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The Iowa secretary of agriculture, chief rabbinate in Israel, and the Orthodox Union weigh in on AgriProcessors. Read their reactions here.
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AgriProcessors workers ignore the suffering of cows who are still sensible to pain after having their throats slit by the ritual slaughterer. The animals stagger and slip in blood while their tracheas dangle from their necks.
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Statement of Gary Dahl,
Representative of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Federal Meat and Poultry Inspector's Union (American Federation of Government Employees)
November 26, 2004
Cem Akin, Senior Research Associate
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
501 Front St.
Norfolk, VA 23510
Dear Mr. Akin:
My name is Gary Dahl from Denver, Colorado. I represent through the Federal Meat and Poultry Inspectors Union (AFGE) all Federal Unit Inspectors through out the United States. I am a Local President in Colorado and a Council Vice President for the Southwestern United States. I've worked for the meat industry for 7 years and for the USDA FSIS as an Inspector for 21 years to include both red meat and poultry and 11 years on a slaughter production. I do not speak for the USDA, but for myself and others that I represent.
I have reviewed the kosher slaughterhouse footage you sent me and the suffering of these animals was obvious, as was their consciousness after they had their tracheas removed. For animals to be allowed to remain mobile and be able to thrash around after this procedure is uncalled for and inhumane. To be mean and cruel to animals has no place with regards to the harvest of food.
I also had the following comments about the following incidents, as numbered on the video.
Incident #21
The restraining device is designed more for convenience and safety rather than welfare. Firstly, the washing of the throat could interfere with the breathing of the animal. That would be the first inhumane act. Whenever water is applied in this fashion, this is not natural. Nor is turning the animal upside down. Anything that is not natural to the animal creates a level of stress. The ripping of the trachea and esophagus while the animal is conscious is atrocious and really wrong.
The restraining device is probably full of blood, which creates a heavy blood environment which a conscious animal can readily sense, leading to additional undue stress.
The animal was dumped from the restraining device totally conscious and aware, with his trachea hanging out. The animal was totally mobile. If an animal comes out of the device totally conscious and walking around in the manner of this one, then that animal should be desensitized through a knocking procedure. To be subjected to this kind of dismemberment while still fully aware and conscious is not fair to this animal.
Incident #28
With the animal upside down and making that type of cut, possibly the blood would be absorbed into the lungs. By cutting into the trachea, the cow could be breathing in his own blood or drowning in his own blood, which would be a violent process. At least if the animal was upright, the blood would not be directed towards the lungs. The amount of time that this animal is fully conscious on the floor, partly dismembered, causes the animal pain and suffering.
With excessive thrashing and with exposed wounds, and being that the floor contains contaminants such as pathogens from the hides to include fecal contamination such as salmonellas and e.coli., is a concern from a food safety perspective.
Being mobile, and the floor being as slippery as it is, there is going to be a lot of joint injuries and dislocations for conscious animals. These injuries would be very painful.
Incident #30
I noticed that there were 3 or 4 movements with the cut rather than a single cut, which could indicate that the knife was dull (I noticed the same on others). The conscious animal did a cartwheel, which threw the animal. After being dumped from the device, the animal then gets up and moves around. The animal is aware and alert to everything that is being done to her.
Incident #35
With the animal's legs sliding around, there will be pain on the joints and possible bruising. This can also cause a splitter, when the rear legs split leading to muscle and tendon tears.
Incident #40
This animal was shackled and strung up while still fully conscious. You can see that the shackler was in a bit of a hurry because he seemed to be behind, so the animal was actually shackled while still conscious. The cow also appeared to hit his head on the post while he was thrashing.
Incident #24
Excessive whistling can cause added excitement in the animals and more tension in the animal from a noisy environment.
Incident #26
This animal hit his head at least 6 or 7 times while still conscious. With a cut of that magnitude, with half the neck cut out, there has to be pain involved given the movement and thrashing of the head.
Incident #33
This animal was hoisted while fully conscious.
Incident #31
This animal could have had an improper cut from the individual applying the bleeding cut judging from the tongue movement and rhythmic breathing.
Incident #20
The restraining device seems to cause added stress because the neck restrainer has to be moved, at least 5 times in this case, in order to finally dislodge the neck.
Incident #7 and #4 (Kicking blood into the animal's face)
To kick blood into a dying animal's face is far from allowing the animal to die with dignity. There is no compassion there.
Incident #37 (Face prodding)
To put an electric prod into a cow's face while he was totally restrained is uncalled for and an act of meanness. When you desensitize yourself to the extent where this is being done, that�s when you need to have regulatory oversight in slaughter areas at all times to ensure that this doesn�t occur. Someone is just getting a cheap thrill at an animal�s expense.
Incident #9 (Chickens stuck in conveyor belt)
All it would take is a little piece of belting to keep these painful incidents from happening, and would only take the maintenance person 10 minutes of time and $5 of material.
It is in my opinion that the line speed was such that it was too fast to accommodate any kind of humaneness. The animals suffered greatly with this process. No conscious animal should be subjected to the trachea being removed, being ejected from a containment, and having numerous falls while trying to mobilize in a last ditch effort for survival. Also, with a cut to the throat of this magnitude, the animal had to endure a lot of pain when it thrashed in the manner that I observed.
If I could ever emphasize anything, I feel that the humane slaughter act laws were totally ignored.
If you should wish to discuss the matter further, please let me know.
Sincerely,
Gary Dahl
President Local 925 AFGE
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