction, U.S. inspectors cited a string of violations in the previous two years, including the cutting and skinning of live cattle. The company, responding to one such charge, contended that it was normal for animals to blink and arch their backs after being stunned, and such “muscular reaction” can occur up to six hours after death. “None of these reactions indicate the animal is still alive,” the company wrote to USDA.
* Hogs, unlike cattle, are dunked in tanks of hot water after they are stunned to soften the hides for skinning. As a result, a botched slaughter condemns some hogs to being scalded and drowned. Secret videotape from an Iowa pork plant [provided by the Humane Farming Association] shows hogs squealing and kicking as they are being lowered into the water. USDA documents and interviews with inspectors and plant workers attributed many of the problems to poor training, faulty or poorly maintained equipment or excessive production speeds.
Those problems were identified five years ago in an industry-wide audit by Temple Grandin, an assistant professor with Colorado State University’s animal sciences department. . . .
In the early 1990s, Grandin developed the first objective standards for treatment of animals in slaughterhouses, which were adopted by the American Meat Institute. Her initial, USDA-funded survey in 1996 was one of the first attempts to grade slaughter plants. One finding was a high failure rate among beef plants that use stunning devices known as “captive-bolt” guns. Of the plants surveyed, only 36 percent earned a rating of “acceptable” or better, meaning cattle were knocked unconscious with a single blow at least 95 percent of the time.
Grandin now conducts annual surveys as a consultant for the American Meat Institute and McDonald’s Corp. She maintains that the past four years have brought dramatic improvements. Based on the data collected by McDonald’s auditors, the portion of beef plants scoring “acceptable” or better climbed to 90 percent in 1999. Some workers and inspectors are skeptical of the McDonald’s numbers, and Grandin said the industry’s performance dropped slightly last year after auditors stopped giving notice of some inspections.
Grandin said high production speeds can trigger problems when people and equipment are pushed beyond their capacity. From a typical kill rate of 50 cattle an hour in the early 1900s, production speeds rose dramatically in the 1980s. They now approach 400 per hour in the newest plants. “It’s like the ‘I Love Lucy’ episode in the chocolate factory,” she said. “You can speed up a job and speed up a job, and after a while you get to a point where performance doesn’t simply decline — it crashes.”
When that happens, it’s not only animals that suffer. Improperly stunned animals contribute to worker injuries in an industry that already has the nation’s highest rate of job-related injuries and illnesses — about 27 percent a year. At some plants, “dead” animals have inflicted so many broken limbs and teeth that workers wear chest pads and hockey masks.
“The live cows cause a lot of injuries,” said Martin Fuentes, an IBP worker whose arm was kicked and shattered by a dying cow. “The line is never stopped simply because an animal is alive.”
A Brutal Harvest
At IBP’s Pasco complex, the making of the American hamburger starts in a noisy, blood-spattered chamber shielded from view by a stainless steel wall. Here, live cattle emerge from a narrow chute to be dispatched in a process known as “knocking” or “stunning.” On most days the chamber is manned by a pair of Mexican immigrants who speak little English and earn about $9 an hour for killing up to 2,050 head per shift.
The tool of choice is the captive-bolt gun, which fires a retractable metal rod into the steer’s forehead. An effective stunning requires a precision shot, which workers must deliver hundreds of times daily to balky, frightened animals that frequently weigh 1,000 pounds or more. Within 12 seconds of entering the chamber, the fallen steer is shackled to a moving chain to be bled and butchered by other workers in a fast-moving production line.
The hitch, IBP workers say, is that some “stunned” cattle wake up. “If you put a knife into the cow, it’s going to make a noise: It says, ‘Moo!’” said Moreno, the former second-legger, who began working in the stockyard last year. “They move the head and the eyes and the leg like the cow wants to walk.”
At some plants, ‘dead’ animals have inflicted so many broken limbs and teeth that workers wear chest pads and hockey masks.
After a blow to the head, an unconscious animal may kick or twitch by reflex. But a videotape, made secretly by IBP workers and reviewed by veterinarians for The Post, depicts cattle that clearly are alive and conscious after being stunned.
Some cattle, dangling by a leg from the plant’s overhead chain, twist and arch their backs as though trying to right themselves. Close-ups show blinking reflexes, an unmistakable sign of a conscious brain.
The video, parts of which were aired by Seattle television station KING last spring, shows injured cattle being trampled. In one graphic scene, workers give a steer electric shocks by jamming a battery-powered prod into its mouth.
