fuller
2003-07-07 02:03:52 UTC
July 6, 2003
Activists Seek Changes at Slaughterhouses
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The owners of a Southern California egg farm
insist they did nothing wrong when they slaughtered 30,000 chickens,
quarantined because of a virus, by throwing them into wood chippers.
State authorities agreed and decided not to file animal cruelty
charges.
That decision has incensed animals rights advocates -- and even some
producers -- who say it's an example of the need for stricter national
laws and enforcement to stop what they consider inhumane slaughter of
livestock.
``It's not what we do,'' said Paul Bahan, owner of AAA Egg Farms in
Riverside County, who chairs an industry committee targeting treatment
of poultry.
Amid a growing national push for better treatment of livestock, the
industry is enacting new guidelines for slaughterhouses and farms that
will take into account everything from the size of cages to the ways
animals are killed. Restaurant and grocery store chains are urging
independent audits of the nation's 900 slaughterhouses, and the
federal government is moving to hire more inspectors.
Critics say the changes aren't happening fast enough.
During a hearing in May on agriculture appropriations, Sen. Robert
Byrd, D-W.Va., called on the Agriculture Department to speed up the
hiring of inspectors.
``Despite the laws on the books, chronically weak enforcement and
intense pressure to speed up slaughterhouse assembly lines reportedly
have resulted in animals being skinned, dismembered, and boiled while
they are still alive and conscious,'' Byrd said.
Members of Congress also have received a video from Sen. Jim Moran,
D-Va., actor Alec Baldwin and People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals. The tape, titled ``Meet Your Meat,'' contains graphic images
of cruelty at farms.
``Enforcement is the issue,'' Baldwin, a longtime PETA activist, told
The Associated Press. ``You live in a society where the USDA is the
only barrier between producers and your food.''
The American Meat Institute denied that enforcement at slaughterhouses
is weak and that animals are routinely abused. Officials also pointed
out that the plants can't operate unless an inspector is on the
premises.
In the past decade, the $133 billion processing and packing industry
has taken a number of steps to improve animals' final moments, such as
redesigning pens to accommodate natural movements and minimizing use
of electric prods, American Meat Institute spokeswoman Janet Riley
said. Such treatment is not only ethical, it's good business, she
said.
``If an animal is stressed when it goes to slaughter ... it will emit
hormones that create quality defects in meat that then has to be
trimmed away,'' she said.
Each year, 8 billion chickens and turkeys, 97 million hogs, 35 million
cattle, 3 million sheep and lambs, and 1 million calves are
slaughtered in the United States.
Larger animals are usually killed with a gun that shoots a rod
directly into the brain. Chickens are typically stunned in an
electrified bath before their heads are cut off with a rotating blade.
Others are suffocated with carbon dioxide or their necks are broken.
The 45-year-old federal Humane Slaughter Act offers guidelines on
slaughter methods but only requires that animals be rendered
``insensible to pain'' before being killed. It excludes poultry from
that requirement. State laws vary.
In the wood chipper case, the USDA did not approve the slaughter
method, said Ed Lloyd, a department spokesman. The decision on filing
charges was up to the San Diego County district attorney's office,
which declined in May after determining there was no criminal intent
by the owners of the farm, Arie and Bill Wilgenburg.
``I've done nothing wrong and I stick by that, and I won't say
anything else about it,'' Bill Wilgenburg said.
Officials have said the brothers acted on the advice of a
veterinarian. The birds could not be sent to a slaughterhouse because
they had been quarantined after an outbreak of a bird virus, Exotic
Newcastle Disease.
While the case is unusual, animal welfare advocates say it shows that
farmers are seldom held responsible when animals are subjected to
unnecessary pain and suffering.
The USDA reported that from January 1998 to January 2003, 21 of the
nation's slaughterhouses were cited for violations related to
mistreatment.
It says the relatively low number of citations shows enforcement
methods are working.
``We make our living by selling cows. We don't make our living by
abusing them,'' said Arthur Green, whose Benton Packing Co. in
Springdale, Ark., was cited last year for having too many cows in one
pen.
