I
guess many of us are disillusioned with humanity. We may all have different
reasons. Mine is realizing how very difficult it is to awaken feelings of compassion
for our terribly exploited farm animals. Surely by now -all of us have read
something re the cruelties which our meat- based diets have caused them. And in reality,
this diet not only causes animal suffering, but because of it -precious grain used to
raise them could be better used to feed the impoverished starving world.
But somehow we seem either to be dismissive of these facts or really just
don't care. However, I think it is important to share what we learn each day in this
regard with others. If you receive Mercy for Animals, you will already have read their
recent expose of what happens to chickens in Canada. Well, you may think it only
happens there, but it happens here in the US too and probably other countries as
well.
I sometimes have difficulty reading about cruelty to both humans and
animals, but can you imagine what it must be like to view it up close and personal?
"John," an undercover agent for MFA had this great courage and shared his experience
with us. For six months he was an employee of the slaughterhouse owned and operated
by Maple Lodge Farms of Canada.
Of this place John said, "It is one of the ugliest places you can
imagine." The chickens from mostly Ontario farms are brought in by a steady stream of tractor
trailers. The birds quickly bred are about two months old. Every day- nearly a half a
million of them are slaughtered at this Maple Lodge plant. It feeds a Canadian market that
consumes more than 650 million chickens every year. Clearly, it is a very popular
meat source in Canada.
Not surprisingly, the Maple Lodge Farms website claims that it treats its
birds humanely, but any one watching the undercover video shot by John would certainly
disprove this assertion. Even weather takes its toll on these poor birds. In hot months
some of them arrive dead from over-heating. And in the cold months- some arrive frozen
like blocks of ice. Perhaps -despite this cruel death, they maybe the luckier ones.
The crated chickens who survive the terrible weather heat or freezing cold
are unloaded and sometimes roughly thrown onto a conveyor belt. John described the
procedure: "Each employee is expected to hang 20 birds a minute, so employees are hanging
birds as fast as they can to keep up. So they are being grabbed pretty violently.
Sometimes you'll see bones protruding out of the skin, you see toes ripped off. It's pretty
horrific."
Then the line carrying the suspended birds moves through a process where
the heads are pulled through an electrified pool which stuns the animal. Next, a machine
cuts their throats, and finally they are dunked into a scalding tank which makes it easier for
yet another machine to pluck off the feathers.
The company actually believes these procedures are efficient and humane. I
would like them to imagine themselves from the chicken's perspective. Obviously,
they don't.
Unfortunately, John said he often saw birds come out of the stunning pool
conscious, and in their struggle to release themselves -sometime miss the blade
designed to cut their throats. Workers were positioned for this eventuality, and would
manually dispatch as many as a thousand or more of them each day.
Per John- the technology being used here is STANDARD IN THE INDUSTRY. But
the burning question has to be --is the company doing anything
wrong?
The question was put to one of Canada's poultry experts who believes that
some of the things he saw in the undercover video should not have
happened. To his
credit, he did find fault with many of the cruel procedures at this slaughtering
plant.
Maple Lodge Farms had been convicted previously in September of 2013
because of "the failure to prevent undue suffering by undue exposure to weather of a
large number of chickens and were fined $100,000 and placed on probation for 3 years."
Well, this is all well and good, but didn't they obviously miss citing the evident
monumental failures re the inhumane slaughtering practices themselves?
CEO Michael Burrows of Maple Lodge Farms was not willing to view the
undercover video, nor did he make an attempt to meet with MFA regarding it. Of course, he
made a statement saying that the humane treatment of the birds was a priority and a moral
responsibility that they take seriously. If so, then he should have viewed the video. Words
are cheap.
Though Burrows refused to meet with MFA -MFA received a message that "The
CFIA is conducting a thorough and careful review of the complaint and will take any
necessary measures that it may deem appropriate." I hope they are sincere and that
this is just not mere rhetoric and that true reform will come as a result of this horrific
video.
Canada MFA is also pushing for major changes to the aging technology
prevalent in the poultry slaughter industry. They hope that instead of electrified pools to
stun the birds and automated cutters to slice their throats that CONTROLLED ATMOSPHERE
KILLING (CAK) be used. A video from Norway shows crates of birds arriving at a CAK
facility. They
are then placed inside a chamber where inert gases replace oxygen- causing
all the birds to slip into unconsciousness and death -when they are then handled by
humans.
Wonderful -- thank you Norway. Yes, these procedures would be costly to
implement --but surely a compassionate people will not object. I hope to write to
Pres. Obama and USDA Inspector Tom Vilsak about this. We all should, if we really
care.
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