More than 20 workers signed affidavits alleging that the violations shown on tape are commonplace and that supervisors are aware of them. The sworn statements and videos were prepared with help from the Humane Farming Association. Some workers had taken part in a 1999 strike over what they said were excessive plant production speeds.
“I’ve seen thousands and thousands of cows go through the slaughter process alive,” IBP veteran Fuentes, the worker who was injured while working on live cattle, said in an affi-davit. “The cows can get seven minutes down the line and still be alive. I’ve been in the side-puller where they’re still alive. All the hide is stripped out down the neck there.”
IBP, the nation’s top beef processor, denounced as an “appalling aberration” the problems captured on the tape. It suggested the events may have been staged . . .
“Like many other people, we were very upset over the hidden camera video,” the company said. “We do not in any way condone some of the livestock handling that was shown.”
After the [Humane Farming Asso-ciation] video surfaced, IBP increased worker training and installed cameras in the slaughter area. The company also questioned workers and offered a reward for information leading to identification of those responsible for the video. One worker said IBP pressured him to sign a statement denying that he had seen live cattle on the line.
“I knew that what I wrote wasn’t true,” said the worker, who did not want to be identified for fear of losing his job. “Cows still go alive every day. When cows go alive, it’s because they don’t give me time to kill them.”
Independent assessments of the workers’ claims have been inconclusive. Washington state officials launched a probe in May that included an unannounced plant inspection. The investigators say they were detained outside the facility for an hour while their identities were checked. They saw no acts of animal cruelty once permitted inside.
Grandin also inspected IBP’s plant, at the company’s request; that inspection was announced. Although she observed no live cattle being butchered, she concluded that the plant’s older-style equipment was “overloaded.” Grandin reviewed parts of the workers’ videotape and said there was no mistaking what she saw.
“There were fully alive beef on that rail,” Grandin said.
Inconsistent Enforcement
Preventing this kind of suffering is officially a top priority for the USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service. By law, a humane-slaughter violation is among a handful of offenses that can result in an immediate halt in production — and cost a meatpacker hundreds or even thousands of dollars per idle minute. In reality, many inspectors describe humane slaughter as a blind spot: Inspectors’ regular duties rarely take them to the chambers where stunning occurs. Inconsistencies in enforcement, training and record-keeping hamper the agency’s ability to identify problems.
‘ I’ve seen thousands and thousands of cows go through the slaughter process alive,’ IBP veteran Fuentes, the worker who was injured while working on live cattle, said in an affidavit. ‘The cows can get seven minutes down the line and still be alive. I’ve been in the side-puller where they’re still alive. All the hide is stripped out down the neck there.’
The meat inspectors’ union, in its petition last spring to Washington state’s attorney general, contended that federal agents are “often prevented from carrying out” the mandate against animal cruelty. Among the obstacles inspectors face are “dramatic increases in production speeds, lack of support from supervisors in plants and district offices . . . new inspection policies which significantly reduce our enforcement authority, and little to no access to the areas of the plants where animals are killed,” stated the petition by the National Joint Council of Food Inspection Locals.
Barbara Masters, the agency’s director of slaughter operations, told meat industry executives in February she didn’t know if the number of violations was up or down, though she believed most plants were complying with the law. “We encourage the district offices to monitor trends,” she said. “The fact that we haven’t heard anything suggests there are no trends.” But some inspectors see little evidence the agency is interested in hearing about problems. Under the new inspection system, the USDA stopped tracking the number of violations and dropped all mentions of humane slaughter from its list of rotating tasks for inspectors.
The agency says it expects its watchdogs to enforce the law anyway. Many inspectors still do, though some occasionally wonder if it’s worth the trouble.
“It always ends up in argument: Instead of re-stunning the animal, you spend 20 minutes just talking about it,” said Colorado meat inspector Gary Dahl, sharing his private views. “Yes, the animal will be dead in a few minutes anyway. But why not let him die with dignity?”
“The industry’s self-inspections are meaningless. They’re designed to lull Americans into a false sense of security about what goes on inside slaughterhouses.”
RELATED:
Our Compass 
are slaughter house personnel
morally deaf and blind
to the pain and suffering
they leave behind
all in the name of
profit’s sake
carnage and horror
in their wake:(
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Indeed, they are, they have to be, or they wouldnt be able to do the job. They have no heart or capacity for compassion for the animals. If they did, they wouldnt be there.