^------
On the Net:
Animal Welfare Audit Program: http://www.awaudit.org/
Humane Farm Animal Care: http://www.certifiedhumane.com/
National Chicken Council: http://www.eatchicken.com
Department of Agriculture: http://www.usda.gov
Activists Seek Changes at Slaughterhouses
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The owners of a Southern California egg farm
insist they did nothing wrong when they slaughtered 30,000 chickens,
quarantined because of a virus, by throwing them into wood chippers.
State authorities agreed and decided not to file animal cruelty
charges.
That decision has incensed animals rights advocates -- and even some
producers -- who say it's an example of the need for stricter national
laws and enforcement to stop what they consider inhumane slaughter of
livestock.
``It's not what we do,'' said Paul Bahan, owner of AAA Egg Farms in
Riverside County, who chairs an industry committee targeting treatment
of poultry.
Amid a growing national push for better treatment of livestock, the
industry is enacting new guidelines for slaughterhouses and farms that
will take into account everything from the size of cages to the ways
animals are killed. Restaurant and grocery store chains are urging
independent audits of the nation's 900 slaughterhouses, and the
federal government is moving to hire more inspectors.
Critics say the changes aren't happening fast enough.
During a hearing in May on agriculture appropriations, Sen. Robert
Byrd, D-W.Va., called on the Agriculture Department to speed up the
hiring of inspectors.
``Despite the laws on the books, chronically weak enforcement and
intense pressure to speed up slaughterhouse assembly lines reportedly
have resulted in animals being skinned, dismembered, and boiled while
they are still alive and conscious,'' Byrd said.
Members of Congress also have received a video from Sen. Jim Moran,
D-Va., actor Alec Baldwin and People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals. The tape, titled ``Meet Your Meat,'' contains graphic images
of cruelty at farms.
``Enforcement is the issue,'' Baldwin, a longtime PETA activist, told
The Associated Press. ``You live in a society where the USDA is the
only barrier between producers and your food.''
The American Meat Institute denied that enforcement at slaughterhouses
is weak and that animals are routinely abused. Officials also pointed
out that the plants can't operate unless an inspector is on the
premises.
In the past decade, the $133 billion processing and packing industry
has taken a number of steps to improve animals' final moments, such as
redesigning pens to accommodate natural movements and minimizing use
of electric prods, American Meat Institute spokeswoman Janet Riley
said. Such treatment is not only ethical, it's good business, she
said.
``If an animal is stressed when it goes to slaughter ... it will emit
hormones that create quality defects in meat that then has to be
trimmed away,'' she said.
Each year, 8 billion chickens and turkeys, 97 million hogs, 35 million
cattle, 3 million sheep and lambs, and 1 million calves are
slaughtered in the United States.
Larger animals are usually killed with a gun that shoots a rod
directly into the brain. Chickens are typically stunned in an
electrified bath before their heads are cut off with a rotating blade.
Others are suffocated with carbon dioxide or their necks are broken.
The 45-year-old federal Humane Slaughter Act offers guidelines on
slaughter methods but only requires that animals be rendered
``insensible to pain'' before being killed. It excludes poultry from
that requirement. State laws vary.
In the wood chipper case, the USDA did not approve the slaughter
method, said Ed Lloyd, a department spokesman. The decision on filing
charges was up to the San Diego County district attorney's office,
which declined in May after determining there was no criminal intent
by the owners of the farm, Arie and Bill Wilgenburg.
``I've done nothing wrong and I stick by that, and I won't say
anything else about it,'' Bill Wilgenburg said.
Officials have said the brothers acted on the advice of a
veterinarian. The birds could not be sent to a slaughterhouse because
they had been quarantined after an outbreak of a bird virus, Exotic
Newcastle Disease.
While the case is unusual, animal welfare advocates say it shows that
farmers are seldom held responsible when animals are subjected to
unnecessary pain and suffering.
The USDA reported that from January 1998 to January 2003, 21 of the
nation's slaughterhouses were cited for violations related to
mistreatment.
It says the relatively low number of citations shows enforcement
methods are working.
``We make our living by selling cows. We don't make our living by
abusing them,'' said Arthur Green, whose Benton Packing Co. in
Springdale, Ark., was cited last year for having too many cows in one
pen.
^------
On the Net:
Animal Welfare Audit Program: http://www.awaudit.org/
Humane Farm Animal Care: http://www.certifiedhumane.com/
National Chicken Council: http://www.eatchicken.com
Department of Agriculture: http://www.usda.gov