Farmed
Animal Watch
A Project of Animal Place
June 5, 2003
(To Search This Page Press Ctrl F)
Number #19 Volume 2
CONTENTS
1. BSE: "Downed" Animals, Cross-Species Transmission
2. "Downer" Expose Elicits Industry Complaints
3. Faulty Feed Labeling at Buckeye Egg Farms
4. The Changing Egg Industry
5. EPA Sued over New CAFO Regulations
1. BSE: "DOWNED" ANIMALS, CROSS-SPECIES TRANSMISSION
"The cow went down and that's why it was shipped. It was still alive. It
was just not getting up anymore." So explained the farmer of the Canadian
cow found to be infected with BSE (see
N.17,
V.2). He said she couldn't stay
standing and was trucked to slaughter. A meat inspector reported that the cow
looked thin and had pneumonia. Ten feed mills received parts of her rendered
body, some of which was processed into chicken feed and dry dog food (some of
which may have been sent to the U.S.). While giving feed containing ruminant
remains to cattle is illegal, some 60 cows from 3 different farms that
received the feed were ordered to be slaughtered since it could not be
confirmed that they had not been given it. So far, 18 farms have been
quarantined and over 1,160 cattle have been killed for testing. Due to
inconclusive findings, another 650 cattle are to be tested. Five bulls from a
herd the infected cow had been in were sent to Montana in 1997. The bulls were
used for breeding purposes and are thought to have spent 1-3 years at the same
operation prior to having been sent to stockyards in Montana and South Dakota.
They are believed to have been slaughtered after the ban on the use of cattle
in ruminant feed.
NONAMBULATORY ANIMALS: It is unknown how many nonambulatory animals
("downers") enter the Canadian food chain. Animal Alliance of
Canada, an animal protection organization, obtained government documents
showing that in 1999 in Ontario, 639 sick cattle were approved for slaughter.
Additional records were available for only 358 of them, of which 316 were
slaughtered for human consumption. The others were sent to rendering to be
made into animal feed and other products. The government has a code of
practice that says that sick, injured, or disabled cattle in severe distress
should be euthanized or slaughtered on the farm and not trucked to slaughter.
However, the federal code is merely suggested practice with no regulatory
force. The Canadian Cattlemen's Association guidelines also recommend that
nonambulatory cattle not be sent to slaughter. Nonambulatory cattle are,
however, allowed to be chained and dragged from transport vehicles to
slaughter.
In Canada, as in the U.S., cattle showing classic symptoms of BSE (e.g.,
staggering) are to be tested for it. But an animal who does not exhibit these
signs and merely appears thin or listless -or exhibits no symptoms at all-
could still have the disease. Infected cattle usually don't exhibit disease
symptoms for about 5 years but are typically slaughtered at about 30 months of
age. Sylvie Farez, a veterinarian with the Canada Food Inspection Agency, says
there are too many nonambulatory animals at slaughterplants to be able to test
them all. According to Consumer Union's Michael Hansen, only 3,337 Canadian
cattle were tested for BSE among the 3.5 million who were slaughtered in 2002.
In the U.S., only about 3,300 of an estimated 55,000 nonambulatory cattle were
tested. (Other sources put the number of nonambulatory cattle at 195,000 to 1
million.) A total of 19,900 cattle were tested for BSE in the U.S. in 2002, up
from 5,272 in 2001 [out of an annual slaughter total of about 35,000,000]. A
2001 German study found that nonambulatory cows were 10-240 times more likely
to test positive for BSE than ambulatory cows. In Canada, about 2% of cattle
are slaughtered in places that are not federally licensed and have no federal
inspector present. Regarding both Canada and the U.S., animal scientist and
industry consultant Temple Grandin remarked: "You've got dairymen out
there, they don't have to worry about cleaning up their downers. They take
them to the slaughterhouse, and though less and less slaughterplants want them
-your big plants just don't accept downers anymore- you've got smaller plants
that are getting to be a niche market of downers....There will always be
certain restaurants that'll buy that stuff." The USDA is considering
banning all nonambulatory cattle from being used for human consumption (see
issue #53), and has already banned its own procurement agency from purchasing
the meat from these animals.
CROSS-SPECIES TRANSMISSION: About 44% of the 1 million cattle who die prior to
slaughter are rendered. Elk and deer with chronic wasting disease (CWD), a
similar disease, are also processed into animal feed. (In the U.S., some 50
billion pounds of animal bone, skin and other tissue are processed into meat
meal, bone meal and other products each year.) While both Canada and the U.S.
have prohibited the use of most ruminant remains in ruminant feed since 1997,
they are still used in feed for chickens, pigs and other nonruminant animals
who are thought not to be susceptible to the disease. (It is believed that
prions, the agents considered responsible for BSE, have not been found in
ruminant blood, fat, milk and gelatin, which is still allowed in ruminant
feed.) These animals can then be killed and used in ruminant feed. There is
concern that they may serve as unaffected carriers of the disease. (The
surprising results of cross-species infection experimentation can be found in
a New York Times article entitled "Mad Cows, Sane Cats," at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/03/science/03SPEC.html
) Due to related disease concerns, the FDA has proposed limits on the use of
deer and elk in dog and cat food.