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That would be beautiful if it wasn’t so true! Kudos Karen, xxx
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That really is beautiful, wonderful poet … thank you.
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Hopefully Karma will hit each and every person that tortures these helpless, kind, gentle animals!!…..the same thing should be done to each of them
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Stop à la cruauté d’animaux d’abattoir, cela me révolte sur le tramsport, l’abattage de masse, ilfaut que cela cesse il y a eu une enquéte sur la société Charal est bien d’autre.ET si nous devenons tous végétarien sa super non????.Je continue de signé les pétitions contre ce massacre, plus nous seront nombreux mieix nous seront entendus
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I read Temple’s book, “Animals make us Human.” This is not what she supports. She is a realist and knows human beings and the animals we care for are not going to stop eating meat. At least not until the second coming of Christ and Buddha. Human meat eaters are addicted to the taste of fat. We have caged animals in zoos… that eat meat. It comes from somewhere. This is not simple. There is no such thing as “compassionate killing.” I tell that to myself every time I open a can of cat food.
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This is exactly what the Nazis did! Americans and all humans that commit these atrocities are thinking just like Hitler! What is even more disturbing is that it is not only allowed but meat eating humans turn their heads are in denial and then are part of this NAZI mentality by continuing to buy meat and the EVIL meat money hungry humans continue to feed their request for more tortured meat. The Evil cycle goes on and on. Because, we have memory at the cellular level these meat eating humans are getting these ‘thought forms’ at the cellular level and then subconsciously are holding this tortured memory and the ANGER and Rage that the humans inflict upon the animals are contained in the cells, as well. The whole process is subconscious and unbeknownst to ‘some’ of the unaware meat eaters they are now the persecutor and accomplice to the dark force WAR crimes here upon planet Earth.
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Temple Grandin has links to PETA who I do not support due to their so-called pseudo ‘victories’, I want abolition NOT animals still being killed.
However having read this I am not at all surprised, I have spoken to many people who have or still are working in slaughter houses and their attitude towards the animal’s lives are breathtakingly arrogant!!
They do not see them as living, breathing, sentient beings with feelings, they view them as ‘things’, and their welfare is of no importance to them.
There is no such thing as humane slaughter, killing is killing at the end of the day not matter how much your try to wrap it up, it is morally wrong and should be stopped, period!!
Thanks Stacey once again for your tenacity.
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Thank you for your input, and, Angela, thank you, I agree.
To Tiredofselfrighteousopinions who wrote to the “idiot” who stated that the only humane lifestyle is veganism: that “idiot” is I. I am willing to entertain an opposing opinion in the spirit of respectful education, but I refuse to engage in any sparring over “humane” animal agriculture and rigid definitions based on your lifestyle. Approximately 98% of the world already agrees with you, why come here to attempt to conform us? And as for your nonsensical excuse of historical diets to excuse your gorging one now, visit a library and read a book and evolve. Does financial profit and economical benefit justify returning to a period of slavery JUST BECAUSE it existed?
I don’t care what health condition you have, there are celiacs who are vegan, so your rejection of veganism to continue your lifestyle at the cost of others is completely selfish and inhumane. Your illness does NOT grant you the “right” to kill others, if you think so, then eat the flesh of your human counterparts. Nevertheless, I’d love to know who is treated “humanely”: the animal who was killed to feed a healthy person or the animal who was killed to feed an ill person. In this scenario, which alternative is humane? Exactly. When you regard the murder of animals as justifiable based on YOU and YOUR condition, you are acting no better than every other speciesist who parades the same, tired, banal excuses to validate the deliberate murder of animals.
Thanks for exploiting human conditions and illnesses to justify the harm and death inflicted on animals, that makes you about as concerned and humane as the person who exploits children in sweatshops to justify earning a profit to survive. I don’t feel sorry for either of you, I pity your weakness and self-absorbed life demanding the brutal, needless death of innocent, sentient animals because you think your condition grants you a lifestyle disclaimer.
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Shame on humans who kill this way such innocent animals, and people who are blind and still eats meat!
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Blogging…… it is always lost in linguistics and rigidity. Makes me want to scream.
