Farmed Animal Watch: Objective Information for the Thinking Advocate
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MARCH 21, 2008 -- Number 9, Volume 8

CORRECTION: Item #2 of the previous issue (http://tinyurl.com/2ky6uk ) referred to the proposed California ballot measure as "The Farm Animal Protection Act," as stated in one of the source articles. That particular measure is actually entitled "The Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act." The Farm Animal Protection Act is the title of an alternative proposed ballot measure (see: http://tinyurl.com/359qlf and http://tinyurl.com/38fyl9). We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

1. EPA PROPOSES EMISSION RULE ROLLBACK

Scientists with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have determined that ammonia and hydrogen sulfide are hazardous to human health. The EPA estimates that two-thirds of the ammonia emissions reported in the U.S. are generated by farmed animal facilities. Since the 1980’s, large facilities have had to report the amount of these gases they emit. However, pressured by agribusiness lobbyists and legislators from agriculture-oriented states, the EPA has proposed ending this requirement. The Agency argues that the reports are not used by local authorities and so are unnecessary.

Local air-quality agencies, environmental groups, and legislators opposed the change, contending the reports are valuable in holding facilities accountable for pollution. The EPA proposal came after communities sued several large operations, demanding monetary compensation and stricter emission controls. Critics say it is part of a larger effort by the Bush administration to roll back environmental protections (see, for example: http://tinyurl.com/2t82zk). The deadline for submitting public comments on the proposed rule change is March 27th (see: http://tinyurl.com/2wzyag). See also: http://tinyurl.com/3cd7ok and http://tinyurl.com/2qkfy7


FARMS MAY BE EXEMPTED FROM EMISSION RULES
The Washington Post, Elizabeth Williamson, February 26, 2008
http://tinyurl.com/27jg9z

 

2. RECORD AMOUNT OF U.S. MEAT PRODUCED, EXPORTED

The U.S. production of “red meat” (meat from cattle, pigs and sheep) totaled 48.8 billion pounds in 2007, a record amount. Beef and pork production were up 1% and 4% respectively, veal and lamb production were down 6% and 1% respectively. A record high was also set last year for U.S. pork and poultry exports. Poultry exports are expected to again set a record in 2008. The number of U.S. farms continued to fall in 2007 but the average size of them grew. The number of cattle, dairy and pig operations decreased while sheep and goat operations increased. Of the 626 slaughterplants that handled cattle, 14 killed 54% of them. Half of all pigs slaughtered were killed in 11 of the 618 slaughterplants that handled them. The complete report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service is available at {note PDF file: http://tinyurl.com/2vcvel}.

A declining population of cattle in North America are causing cattle-feeding and slaughtering businesses to lose sizable sums of money. A “perfect storm” for the beef industry is attributed to E. coli, “mad cow disease,” droughts, the doubling of corn prices, the recessing U.S. economy, and competition with “a huge supply of cheap pork and poultry.” In February, Tyson CEO Richard Bond opined that U.S. cattle numbers might have peaked "not only for this cycle but maybe even forever."


MORE MEAT THAN EVER — RED MEAT PRODUCTION SETS ALL TIME RECORD
Meating Place, Janie Gabbett, March 7, 2008
http://tinyurl.com/2lp9yl

SCALING BACK
Meat & Poultry, Steve Kay, March 1, 2008
http://www.meatpoultry.com/Feature_Stories.asp?ArticleID=92028

 

3. HALLMARK HEARING; NOTICES & BILL

Hallmark/Westland Meat Co. President Steve Mendell arrived by subpoena at a Congressional hearing on March 12th [see: http://tinyurl.com/2wocfq] represented by Asa Hutchinson, a high-profile Washington lawyer and former congressman and member of the Bush administration. Mendell initially denied that non-ambulatory cows had been slaughtered for human food at Hallmark, claiming they were instead euthanized. After watching video documentation, he acknowledged that they had been. (A U.S. Department of Agriculture official noted that the USDA had evidence of other such cows at Hallmark who had been put into the food supply.) Mendell maintained that the meat had “less than a minute chance of…being contaminated." Members of the subcommittee pointed out that the lengthy incubation period for the human form of “mad cow disease” could be a decade or two. (See also TOO LITTLE TESTING FOR MAD COW, CRITICS SAY: http://tinyurl.com/2j3qzj and DISPARATE FEDERAL RULES IN SPOTLIGHT: http://tinyurl.com/228xqh)

The legislators were generally hostile towards Mendell and were unimpressed with his point that seventeen external audits and a dozen internal ones last year showed practices at his company were exemplary. They also brought up failures in the national food safety system, including those of independent auditors, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and USDA investigators. Mendell, however, disagreed that non-ambulatory cows should be banned from slaughter, asserting: "The company does not pay suppliers for the cost of a cow deemed unfit for human consumption and there is therefore no financial incentive to bypass the [existing] regulations.”