Gleaning the Canadian Food Inspection Agency regulations, a Vancouver Sun
reporter notes they are "evidence that just about anything can go into
animal feed if it will make somebody a penny." One example he gives is
the use of stomach and intestinal contents of pigs and poultry in the making
of feed for ruminants. Similarly, U.S. regulations permit the use of poultry
manure and litter in animal feed. A researcher with the U.N.'s Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) defends the use of manure in animal feed,
writing that "Feeding of animal wastes results in reducing feed costs and
a lower price of animal products." Others defend rendering as an economic
and ecological way of utilizing material that would otherwise have to be
buried or incinerated.
Because prions can withstand the intense heat used in the rendering process,
animal remains in farmed animal feed have been banned in Britain since 1996
and in the European Union since 2000. (Thousands of British cattle born after
a ruminant-to-ruminant feed ban exhibited BSE symptoms.) Additionally, feed
tends to stick to machinery and ruminant-inclusive feed can commingle with
ruminant-exclusive feed if processed at the same facility or transported in
the same trucks. It is estimated that 44,000 British cattle were infected with
BSE because of this. Prohibited feed can also be illegally fed to ruminant
animals, intentionally or unintentionally.
CHANGES & COMPARISONS: Canadian officials are now considering changing the
regulations that allow ruminant remains to be used in chicken and pig feed.
The USDA is also considering additional safeguards against BSE, including the
handling of nonambulatory animals:
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/oa/topics/BSE_thinking.htm
A comparison of North American and European safeguards, entitled "U.S.
Violates World Health Organization Guidelines for Mad Cow Disease," a
June 4th report by Dr. Michael Gregor, can be found at:
http://organicconsumers.org/madcow/GregerBSE.cfm
Numerous sources were used for this item. To access them,
click
here.
2. "DOWNER" EXPOSE ELICITS INDUSTRY COMPLAINTS
A 4-part investigative series about the treatment and use of nonambulatory
cattle, broadcast last autumn by Washington state's KIRO 7 News (see
issue
#92), has the state dairy and beef commissions complaining. The industry
representatives say the series was incomplete, misleading, sensationalized,
biased, unfair and inflammatory. The USDA, which was depicted as derelict, is
also critical of the expose. Rather than pursuing legal action, the
commissions have asked a local nonprofit media accountability group, the News
Council, to mediate. KIRO is refusing to participate in a June 14th Council
hearing. Station representatives say they instead want to show the commissions
additional video which "was too shocking to show the public." The
2-day series is said to have generated 500 e-mails of appreciation from
viewers. KIRO is planning a follow-up round of reports. As a result of the
series, the two Washington meat processing plants that accepted nonambulatory
animals have ceased doing so.
3. FAULTY FEED LABELING AT BUCKEYE EGG FARMS
Buckeye Egg Farms, Ohio's largest egg company and the fourth largest in the
country with 9.75 million hens in 3 counties, has been found in violation of
federal labeling laws. FDA inspectors warned the company it was not properly
labeling feed that could contain cattle remains, and was not properly
recording the amount of antibiotics used in feed. Buckeye reports it is now in
compliance. The company has an extensive history of environmental violations
and is under the threat of closure (see
issue #97 and
http://www.cleveland.com/search/index.ssf?/base/living/1054546648199271.xml?lxoth
).
4. THE CHANGING EGG INDUSTRY
Earlier this week, The Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper, ran a number of
articles (including the one in item #3) about the changing face of animal
agriculture in the state, with a particular focus on egg production. In 1970
there were about 10,000 egg farms nationwide. Now only 280 remain, most of
which are large corporations. "The Squawk Over Ohio's Eggs" tells
how cages became more crowded "because birds were cheap and cages were
not," which led to the practice of beak cutting. "Production
practices are dictated by economic necessity, not by a desire to treat animals
in any particular way," explains Brian Roe of Ohio State University's
Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Developmental Economics. The
article discusses United Egg Producers new welfare standards, which by 2008
will allot each hen 67 square inches of space, about the amount covered by a
Kleenex tissue. In contrast, McDonald's is already requiring its suppliers
provide hens with 72 square inches of space. "Birds are treated like
machines in the U.S.," HSUS's Michael Appleby states. He favors the
European approach, where cage-free egg farms are emphasized. Hens kept in
cages there after 2012 will have to be given at least 85 square inches of
space, perches, nesting boxes and scratching areas.