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UNFORTUNATELY AS LONG AS HUMAN BEINGS NEED TO EAT MEAT THEY WILL HAVE NO RESPECT FOR HOW OUR BELOVED ANIMAL FRIENDS ARE KILLED AS TO THEM THEY DID NOT KNOW IT AND THAT IT TOO HAS FEELING AND EMOTIONS
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This is like blaming drug lords for their crimes when it is the users that promote such cruelty and murder. If people didn’t use cocaine, crystal meth, etc. then there would be no trafficking……
Maybe, if we could collectively cut down on eating red meat, ask forcertificates of humane dispatch, lobby the government, etc. much of the cruelty that passes for animal processing would be reduced.
In reality, so much meat ingestion is unhealthy anyway. It would save money, improve health and improve our feelings of self-worth if we could just cut out 50% of our weekly meat diet.
We don’t need to eat so much anyway, it is an inefficient method of producing food – turning hormone laden foodstuff into human food via animal digestion. The methane producing creatures would be spared a horrendous life of gorging, fattening, distress and slaughter.
What can we do to improve this vile situation?
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture is a joke… right up there with the Bureau of Land Management, Mineral Management and Salazar. Fire each and every one of them… have them work at the slaughterhouses for a week and see if they can live with themselves.
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IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT WE DO TO TRY AND STOP THIS MASS TORTURE OF ANIMALS! AS LONG AS THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR HAS ITS SAY..THEY ARE DEAF AND DUMB TO ANYTHING..OR ANYONE….ESP THE FEELINGS OF A STUNNED COW….OR AN ENJURED WORKER. THIS IS JUST A LEGAL DRUG TO THEM …WITH ENORMOUS PROFITS. WORKERS COMP DOESN’T CARE EITHER…THEY’RE AN INSURANCE COMPANY AND THE EMPLOYERS MAKE IT ALL POSSIBLE FOR THEM TO GET RICHER..AND THE TRAIL GOES ON AND ON……BUT KARMA IS A BITCH….AND VENGENCE IS MINE SAYETH THE LORD!
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Even in Australia there is very little policing of the activities that go on inside slaughterhouses, authorities must be there every day to ensure animals are stunned properly etc, this is the least the animal can fucking expect…the meat industry is self regulated all over the world….people do as they please from farm too slaughter..
I was at a saleyard in Australia no so long ago and I saw a sheep lying down with its back legs thrashing, I knew straight away the person who has tried to put the sheep down just shot it with a captive bolt gun then walked away not ensuring the sheep was dead, as I got closer I could see the sheep was breathing heavily (i took footage), i phoned the person responsible who then shot the sheep again, I had to walk away from this man because I would have assaulted him…i have already had this yard in the spotlight many times over the years when it was council run and it has now been taken over by a huge private company so I am just sitting and waiting and then i will destroy their name all over Australia ….greedy fucking humans….they can’t even put an animal out of its suffering with adding further suffering…sickening….
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I could not read the whole article because I could not stop crying. I can’t believe these innocent animals have to suffer so much because people only care for money and what some call the pleasure of eating. How can anybody enjoy eating meat knowing what goes on in these places. I would give my life if that would save those sweet creatures, it would be a very small price to pay to stop the suffering of so many innocent animals.
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Okay, you guys. I think everyone has gotten that the slaughter of our “beloved friends” needs to be ended. It’s not going to end. I’m not saying for you to stop trying to fight for a lost cause or anything. I am simply saying that just because a few million people believe that being a vegan is the humane way doesn’t mean that the masses will change or see your ways let alone consider them.
I eat meat and will continue to do so until the day I die. Just saying. If we were not suppose to eat meat, the creatures that supply us with it probably would not exist due to overpopulation. I’m not saying that overpopulation is why we need to eat meat. Just a thought. Actually, people do eat other people. Is it immoral in our eyes? Yes. To those that do eat human flesh, it’s their culture. Yes, it is a tad bit odd and slightly disgusting. To some of them, it’s how they honor their dead. Cows, sheep, pig and what have you, are food. Yes, they are also someone’s pet or prized show animal. Apparently, from what I have heard, being a vegan is not such a healthy lifestyle for people. Protein, protein, protein. That’s all I’ve heard doctors bitch about with Vegans. They say they’re not getting enough protein and that nuts that contain some protein do not have enough to support a healthy human being. You may think that you’re healthy now.. Down the line, health problems do occur in vegans. I’m not supporting those overweight, jowl smacking carnivores that make up a majority of America. All I’m saying really is that there needs to be a balance. Unfortunately, it’s probably never going to happen. Reality sucks.
