Kinship Circle | Letter Campaigns

2/23/08: USDA-Certified Cruel: Downers Dragged, Shocked, Rammed

SOURCE OF INFORMATION / BACKGROUND

UPDATE: 3/14/09, Obama Bans Downer Cows, Closes Longtime Loophole
SOURCE: 3/14/09 — Obama bans Сdowner' cows from food supply

Without much fanfare, the Obama administration permanently banned the slaughter of cows who can't move on their own. Obama's signature solidifies USDA's ban and closes the loophole that left certain downers unprotected. However, this is an enforcement of USDA's wishy-washy BAN. This is still NOT A LAW.

The first letter-writing campaign Kinship Circle issued a decade ago asked legislators to pass the Downed Animal Protection Act — to ban slaughter of cows, pigs, sheep and all "livestock" too sick and crippled to stand upright. A federal law STILL does not exist. Sick cows make sick food (from mad cow disease to E. coli or Salmonella). But Kinship Circle already advocates a plant-based diet. We care about passage of a no-downer law because no dying animal should be rammed upright with tractors and forklifts...hauled, shocked and pounded...so meat makers can eke about $30 out of her tortured body.

Big Meat convinced Bush regulators to dilute USDA's administrative rule — so collapsed cows with orthopedic (as opposed to central nervous system) injuries like broken legs or ripped tendons were kept alive to make hamburgers. Obama's ban on ALL downed cows is progress. Kinship CIrcle will continue to lobby Congress to pass a Downed Animal and Food Safety Protection Act that protects all disabled animals (not just cows); calls for merciful euthanasia; and forbids use of tractors, forklifts, chains, electric prods, hoses and other violent means to move dying animals.

ХааVideo Reveals Violations of Laws, Abuse of Cows at Slaughterhouse
ХааInspectors Verify Abuse Of Cows in California
ХааQuestions raised on meat safety
ХааHSUS Lauds Authoritative USDA Action to Shutter Southern California Slaughter Plant
ХааAnimal Cruelty at Hallmark Slaughter Plant Must be Prosecuted
ХааVIDEO: Charged with Cruelty / Slaughterhouse Employees Charged
ХааVIDEO: HSUS Investigates Slaughterhouse/ Cruel and Unhealthy Practices Uncovered
ХааVIDEO: Cheap Meat - Working in a Slaughterhouse
ХааSupport Legislation to Help Downed Animals

PHOTOS extracted from HSUS undercover videos at Chino, California-based Westland/Hallmark Meat Company.

VIEW UNDERCOVER VIDEOS HERE:
http://tinyurl.com/yul2lw1
1. Charged with Cruelty / Slaughterhouse Employees Charged
2. HSUS Investigates Slaughterhouse / Cruel and Unhealthy Practices Uncovered
3. Cheap Meat / Working in a Slaughterhouse

аааа

LOWER LEFT PHOTO: A worker on top of scraps dropped into a parked truck at the Hallmark Meat Packing slaughterhouse in Chino, Calif. Video footage showed workers at Hallmark Meat Packing repeatedly kicking cows and ramming them with the blades of a forklift as the animals squealed in pain. Associated Press, USDA's oversight of meat safety criticized http://tinyurl.com/yofuzj

CONTACT INFORMATION + SAMPLE LETTER

CONTACT INFORMATION Х Print/Send This Letter

To identify your federal legislators and find contact info, try:
Congress.org: www.Congress.org
USA Senate: www.senate.gov
USA House of Representatives: www.house.gov
Congressional Switchboard: 202-224-3121

The Honorable Representative [YOUR REP'S NAME]
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20510

The Honorable Senators [YOUR SENATORS' NAMES]
The U.S. Senate, U.S. Capitol Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

Secretary of Agriculture Edward W. Schafer
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., S.W.
Washington, DC 20250
ph: 202-720-3631; email: Edward.W.Schafer@usda.gov
web mail: usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1OB? edeployment_action=changenav&navid=FEEDBACK_FORM
SOURCE: www.usda.gov/wps/ portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1OB?navtype=MA&navid=CONTACT_US

*Kinship Circle cannot guarantee validity of email addresses. During campaigns, recipients may change or disable their emailaddresses. Emails from government or corporate websites may be incorrect.

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SAMPLE LETTER Х Print/Send This Letter

Dear Representative, Senators and Secretary Schafer:

Electric prods shock the heads, necks, spines and rectums of animals crumpled on concrete. Their eyes blink, but their bodies are limp. Organs have begun to fail. Some have crushed bones, torn ligaments. Still, heavy chains drag them. Forklift blades toss their giant bodies as they moan in pain. Concentrated water jets are fired into their nostrils and throats.

These are downed animals. Suspended between life and death, they are forced to stand for inspection at slaughterhouses like the Chino, Calif.-based Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. Recent undercover video from Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) depicts Hallmark workers who kick, ram, shock, harass, and even "waterboard" incapacitated cows.

The gruesome images are hardly breaking news. Downed animals are routinely tormented at stockyards and slaughterhouses. Hallmark simply got caught in the act.

The breathtaking news is that it took a nonprofit welfare group to disclose flagrant violations of state and federal law. It took a guy with a hidden video camera to prompt the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service to conclude Westland/Hallmark Meat fails to function in compliance with laws instated to deter animal abuse and keep downers out of the food chain.

Now that this major supplier to U.S. school lunches has been exposed, 143 million pounds of beef have been recalled. An Office of the Inspector General inquiry could proceed to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution. FSIS inspectors have effectively closed the Hallmark plant. School districts and restaurants have purged Hallmark beef.

Yet these band-aid fixes don't address the bigger problem. The U.S. government must enact enforceable laws to ban the transport, marketing and slaughter of ALL downed animals for ANY purpose. I call upon Congress and regulatory agencies to:

Pass the Downed Animal and Food Safety Protection Act (H.R. 661/ S. 394) which bans slaughter of downer cows, pigs, sheep and all "livestock."
Require humane euthanasia for all downed animals. A current loophole lets immobilized animals suffer until they undergo USDA inspection. As evidenced in the HSUS video, animals are tortured as they await one of 7,600 inspectors charged with monitoring 6,200 processing plants nationwide.
Forbid use of downed animals for "pet" and "livestock" foods.
Pass the Farm Animal Stewardship Purchasing Act (H.R. 1726) to install basic animal protections (such as humane euthanasia of downers) for producers selling food to federal programs.
Require mandatory training in methods that prevent animals from becoming downers in the first place. Temple Grandin, an American Meat Institute advisor, contends: "90% of all downers are preventable."

In 2004, USDA forbid the sale of downed cows after the discovery of a Washington state dairy cow diagnosed with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Plainly, USDA's interim rule is not working.

Please expand and codify USDA's ban to assure no commercial goods are processed from animals at risk for transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) and other dangerous foodborne pathogens. No suffering animal should be forced to stagger toward a kill floor for any reason.

Thank you,

EASILY PERSONALIZE AND SEND COMMENTS NOW

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