Male chicks hatched into the egg industry are soon ground or gassed to death
and made into feed.
Female chicks have their beaks cut with a heated blade at about 10 days of
life as preparation for life in a crowded cage. "She lives in a
windowless shed, where light, water, feed, heat and ventilation are computer
controlled. On some farms, her manure will be allowed to pile up beneath the
bank of cages, causing strong ammonia vapors to fill the barn. When she is
about 65 weeks old, she is starved an average of 10 days to induce
molting....At about age 2, she is so physically depleted that her bones often
break when she is removed from her cage for disposal," the article
explains. A 1999 European study showed about 30% of hens arrive at
slaughterplants with recently broken bones. A Q/A entitled "How Hens
Live," can be found at:
http://www.cleveland.com/search/index.ssf?/base/living/1054474263222280.xml?
Covert investigations conducted by Mercy for Animals (MFA) and other animal
rights groups are discussed. Looking at photos MFA took of Weaver Bros. egg
operation which show "small cages stuffed with bedraggled, grimy hens,
their heads swollen with hideous growths"and "grocery carts
overflowing with dead birds," company president Tim Weaver says "I
don't know if they're definitely our birds." He contends the pictures
could have been staged. Last December, he reported a break-in at the facility
and is considering pressing charges. Allowed in a limited area of one Weaver
Bros. facility, the Plain Dealer reporter and photographer saw "a sea of
birds" and "thousands of blood- and manure-splattered eggs."
After an MFA "open rescue"at Daylay Egg Farm, the company gave Union
County Humane Society board members a tour of the operation. The board
president said they were pleased with what they saw which wasn't anything like
the footage MFA had shown them:
http://www.EggCruelty.com
Another Plain Dealer article explains that birds at Daylay do not have their
beaks cut and are "soft molted," fed a low-protein feed rather than
starved to induce molting:
http://www.cleveland.com/search/index.ssf?/base/living/1054553402180680.xml?lxoth
Nest Eggs was a cage-free egg-production program Food Animal Concerns Trust
(FACT) ran from the mid-1980's until last year:
http://www.fact.cc/NE_Main.htm
Remarking on the egg industry, FACT's Richard Wood states, "There's
inhumanity from start to finish, and we knew we couldn't solve
everything." Hens had 2 square feet each in cageless facilities with
nesting and dusting areas. Starvation was not used to induce molting.
"Consumers hold the key to creating a more humane egg industry,"
Wood asserts. A 1999 survey conducted for the American Humane Association
found consumers would pay 5% more for food labeled "humanely
raised." "We're our own worst enemy," egg industry veteran Don
Wise acknowledges of the changing industry, remarking, "We know what the
problems are." The series includes a national and state graphic.
5. EPA SUED OVER NEW CAFO REGULATIONS
In December, the U.S. EPA. began requiring wastewater discharge permits for
15,500 qualifying confinement animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Previously,
about 4,500 operations with a record or high risk of manure runoff were
required to have them. The operations are to develop and follow a plan for
handling manure and wastewater. The EPA has since been sued by the National
Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club and the Waterkeeper Alliance. They
claim the new rules shield operations from liability for pollution caused by
animal wastes, don't require them to monitor groundwater or prevent animal
wastes from contaminating drinking water, and exempt contaminated runoff by
labeling it "agricultural stormwater." The specifics of the new
regulations as they apply to Ohio are discussed in the Plain Dealer article
linked below. It also discusses alternative manure management practiced by
Daylay Egg Farms (see item #4 above).
The Sierra Club has also accused the EPA of holding closed-door meetings with
animal agriculture industry officials regarding clean-air laws. The
organization released a copy of a nearly year-old confidential memo to EPA
officials from John Thorne, a lobbyist representing many of the largest
agricultural groups. The memo proposed a two-year industry-funded $11 million
research program during which thousands of participating operations would be
exempt from air quality and toxic waste cleanup laws. [Thorne has since said
it would be a 30- month study.] The EPA said it met with industry to negotiate
points raised in a National Academy of Sciences report about problems with
accurately measuring emissions from manure. A group representing state and
local air pollution program administrators and control officials sent the EPA
a letter objecting to industry immunity because it would "impede the
ability of states and localities to address agricultural air emissions, and
also set troubling precedent in air quality legislation." Ammonia,
hydrogen sulfide, dust and other pollutants from megafarms have not been
covered under the Clean Air Act. Environmentalists are also concerned the EPA
may also dismiss emissions from waste lagoons and buildings as "fugitive
emissions," enabling most CAFOs to avoid having to comply with the Act:
http://tinyurl.com/djk6
or
http://www.qctimes.com/internal.php?story_id=1012096&l=1&t=Business&c=31,1012096