The slaughter houses do indeed need major improvement. They need to stop hiring illegal immigrants that don’t know their head from the ass and get people that are capable of being properly trained and that can understand English. Demonstrating how to use the captive bolt doesn’t teach their illegal immigrant workers jack shit. To them, it looks like, “Point at their head and shoot.” They have no real training. Not all people that work at slaughter houses are heartless and sick. Their people that are trying to make money for their family so that they can have a roof over their heads. Is it the best job? No. It is a job never the less. They can’t help that they received sorry ass training. All that they really know is to aim for the head. There are thousands upon thousands of ways that slaughter can be made more humane. Temple at least is trying. I’ve seen her work and quite honestly, it’s a hell of a lot better that what’s in the slaughter houses across the world.
Tiredofselfrighteousopinions does address some important points. A good majority of people on here are calling people that eat meat names need to stop with the name calling and the trash talking of those who choose to eat meat. I know damn well about what goes on in slaughter houses. I still eat meat. It doesn’t phase me a bit. No, I’m not heartless or mentally sick. It’s life. I am in no way supporting the inhumane treatment the animals get while in the slaughter houses. Although I don’t condone their ways of going about the whole situation, I will continue to eat meat. tiredofselfrighteousopinons, there was no need to be rude to the poster. She’s not an idiot for believing in veganism.
Stacy… Ouch. There is absolutely NO reason to be that rude. By attacking back, you’re stooping to their level. You could have replied back in a more mature way. You’re only adding fuel to the fire. All I’m really saying is if you want change, you need set an example. Being rude like that and retaliating in that manner will not get you anywhere. Just saying. People will only take initiative when they have a positive source and leader. I don’t think that they were using health problems as an excuse for not being vegan.. They were just merely stating that there are some health conditions that require more substance than just vegetables and fruit. No, having a health problem is not an excuse for eating meat but neither is having your head so far up your ass that you can only see your way and nobody else’s.
Oh a little fyi for you vegans. ;] Plants have feelings. Look it up. I’m only playing with you guys. Don’t get huffy over a little joke. *nudge nudge* Stacy.. lol. No really though, plants really do have feelings and when attacked in some manner they do send off stress signals. Just because it doesn’t blink or have a brain doesn’t mean that it can’t feel. Food for thought. I’m not saying that you have to eat meat now because people have found veggies and other plants to actually feel and have emotions. I’m just saying.. if veggies had brains and could react the way animals do in slaughter, what would you do? Suck on a pebble for the rest of your life?
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Dahlia, this isn’t an intervention, if someone casually, apathetically championed killing children, rudeness as a response should be the LAST consideration. I’m not here to make YOU feel better, that you can observe and understand what animals experience and jokingly tease about “rudeness” and plant sentience only demonstrates your utter indifference to the torture and murder of sentient beings, who are just as capable of fear, love, agony, and suffering LIKE HUMANS. That you can honestly deliver such a lengthy missive detailing your LOVE of their flesh, your support of their torture, and your complicity in their murder makes me ill. You are a sycophant, a parasitic piece of garbage who maintains a nonchalant attitude towards the deliberate suffering of sentient beings and you have the AUDACITY to complain about MY ATTITUDE?
Overpopulation: have you an conception of what idiocy this encompasses? Animals are bred by the billions, deliberately RAPED and forced the endure the separation from their children, who agonize over the loss of a mother. Baby male chickens are ground up in massive crushers, pigs are castrated and dentally altered in the absence of anesthetic, tails are docked, bodies are branded, animals are skinned and eviscerated while conscious, and you MOCK the movement while gleefully stating your love of flesh causing the unimaginable holocaust of billions of innocent, sentient beings.
You are an utterly vile and disgusting person, endorsing the murder of animals. This is MY site, do not come back, you make me sick.
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Delia-please have a stroke and a heart attack – it’s going to eventually happen with your diet of slaughtered bodies you human piece of excrement. Not just you but billions of others just like you. Thank God heart attacks are the #1 cause of death in humans. I honestly pray to God you get mad cow disease from your feast of flesh. I hope you realize the USDA does not check for it, and downer cows is a norm in your diet, which the cows eat chicken poop as a standard feed, and chickens are even fed arsenic to make them top heavy and slightly pinkish meat-that’s arsenic poison. And the red meat is gassed with carbon monoxide, and cultures of raw meat often contain live MRSA and VRE which is highly contagious to the touch. Thank God for MRSA – human beings are a tasty treat for these super resistant bugs because the farm factories give them a daily diet of antibiotics to keep them alive in the filth, excrement and urine they are forced to live in every day of their short suffering lives. To feed disgusting gluttons like YOU.
