JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum COWS

... why can't they be a little nicer to cows? anyone?

Washington was on Monday facing calls for stricter controls over meat production after the second-biggest US supplier of beef to school lunch programmes issued the largest-ever recall of ground beef.

Westland/Hallmark Meat, based near Los Angeles, voluntarily recalled more than 143m pounds of meat on Sunday after the government said it was unfit for human consumption.

The US Department of Agriculture said it had evidence the company’s plant was slaughtering downer cattle – cows that could not walk. In such cases, slaughterhouses should contact inspectors immediately to avoid processing cows with Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or mad cow disease.

“It is extremely unlikely that these animals were at risk for BSE because of the multiple safeguards,” said Ed Schafer, the secretary of agriculture. “However, this action is necessary because plant procedures violated USDA regulations.”

The recall involved beef dating back more than two years. “The date February 1 2006 has been chosen because the evidence indicates that this practice was going on back to that date,” said Dick Raymond, undersecretary for food safety.

The action was prompted by a six-week investigation by the Humane Society of the United States, in which it secretly filmed workers using electric prods to force downer cows to stand up, forcing hoses into their nostrils and ramming them with the blades of a forklift truck.

Michael Markarian, executive vice-president of the society, said it had released the results of its investigation three weeks ago. The USDA had been investigating since then, as had local prosecutors, who last Friday filed criminal charges against two former employees at the slaughterhouse.

Mr Markarian questioned the USDA’s assertion that this was an isolated case.