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Dragged, Shocked, Bulldozed - No More Downers

OBAMA ADMIN BANS DOWNER COWS FOR CONSUMPTION, CLOSES LONGTIME LOOPHOLE
March 2009, THE ENDLESS CAMPAIGN - Over 12 years ago, Kinship Circle's first alert asked U.S. lawmakers to pass the Downed Animal Protection Act to ban slaughter of cows, pigs, sheep and all farmed animals too sick and crippled to move. A federal law for every animal used as food still does not exist. The Obama administration has passed a measure to permanently forbid slaughter of non-ambulatory cows. Ultimately, an enforceable law should ban transport, marketing and slaughter of pigs, sheep, goats and other downed animals. Any animal too sick or injured to stand should be humanely euthanized, not forced to suffer until USDA inspection. President Obama's signature closes a loophole that left special-circumstance downer cows unprotected. The measure solidifies a flimsy Agriculture Department BAN. It is still not a codified LAW.

WHY WE CARE - Sick animals make sick food, from mad cow disease to E. coli or Salmonella. But Kinship Circle already advocates a plant-based diet. We care because no dying animal should be rammed upright with tractors, forklifts and chains. Hauled, electro-shocked, water-hosed, pounded. So meat makers can eke about 30 dollars out of her tortured body. Kinship Circle will continue to push for a Downed Animal and Food Safety Protection Act that protects all disabled animals, calls for merciful euthanasia, and forbids violent means to move downed animals. spacer


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THIS ALERT IS CLOSED. It is a live archive to use as a letter-writing example and for background research.
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Every year thousands of downed cows are dragged onto trucks and taken to USDA approved slaughterhouses. This cow, like most downed animals, came from an industrialized dairy operation. Photo from Farm Sanctuary.

A dying calf is left to suffer at a stockyard. Photo from Farm Sanctuary.

Pigs who died in transit are dumped behind a truck at a slaughterhouse. Photo from Farm Sanctuary.

A downed sheep slowly dies at a Texas stockyard. Farm Sanctuary.

spacer Downed Animals - A Cliff-Notes History

U.S. MAD COW SCARE PUTS USDA ON ALERT, SORT OF
2003 - U.S. Department of Agriculture authorizes a downer ban in response to a Washington state dairy cow with bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE. But by 2007, Big Meat convinces Bush regulators to dilute USDA's administrative rule. Collapsed cows with apparent central nervous system disease are covered. But those who seem to have orthopedic injuries alone, like broken legs or ripped tendons, are kept alive to make hamburgers.

HSUS PROBE OF WESTLAND-HALLMARK MEAT PACKING CO. EXPOSES HORRIFIC CRUELTY
  • JANUARY 2008 - Humane Society of the U.S. goes undercover at Westland-Hallmark Meat Packing Company in Chino, CA. The story explodes over newswires. Mainstream eaters learn what "downers" are and see electric prods shock the heads, necks, spines and rectums of animals crumpled on concrete. They see eyes blink as organs fail, crushed bones and torn ligaments dragged over pavement. They hear cows moan as forklifts toss their giant bodies like rag dolls. They see concentrated water jets fired in the noses and throats of cows.

  • FEBRUARY 2008 - In the nation's largest recall, USDA quarantines 143,383,823 pounds of Hallmark-tainted beef. Legislators cry foul and demand stronger oversight. Yet at a 2/28/08 hearing to assess inspection blunders, former Agriculture Secretary Edward Schafer asks a Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee to strike down a ban on slaughter of non-ambulatory cows. In a country more obsessed with profit margins than animal cruelty and human safety, it is still okay for diseased cows to slip into the food supply.

In a still excerpted from HSUS undercover video footage, a Westland-Hallmark worker shoots painful water jets into the face of a downed cow to make her stand. Once down, organs slowly collapse. An animal cannot rise, even with violent coercion.

Video footage showed workers at Hallmark Meat Packing repeatedly kicking cows and ramming them with forklift blades as animals squealed in pain. At time, Westland-Hallmark was a major beef supplier to the U.S. School Lunch Program. HSUS, Rampant Animal Cruelty at California Slaughter Plant

POLITICS TRUMPS MERCY, STILL NO DOWNER BAN
  • 4/17/08 - USDA routinely hides downer abuse, claims the head of a union representing 6,000 federal food inspectors. In testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Domestic Policy Subcommitte, convened to assess slaughterhouse methods following Westland-Hallmark humane violations, Union Chief Stan Painter says USDA officials try to intimidate workers who report violations. In the aftermath of a 2003 mad cow scare, Painter told superiors that food safety regulations were not uniformly enforced at kill plants. Painter was ordered to drop the matter. When he did not, agency officials grilled him and and placed him on disciplinary investigative status. Painter says supervisors instruct employees to "let the system work" rather than become whistleblowers.

  • 4/22/08 - In a big flip-flop, meat and dairy industry groups American Meat Institute, National Meat Association and National Milk Producers Federation now back a total ban on slaughter of downed cows in the human food chain. When watchdog groups and some lawmakers lobbied for a ban after the Westland-Hallmark beef recall, industry had balked at regulatory changes.