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I have heard that Christ just ate fruit, nuts and vegetables from plants/trees/vines that do not die during a harvest. That is a good diet. Dahlia why are you posting here?
Discovered today that the Puppy Mill bill up for vote with the North Carolina state of representatives to regulate (eventually stop back yard breeding) was voted down because the pork industry felt so threatened by the possibility of the law passing. Their moronic thinking is that if the anti-puppy mill bill was passed that it would give the “animal welfare people” a one up. This “potential animal welfare influence” would cause people in North Carolina to stop eating pork and become vegetarians…. therefor puppy mills with all the suffering that comes along with it and the unholy slaughter of millions of pigs and piglets is seen as one big ball game to the demonic agriculture department in North Carolina. Are you a pig eater Dahlia?
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May all those doing terrible, horrible things to animals and feeling no remorse, get struck down with a deadly , painfull virus and wipe them from this planet, evil that is what they are
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Most human beings LOVE animal cruelty, inflicting agony, and then murdering them, then gorge upon their slaughtered corpses with an orgy of blood and visera, which tells you what kind of despicable species human beings really are. I really pray to God human beings go extinct-the sooner, the better. May bird and swine flu merge just wipe out the human race – if there is a God please let it be. Amen!
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I read this article “They Die Piece by Piece”some time ago. I cried it was so visual in my mind. Cows are the most dear gentle animals. It’s just so horribly sick how they suffer so much. The world will never have peace until the slaughtering of millions of farms animals and other animals ends. On that day we shall all rejoice with the animals.
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Dahila — The point that needs to be made here is that the pro-slaughter crowd is always feeding the masses the line that “We humanly kill these animal”. All of us here know that that is pure crap! I have more humanly killed an animal with a pickup truck than the slaughter line does. If the almighty dollar was not driving all this alot of the problems might go away.
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to Dahila have you seen the number of fat pigs in your country and worldwide that contiually gorge themselves with actual ”pigs”. have you ever heard if the slaugherhouses were glass everyone would be a vegitarian or are you the sort of person who is willfully ignorant all of the time. i don’ think the interests of people should be considered when animals are never given that right. screw protein! or at least the sort from animals.
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After the [Humane Farming Asso-ciation] video surfaced, IBP increased worker training and installed cameras in the slaughter area. The company also questioned workers and offered a reward for information leading to identification of those responsible for the video. One worker said IBP pressured him to sign a statement denying that he had seen live cattle on the line.
“I knew that what I wrote wasn’t true,” said the worker, who did not want to be identified for fear of losing his job. “Cows still go alive every day. When cows go alive, it’s because they don’t give me time to kill them.”
This is insane. How can we respect any living thing if we let this happen on purpose for greed and profit-mongering. SLow down and stun to kill the sorry creature so it is dead before being hacked apart. Abominable and eating meat is disgusting, arrogant, cruel, and unethical. Let’s not pretend otherwise … EVER.
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“Think occasionally of the sufferings of which you spare yourself the sight”…Albert Schweitzer
“A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite and to act so is immoral”‘Leo Tolstoy
“you have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity” Ralph Waldo Emerson
“If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian” Sir Paul McCartney
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I HATE THIS LIFE FOR THE ANIMALS, I DESPAIR EVERY SINGLE DAY OF MY LIFE THINKING OF WHAT SOME OF THEM ARE GOING THROUGH. TO SLAUGHTER ANY ANIMAL IN A BRUTAL WAY IS BEYOND ME THATS FOR SURE. YOU MUST BE SO EMOTIONALLY DETATCHED AND HAVE NO REGARD AND RESPECT FOR LIFE. I DO BELIEVE THAT THERE IS A SPIRIT WORLD WHERE THE ANIMALS ALL GO TO AFTER THEIR EARTHLY JOURNEY THE SAME AS WE DO. THIS CAN NOT BE THE BE AND END ALL OF LIFE. CRUELTY IS NOT NORMAL AND THOSE WHO INFLICT TORTURE AND CRUELTY TO ANIMALS ON THIS EARTH WILL HAVE TO PAY THE PRICE WHEN THEY DEPART FROM THIS WORLD IF NOT BEFORE. KARMA DOES AND WILL HAPPEN. THANK GOD FOR THAT.
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