It shouldn't take an undercover investigation by an animal protection organization to prompt officials to act, but that's often the case. After Wyatt told his supervisors about the animal abuse that he witnessed at the Bushway Packing plant in Vermont, he was ordered to attend remedial training classes--an unusual punishment for someone who has worked with the food inspection agency for more than 18 years.
After an animal welfare group released footage of 1-day-old calves being kicked, beaten and electrically shocked at Bushway, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) ordered Bushway to cease operations.
When PETA released video footage from a 2001 undercover investigation showing Seaboard Farms workers in Oklahoma bludgeoning, beating and stomping on live pigs, the manager of the farm pleaded guilty to felony cruelty to animals. When Wyatt reported abuses at a Seaboard Farms meatpacking plant, he received a letter of reprimand from FSIS.
These abuses are taking place on factory farms and in slaughterhouses day after day--whether or not animal protection groups are there to record them. Cows routinely have their limbs hacked off while they are still alive. Improperly stunned hogs kick and scream as they are drowned in tanks of scalding-hot water, which is used to soften their skin. Contaminated, filthy carcasses pass by USDA inspectors and head down the line toward your grocery store or favorite restaurant. In many cases, government inspectors stand by and do nothing, fearing retaliation if they report inhumane or unsanitary conditions.
If the agency that is charged with preventing abuses at slaughterhouses cannot--or will not--properly do its job, then it's up to consumers to take action. If you don't want to support the suffering in the slaughterhouse or risk your health by possibly consuming tainted meat, then stop paying for it. Leave the broken bodies of animals off your plate.
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