  • 4/30/08 - In papers obtained by Associated Press under a Freedom of Information request, U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service audits reveal noncompliance issues for National Beef Packing Co. in Dodge City, KS and Cargill Meat Solutions in Fresno, CA. Overall, 18 slaughterhouse show improper stunning, overcrowding, and electrical prod use to move downed animals. FSIS performed audits after violations at Westland-Halllmark Meat Co. led to a massive beef recall.

  • 5/8/08 - HSUS exposes more downer cruelty when its investigators document abuse and neglect at Hereford Livestock Exhchange in the Texas Panhandle Region.

  • 9/28/08 - U.S. Senate rejects a motion to proceed to debate on the Economic Stimulus package, which includes language to ban non-ambulatory cows from entering food stocks.

  • DECEMBER 2008 - After the Hallmark-Westland debacle, Ag Secretary Ed Schafter requests an Office of Inspector General investigation. OIG summarizes glaring problems:
    • Food Safety Inspectors cannot show if oversight is sufficient.
    • Non-veterinarians are allowed to perform ante-mortem inspection without formal training or supervision.
    • A Public Health Veterinarian for Hallmark-Westland shortcuts inspections, delegating tasks to Hallmark-Westland staff.
    • In an audit of 10 kill plants, half fail to gain passing grades. A 50 percent malfunction rate usually qualifies as systemic breakdown within an industry. Secretary Schafer vows to ban downed-cow slaughter without exception, but delays pledge.

WEAK USDA DOWNER RULE FINALLY GAINS TRACTION
2009 - The Obama administration permanently bans slaughter of sick, crippled cows for human consumption.

action

*****THIS ALERT IS NO LONGER ACTIVE*****
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Dear President Obama, Secretary Vilsack, Senators and Representative,

Thank you for banning the slaughter of downed cows and closing a loophole that let some non-ambulatory animals suffer until slaughter. As you know, the prior administration allowed case by case evaluations. Cows who collapsed after pre-slaughter inspection were routinely forced upright until killed.

Close to a half million infirm cows are annually dragged to slaughter, according to the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA). That figure doesn't account for downed pigs, sheep, goats, or other creatures farmed for human consumption. Ultimately, policymakers must stop the transport, marketing and slaughter of ALL downed animals.

Cows transmit E. coli. Pigs carry the bacterium Yersinia enterocolitica and chickens harbor salmonella. These toxic pathogens thrive in animal feces. Downers, who languish in manure for days, have no immune defense against infection.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates 76 million U.S. cases of foodborne disease occur yearly. Among them, salmonella poisons 45,808 people (2006) and E. coli O157 infects 70,000 more. Some 5,000 deaths and 325,000 hospitalizations annually stem from foodborne illness. The true tally is much higher because most cases go unreported. One way to lower these numbers is to forbid all downed animals from entry into the human food chain.

The CDC lists 18 North American cases of Mad Cow Disease (8/20/08). Science overwhelmingly links downers to BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy). Virus-like prions in BSE can trigger Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), a fatal nervous system infection in humans. Since we don't know exactly how BSE and TSE jump the species barrier, all downed animals are suspect.

As long as battered animals emerge from profit-driven factory farms, the USDA must protect all species. No dying animal should be rammed upright with tractors and forklifts, wrenched, shocked and pounded so meat makers can eke about 30 dollars out of her tortured body.

Please advocate regulations that safeguard all downed animals; ensure merciful euthanasia; and outlaw use of tractors, forklifts, chains, electric prods, hoses or any violent means to move dying animals.

Thank you,

YOUR FULL NAME
ADDRESS, CITY, STATE
COUNTRY

alert info

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Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., S.W.
Washington, DC 20250
Secretary of Agriculture: AgSec@usda.gov
web comment form:
www.usda.gov/wps/portal/?navid=FEEDBACK_FORM

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
comments: 202-456-1111
switchboard: 202-456-1414
fax: 202-456-2461
web mail: www.whitehouse.gov/contact
THERE IS NO PUBLIC EMAIL ADDRESS FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA.
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Honorable Representative
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20510

Honorable Senators
The U.S. Senate, U.S. Capitol Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

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information

Downed Animal Protection - No Downers Campaign
FACTS: Downed Animals
▶ a href="http://www.kinshipcircle.org/fact_sheets/HortonHearsACow.pdf">Horton Hears A Cow!
U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
Overview of BSE in North America

Disaster aid for animals  +  action for all hurt by greed, cruelty and hate.

Disaster aid for animals  +  action for all
hurt by greed, cruelty, hate.

Disaster aid for animals  +  action for all
hurt by greed, cruelty, hate.

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SITE DESIGN: BRENDA SHOSS

In kinship, not dominion, each individual is seen. We do not use the rhetoric of slavery. To define animals as unique beings Guardian, Caregive, Him/Her/They… replace Owner, Own, It… Until moral equity and justice serve all — no one is free.