Bushway Veal Investigation
Merlin ID: 15935
Caption
An undercover investigation by The Humane Society of the United States revealed shocking animal abuse at Bushway Packing, Inc., a Grand Isle, Vermont, slaughter plant. Videotape from the investigation showed veal calves only a few days old – many with their umbilical cords still hanging from their bodies – were unable to stand or walk on their own. The tape shows that the animals were kicked, slapped and repeatedly shocked with electric prods and subjected to other mistreatment.
The HSUS investigator worked as a floor cleaner at the plant from late August through the end of September 2009, and gathered hidden-camera evidence showing:
Live animals placed in piles with dead animals. The USDA inspector present told the HSUS investigator on video not to tell him if a live calf was in the pile of dead animals because, "I'm not supposed to know. I could shut them down for that."
The frequent use of electric prods and kicking animals in an attempt to force the newborn calves to stand. Some calves are shocked more than 30 times, and in at least one case, water was splashed on one calf to accentuate the effect of the electric shocking.
Slaughter plant workers performing improper stunning methods to knock the animals unconscious, including stunning calves en masse in a crowded room as opposed to individually restraining them to make the stunning more accurate.
In one scene, a worker attempts to skin a calf who is still alive, directly in front of a USDA inspector. This government official tells the worker, on hidden camera, that if another USDA inspector saw this, the plant would be shut down, but he allows the abuse to continue. In another scene, the slaughter plant's co-owner, who had claimed in press reports that he had no knowledge of cruel treatment at his facility, is shown shocking downed calves with electric prods in futile attempts to force them to stand. Prodding one calf to stand up, he says to the animal, "There ain't nothing wrong with you, sh*t box." At one point he jokes that one of the staggering calves "looks like you on a Friday night," referring to the USDA inspector, who laughs at the co-owner's joke.
After this investigation, The HSUS called for a series of policy reforms to prevent such abuse. These reforms include closing the loophole in the federal regulation that allows downer calves to be slaughtered for food. Earlier in 2009, President Barack Obama and the USDA banned the slaughter of all adult downer cattle, as a result of The HSUS undercover investigation of the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company in Chino, Calif., requiring that they be humanely euthanized rather than dragged to slaughter. The HSUS applauded that move. However, the regulation still allows downer calves to be slaughtered, leading to the type of cruelty The HSUS uncovered at Bushway.
These images are screen grabs from the undercover videos.
Keywords: Cow, Animal Abuse, Animal Cruelty, Caged Farm Animals, Cruel Confinement of Farm Animals, Campaigns, Factory Farming, Farm Animal Welfare, Investigations, Protect Farm Animals
Credit
The HSUS
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