Humane Society releases new video of mistreated livestock Associated Press

Published: Wednesday May 7, 2008



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Print This Email This By NATASHA T. METZLER WASHINGTON  The Humane Society of the United States released video footage Wednesday of sick and injured livestock the group says were mistreated at auction sites and stockyards where cattle are sold for slaughter. The group released videos shot during April and May showing downed cows abandoned for hours at facilities in Maryland, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Texas. A video was posted on the group's Web site. "We found downed cows in a state of ill health, with no relief provided to the animals," said Wayne Pacelle, the organization's president and chief executive. Downed cattle may pose a higher risk of contamination from E. coli, salmonella or mad cow disease because they typically wallow in feces and their immune systems are often weak. Pacelle said there is no indication the downed cows his group filmed entered the food supply. But he added that the videos point out that auction sites fall between regulatory cracks, raising concern that a downed cow could potentially leave a facility and enter the food supply. "Every place that we looked, we found downed animals," he said. "No one is watching. No one is taking responsibility for these animals." The footage shows two downed cows at a site in Hereford, Texas; a downed cow left overnight outside an auction facility's barn in Westminster, Md.; two downed cows in at a site Clovis, N.M.; and a downed calf in Greencastle, Pa. In the Maryland case, investigators called the local Humane Society the next morning to euthanize the cow that spent the night behind the barn. "I want to stress our procedure on downer cows such as this is to euthanize them in a timely manner," said Randy Bouldin, owner of the Livestock Exchange in Hereford. "Because of this we're going to reiterate to our employees the proper procedure." But he criticized the Humane Society investigators for allowing the cows to lie there without providing assistance, saying they were "more interested in a story than the humane handling of those two cows." Bouldin added that the video footage was not time stamped to prove that the cows were actually there for the four hours the society claimed. Pacelle said his organization had received a complaint about the Texas facility and had long-standing concerns about the Pennsylvania site. He said the New Mexico facility was chosen because it was close to Hereford and the Maryland auction because it was close to Washington. "We intend to work immediately with the businesses where the improper handling reportedly occurred," Jim Santomaso, president of industry trade group the Livestock Marketing Association, said in a statement. "LMA shares everyone's interest in promoting the proper care and handling of all livestock, at all stages of their life." Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said that ensuring proper treatment of animals outside of slaughterhouses and other federally inspected facilities would require cooperation between federal and state officials, as well as industry groups. "Even though this is not a food safety issue, these actions of animal cruelty are not acceptable," Schafer said in a statement. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., urged the Agriculture Department on Wednesday to conduct an industrywide investigation to assess the degree of animal cruelty in the industry. "This is further evidence that oversight to ensure the humane treatment of animals destined for our food supply is inadequate. Food animals should never be subject to the kind of horrible acts as witnessed in these videos and reported by concerned citizens," Feinstein wrote in a letter to Schafer. A graphic videotape made inside a California slaughterhouse released by the same group in January led to the nation's largest beef recall. Across the country in 2006, 1,200 livestock marketing businesses handled 35.6 million head of cattle and calves, according to government figures cited in a release from the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. In Texas, the nation's leading cattle producing state, market inspectors from the association inspect animals each week at auctions. They check brands and ownership of millions of cattle each year, the release states. "It is regrettable that four isolated incidents have been highlighted by HSUS, but our experience tells us that with upwards of 4 million head marketed each year in Texas, mishandling of cattle at auction markets is not a widespread problem," said Dave Scott, the association's first vice president.