Downer Cows Being Made to Stand

A Washington Post article from today details how video taken by an undercover animal welfare investigator at a slaughterhouse documents several major violations of food safety and animal cruelty laws. Techniques on the video included the use of electric shock, forklifts, and

“a veterinary version of waterboarding in which high-intensity water sprays are shot up animals’ noses”

All of this is being done with the intention of making cows stand during USDA inspection. Cows that cannot stand, known as “downers,” are supposed to be kept out of the food supply to lessen humans’ risk of exposure to mad cow disease, E.Coli, and salmonella. The California slaughterhouse that the video was allegedly shot at houses companies that are national meat suppliers for school lunch programs.

Obviously, the USDA needs a better method of checking that companies do not engage in this kind of practice. The inspectors only went to the site for a short bit each day – at scheduled times. So all the company (allegedly) had to do was make the cows stand up for a crucial few minutes, and they are certified.

If the allegations prove true, this system is really, really broken.

-- Dylan Blaylock

Comments

[David Zetland]

The system is really really broken by design ("scheduled times"). That it should take so long to discover manipulation is a surprise. "We pretend to inspect and you pretend to follow the rules" The fact that the company fired "two bad apples" does not make the problem go away. Their bosses were obviously in on the game -- how much more money would those employees make for the dirty work? None, I wager.