Mendell said the undercover investigator had participated in an orientation program and two animal handling training sessions. He submitted documents to this effect containing the investigator’s signature. The Humane Society of the U.S. (HSUS) disputes that the investigator received the training. Mendell said his company is ruined and will not reopen. He said he has received death threats and has heard from people "praying for us to suffer and die like the cows." Historical information on Hallmark and a recap of the current situation is contained in a Wall Street Journal article entitled OVERSIGHT 'FLAW' LED TO MEAT RECALL: http://tinyurl.com/37olkc.

USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has issued two new notices to its slaughterplant inspectors. One states that, as of March 10, inspectors are to increase the time spent verifying humane handling regulatory requirements a minimum of 50% and up to 100%, depending on the type of animals being killed, until May 6, 2008. The other instructs: "Immediately take any necessary regulatory control action to prevent continued egregious inhumane handling" in situations of humane handling noncompliance.

The 2002 farm bill gave USDA the authority to establish regulations “to provide for the humane treatment, handling, and disposition of non-ambulatory livestock by stockyards, market agencies, and dealers.” Punishment for violators can include up to 10 years in jail and fines of up to $500,000 for third-time offenders. However, USDA currently only suspends inspection until the facility either corrects the violation or submits a corrective action plan. Such a facility could be reopened within hours. On March 14th, a bill was introduced in the U.S. Senate that would shut down facilities that slaughter non-ambulatory animals. It includes stiff fines, one-year shutdowns for first and second time violators, and permanent closure for third time offenders. It would also require the USDA release the names of establishments that have received recalled products (see also: http://tinyurl.com/youcg4).


PANEL GRILLS MEATPACKING CHIEF ON BEEF RECALL AT CHINO PLANT
Los Angeles Times, Nicole Gaouette, March 13, 2008
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-na-hallmark13mar13,1,5872989.story

SLAUGHTERHOUSE OWNER BACKS OFF CLAIMS
Associated Press, Erica Werner, March 12, 2008
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gjgIDJ5Z2xZSLp6TUi-kRcCFXmPgD8VC5UP00

LEGISLATORS RAKE HALLMARK CEO OVER THE COALS
Meating Place, Janie Gabbett, March 12, 2008
http://www.cattlenetwork.com/meatingplace_content.asp?ContentID=204883

FSIS ISSUES HUMANE HANDLING NOTICES
Meating Place, Ann Bagel Storck, March 12, 2008
http://tinyurl.com/37l79x

SENATORS MOVE TO INCREASE PENALTIES ON DOWNERS
BEEF Cow-Calf Weekly, Joe Roybal, March 14, 2008
http://tinyurl.com/38blt7

 

4. CRUELTY, INTERNET AND VIDEOTAPE

“After more than 25 years of tactics…the animal rights movement had a bona fide hit,” states The New York Times, referring to the Hallmark case (see item #3), in an article about undercover investigations: “It was as if someone gave Upton Sinclair a video camera and a Web link.” Modern cameras and the Internet have “done for animal rights advocates what the best-organized protest could not,” the article explains. Factors in the success of the Hallmark expose? are noted, as are key points of “decades of trial and error by animal rights advocates.” Obstacles are also mentioned: “often, local law enforcement officials would not prosecute…Some videos were exposed as creatively edited frauds…Others were simply too gruesome for most people to watch.” The Hallmark videos “showed clear legal violations but avoided the bloody images of many undercover videos. As a result, local and national television stations could replay the images over and over.” The public, which has grown increasingly skeptical of the food industry, was also “more likely to relate to large mammals being mistreated” (than to birds being brutalized), and to the fact that the potentially unsafe beef was fed to schoolchildren.

Some within the meat industry are planning to react with videos of their own making (see also item #5). Other efforts are also underway to thwart activists. Several states have passed laws restricting photography and videography, and the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act of 2006 makes illegal action that results in damage to or economic disruption of enterprises using animals. Access to slaughterplants is also increasingly difficult due to suspicious managers, and investigations can be expensive. However, remarks Ingrid Newkirk of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, “A picture is worth a thousand words, but a good video is worth a million.”

