Mistreated and Abused Livestock Puts Consumers At Foodborne Illness Risk

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) recently released video evidence of a Vermont slaughter house abusing veal calves before slaughter. Included in the footage is abuse of infant claves that HSUS chief operating officer, Michael Markarian called “merciless”. The HSUS also claims the footage shows an inspector from the U.S. Department of Agriculture apparently choosing to ignore federal humane animal treatment laws.

Release of the video footage prompted the closing of the Bushway Packing, Inc. in Grand Isle, VT. Investigators are looking into the abuse allegations.

In response to yet another incidence of terrible animal abuse at a slaughter facility caught on tape, the HSUS called on the USDA to enact new reforms to current policies to help prevent this type of abuse.

• Closing the loophole in the federal regulation that allows downer calves to be slaughtered for food.
• Requiring that calves under 10 days of age not be considered fit for transport.
• Overhaul of the federal inspection system for humane handling, with changes to include improving inspector training, requiring more continuous observation of live animal handling and creating an agency ombudsman position to take complaints and tips from whistleblowers

The abuse of animals isn’t only an issue of morality and conscious, it is a matter of your food’s health and safety. Humane and ethical treatment of livestock is needed to keep many beef related foodborne illnesses at bay. Stressed animals have a tendency to be difficult. When these animals go “down” from fear or exhaustion, they often go down in the feces littering the slaughter facility’s floor. When these pathogens, such as E. coli O157:H7, get into the skin and wounds of these unfortunate “downer” animals, they can contaminate the final processed product during the butchering.

Let’s face it, where there are cows, there is going to be cow feces. Where there is cow feces, there is going to be the pathogens E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella. And where there are foodborne pathogens, there is always a risk of foodborne illness and its many dangerous complications like hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a tragic blood disease that has been very closely linked to E. coli O157:H7.

If potentially deadly food poisonings could be avoided while treating an animal in a respectful and humane manner, doesn’t it just make sense to process animals following the established laws and moral rules of conduct?.