Since the 1980s a series of mergers and acquisitions has resulted in concentrating over 80% of the 35 million beef cattle slaughtered annually in the U.S. into the hands of four huge corporations. This is detailed in an April 2001 Washington Post article, which describes typical slaughterplant conditions: The cattle were supposed to be dead before they got to Moreno. But too often they weren't. They blink. They make noises, he said softly. The head moves, the eyes are wide and looking around. Still Moreno would cut. On bad days, he says, dozens of animals reached his station clearly alive and conscious. Some would survive as far as the tail cutter, the belly ripper, the hide puller. They die, said Moreno, piece by piece... "In plants all over the United States, this happens on a daily basis," said Lester Friedlander, a veterinarian and formerly chief government inspector at a Pennsylvania hamburger plant. "I've seen it happen. And I've talked to other veterinarians. They feel it's out of control." The U.S. Department of Agriculture oversees the treatment of animals in meat plants, but enforcement of the law varies dramatically. While a few plants have been forced to halt production for a few hours because of alleged animal cruelty, such sanctions are rare. Reaction to the Washington Post investigative piece and others like it precipitated a Congressional resolution reiterating the importance of the Humane Slaughter Act, but to date, there is little if any indication that the situation for animals in slaughterhouses has appreciably improved. -------Suck on that sour lemon. the indivudual must change before the corporations do. CONSIDER YOUR DIETARY HABITS.
wow its a good things they let things like this go and spend there time catching the real criminals, those gosh darn pot smokers... and commies!
that just sickens me. imagine yourself being torn apart and chopped up piece by piece while still alive, just to become someone's hamburger or steak. i don't understand how people could do that to an animal lying right in front of them obviously still alive. of course, i don't know how anyone could do that kind of work anyway. i grew up in kansas with 2 major beef packing plants, excel and national beef in my hometown. you can be assured they keep that stuff hush hush cause they've been around over 15 years and i NEVER heard of that going on.
Sounds like the new US interrogation policy since our government decided that people accused or suspected of being (or even at one time in the past knowing) a terrorist are not entitled to the rights gauranteed by the geneva convention. Anyway, our bodies are built to use meat and as a matter of fact we do need it for optimal health, so people will never stop eating meat. Animal cruelty is ILLEGAL and I don't see how those responsible for procedure in those plants are not being prosecuted. That's just sick.
and so are you. thats true for a lot of the poison we eat and drugs we are prescribed that supposedly make things okay. the same goes for the oil companies and probably a bunch of other really corrupt and injust shit...