See also: HUMANE SOCIETY WINS FIGHTS WITH FOOD INDUSTRY
Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, Matt McKinnney, February 27, 2008
http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/31028

and: PERSONAL ENCOUNTER WITH ANIMAL ABUSE
Beef Recall, Video Jar Memories of Growing Up, Hunting, Learning to Love Creatures.
Star-Gazette, Jim Pfiffer, March 17, 2008
http://tinyurl.com/37gdv9

UPTON SINCLAIR, NOW PLAYING ON YOUTUBE
The New York Times, Kim Severson, March 12, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/dining/12animal.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

 

5. IMAGE PROBLEMS

A "perfect storm" for meat opponents is how Janet Riley, senior vice president of public affairs for the American Meat Institute (AMI), depicted the Hallmark situation at the organization’s annual conference. Riley urged slaughterplant managers to “take photos on a good day, so you have them on a bad day." AMI is producing a DVD of animal handling practices for distribution to reporters. Fears of a consumer backlash were also expressed by farmers at the annual conference of the Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin. "The conditions that exist in most slaughterhouses and dairy farms are outside of what most people would consider acceptable," warned guest speaker Gene Baur, head of Farm Sanctuary. According to Temple Grandin (see http://www.Grandin.com) “….there is a significant minority that wait until an animal is really messed up and then bring it to the processing plant…There is a certain irresponsible segment of the industry that will defend this bad practice because they want their $600 for the animal. That's just disgusting." She called on the USDA to "to step in and stop some of the bad behavior now." Baur noted: "We are already seeing consumer backlash as more people turn away from cow's milk and are buying soy milk instead."

The pig industry is also attempting to improve its image, which has been “battered” by concerns about gestation crates and animal abuse, leaking lagoons and smelly farms, and feed additives and food safety. At the recent National Pork Industry Forum the Pork Board was pressed to address “the onslaught” of critical media. A newly drafted “Ethical Principles” document dominated the discussion. To improve its image, the industry is expected to hire the agency that developed the milk mustache ads for the dairy industry and the “Pork – the Other White Meat” campaign. "It's really all about gaining the trust of [various] audiences -- the trust that we in the pork industry are capable of overseeing and regulating ourselves, that we don't need consumer advocates to regulate us and we don't need regulators and law makers to regulate us," the head of the agency told the attendees. See also THE OTHER DOWNERS: http://tinyurl.com/2wxse3 and OHIO PORK REACHES OUT TO PUBLIC WITH WEB VIDEOS ABOUT FARM LIFE: http://tinyurl.com/2kcjce.

LIVE FROM AMI: HALLMARK/WESTLAND A 'PERFECT STORM' FOR ACTIVISTS
Meating Place, Tom Johnston, March 10, 2008
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/animalrightsactivistresources/message/11057

DAIRY FARMERS FEAR CONSUMER BACKLASH
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Rick Barrett, March 11, 2008
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=727205

PORK PRODUCERS SEEK TO MEND BATTERED IMAGE
Reuters, Jerry Bieszk with Walter Bagley, March 7, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN0654142620080307?sp=true

 

6. PRESSURE TO PHASE OUT "SHACKLE AND HOIST" SLAUGHTER

Yona Metzger, the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, met with importers of South American kosher meat to encourage them to phase out the "shackle and hoist" slaughter method and adopt the "rotating pen" (see http://tinyurl.com/34k6yd). Although gratuitous cruelty to animals during slaughter does not disqualify meat from the animals from being considered kosher, Metzger told the importers that the shackle-and-hoist method is “primitive.” He urged them "to exert major pressure on the slaughterhouses they work with to make them adopt the rotating pen method." Sources within the Rabbinate (the premiere Jewish religious governing body) have expressed concerns that willingness to act on this matter would cast a negative light on kosher slaughter in general. In the U.S., an effort is underway to create a seal of approval regarding animal welfare and workers’ rights that will accompany kosher supervision stamps for qualifying kosher meat producers.

CHIEF RABBI URGES MORE HUMANE SLAUGHTER METHODS
The Jerusalem Post, Matthew Wagner, March 4, 2008
http://tinyurl.com/28a8bg

RABBINATE TO PHASE OUT 'SHACKLE AND HOIST' ANIMAL SLAUGHTER
The Jerusalem Post, Matthew Wagner, February 19, 2008
http://tinyurl.com/34vytn

WHY DO THE OU AND ISRAEL'S RABBINATE CONDONE BARBARITY?
The Jerusalem Post (opinion), Adam J. Frank, February 13, 2008
http://tinyurl.com/335zr3

 





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Compiled and edited by Mary Finelli, Farmed Animal Watch is a free weekly electronic news digest of information concerning farmed animal issues gleaned from an array of academic, industry, advocacy and mainstream media sources.