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., six 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. All in all, he helped the plant turn about 500 cows per day into meat, with much of the beef going to supply the National School Lunch Program.
In the course of the six weeks that Wrangler worked at the Southern California slaughterhouse, he witnessed extreme acts of animal cruelty and gross violations of federal food safety standards. On his first day on the job, he watched a skinny and weak cow collapse while going up the narrow chute that leads to the kill box where animals’ throats are cut. A worker pulled the animal’s tail, hoping to get it to stand up. When that failed, the worker applied a “hot shot” cattle prod to jolt the cow to its feet. When the cow still didn’t stand, another worker jumped into the chute and shot the cow in the head with a captive bolt gun, designed to stun the animal into unconsciousness. With the cow lying in the chute out cold, the worker put a chain around its neck and attached it to a mechanical hoist, which dragged the unconscious animal to the kill box to be slaughtered and processed into meat.
Wrangler isn’t an ordinary slaughterhouse worker. He is an undercover investigator for the Humane Society of the United States, who got a job at the Westland plant and filmed the abuses with a hidden camera. “There wasn’t a formal strategy or anything like that,” he says. “You’re there just doing the job, and this stuff is just happening all around you.” On Jan. 30, the Humane Society broadcast excerpts of the video on its Web site. The next day, the United Stated Department of Agriculture suspended Westland Meat Co. as a supplier to the National School Lunch Program. A few days later, USDA pulled its inspectors from the plant and shut down the plant, pending further investigation. The acts of animal cruelty have led to the arrest of two meatpacking workers by Chino police.
More than two weeks after Wrangler’s video caused a sensation online, the USDA issued the largest beef recall in the history of the United States: 143 million pounds of beef products, most of which has already been consumed. About 40 percent of that meat went to the National School Lunch Program and other federal nutrition programs. Amazingly, all of the abuses occurred with USDA inspectors on the premises. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer said he was “dismayed at the inhumane handling of cattle” at the plant.
Everyone’s making a big deal about the downer cattle, and trying to figure out whether there are risks involved. In fact, there is a HUGE risk. The “downer cattle” issue is a red herring. It’s well documented that all meat consumption — whether from downer cattle or healthy ones — leads to increased rates of cancer.
Comment by SuccessZen — February 25, 2008 @ 5:01 pm
I have to ask.. If it’s all about food safety and animal cruelty, why did HSUS wait a total of over 5 months to release their video? If there was abuse on day 1 and presumably many of the days after, why stay 6 weeks? Does it really take 6 weeks worth of footage to make a 2:44 second video? That’s only about 27 seconds per week.
The math alone is staggering. 500 head of cattle per day x 6 days a week x 6 weeks, that’s 18,000 cattle that were put to death while this “activist” was on the job. Not to mention the 48,000 or so cows that were slaughtered during the 4 months that HSUS sat on their video.
Yes, what happened is unforgivable. Yes, the employees and the slaughterhouse should be punished. But I can’t believe for one moment that HSUS was only concerned for the cattle or for public safety. If they were, they wouldn’t have waited so long. The only things that benefit from waiting 4 months is HSUS’s image and their agenda.
Comment by Hmmm — February 25, 2008 @ 9:00 pm
The MEat industry is destined to collapse – Starting with genetically altered animals -grown in factory farms, pumped full of antibiotics and growth hormones – effulating into massive manure lagoons which seep into our water…. The methanes released adding to greenhouse gases, the fossil fuels wasted on transport & processing, the waste of water and other resources…. Combined further with the zoonotic diseases, other health issues like diabetes, heart disease & obesity….. Gosh, I’m so darn glad I’m Vegan!
Comment by Bea Elliott — February 25, 2008 @ 9:21 pm