USDA shuts slaughterhouse after group records cow 'torture' video (Warning: disturbing content)

[demmiblue]

Source: Los Angeles Times

<snip>

The United States Department of Agriculture shuttered Central Valley Meat Co. in Hanford on Monday after determining there were improper controls in place to ensure cows were treated humanely during slaughter, officials with the department's Food Safety and Inspection Service said.

The agency sent a team of investigators, including public health veterinarians, to California on Friday to review two videos of the plant -- one running three hours and the other just three minutes. The animal rights group Compassion Over Killing took credit for the video, saying one of its investigators went undercover at the plant in June and July and captured images of cows being subjected to "torture" and "intentional cruelty" -- being jabbed, hit, electrically shocked, and sprayed with hot water.

The group said one segment shows cows who were still alive after being shot in the head and then suffocated by workers who stood on their mouths and nostrils. Another featured downed cows, unable to walk, who were shot in the head as many as four times, with workers often walking away while the animal continued to struggle and kick, according to the organization.

<snip>

Central Valley Meat Co. President Brian Coelho said his company was cooperating fully with federal investigators. In a statement, he said his company had retained an outside animal welfare expert to conduct a separate internal investigation.

“We are extremely disturbed to be informed by the United States Department of Agriculture that inspection was suspended and our plant could not operate based on a videotape that was provided to the department by a third party group that alleged inhumane treatment of animals on our property,” Coelho said.

Read more: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/08/usda-slaughterhouse-cows-shot-torture.html


There is a video at the link, but I did not have the stomach to watch it. Oh, and, fuck you very much, Brian Coelho.

[Egalitarian Thug]

1. Slaughter is never pleasant, but the assholes that run this industry should be subjected to their

own accepted practices. We have a far superior model that has been shown to be both more humane and more profitable. That this barbarity still exists just demonstrates what sick fucks these people are.

[AtomicKitten]

2. Psycopaths 100,000,000+; cows 0.

This stuff (can't bear to look) just breaks my heart.

Just make it stop.

http://www.mercyforanimals.org/