Animal Welfare

  • Abuse is shocking and it’s all on video; Ohio dairy farm worker charged with animal cruelty

    Posted: May 26th, 2010 - 8:22pm by Doug Powell

    Billy Joe Gregg Jr. – a man with not two but three first names and of course, it’s Billy Joe – an Ohio dairy farm worker has been charged with 12 counts of cruelty to animals after a welfare group released a video it says shows him and others beating cows with crowbars and pitchforks.

    He’s in jail, pondering his 15 minutes of fame.

    Associated Press reports the County sheriff's office says Gregg was fired from Conklin Dairy Farms in Plain City on Wednesday.

    Conklin calls the mistreatment shown on the video "reprehensible." Chicago-based Mercy For Animals says the undercover video was shot between April 28 and Sunday.

    The video is available at:
    http://www.youtube.com/verify_age?next_url=http%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DgYTkM1OHFQg

    It is graphic and disturbing.

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    Animal Welfare  |  1 Comment
    Abuse, Cow, dairy, Ohio, video
  • KSU Alumnus presents ‘Efficient use of Earth’s resources: Providing food for the world’s people’

    Posted: February 24th, 2010 - 1:16pm by Michelle Mazur

    Author: 
    Michelle Mazur

    Dr. Dan Upson presented ‘Efficient Use of Earth’s Resources: Providing Food for the World’s People’ last night at the Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine. The presentation brought the production of food back to the basics of biology, from the basics of photosynthesis and fertilization of the soil to the formation of glucose to make energy. Dr. Upson explored the properties of energy sources like starch and cellulose, pointing out that ruminants are the only ones able to utilize the energy contained in cellulose. This emphasized the importance of the ruminant animal in our growing population and the need to continue research to improve beef production.

    These topics highlighted the current state of the agriculture industry, which has come under attack in recent years for utilizing technology to improve production methods.
     
    “There are those that want to take away the technology from the beef cattle industry, they are intelligent people but they are totally ignorant of the real world.”
     
    Upson continued by showing the nutritional aspects of animal protein, containing all of the amino acids in proper quantities essential for maintenance and growth. The evening was sponsored by the KSU Student Chapter of the American Veterinary Medical Association (SCAVMA), the Beef Cattle Institute, and a new group on campus Food For Thought.
     
    From their blog:
    Food For Thought (FFT) is a group of Kansas State University undergraduate, graduate and veterinary students looking to bridge the gap between agriculture and consumers. FFT strives provide consumers with answers about where their food comes from by empowering agriculturalists, informing consumers, and confronting myths about modern agriculture.
    Dr. Upson attended KSU as an undergrad, a veterinary student, and also as a doctoral student in physiology. He is also a 2004 KSU Alumni Medallion Award Winner and a respected member of the KState community.

     

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  • Shortage of food animal veterinarians puts our food supply at risk

    Posted: February 15th, 2010 - 6:33pm by Michelle Mazur

    Author: 
    Michelle Mazur

    As a veterinary student at Kansas State University, I hear quite a bit about the growing demand for food animal veterinarians. With the increasing cost of tuition for vet school, it’s understanding that many of my colleagues are choosing to specialize in small animal medicine to help pay off school loans. But the looming threat of agroterrorism, emerging diseases and heightened food security shows an increased demand for food animal vets.

    The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) reports, Only about 17 percent of veterinarians work in food supply, including practicing veterinarians and veterinarians working for governmental and corporate organizations. This is in contrast to the turn of the 19th century, when virtually every veterinarian was a food supply veterinarian. Moreover, research forecasts a shortfall of 4-5 percent per year in the ranks of food supply veterinarians.
     
     
    Philip Lowe, from the Centre for Rural Economy at the University of Newcastle, has said the proportion of time vets in private practice spent treating animals used for food halved between 1998 and 2006 – due in part to the fact most vets run their own businesses, and pet owners have proved a more sustainable and lucrative source of income than farmers.
     
    Professor Lowe argues in the journal Veterinary Record that due to this shift there has been a failure to make use of vets' considerable and wide ranging expertise.
     
    Various programs have been proposed to encourage vet students to enter food animal practice and help alleviate the problem of an enlarging veterinary student debt to salary ratio. Two programs that have been implemented are the Student Loan Repayment Program through the USDA and the National Veterinary Medical Service Act
     
    These programs and future opportunities will help veterinary students join the nation’s food safety task force, and hopefully also increase our knowledge base and preparedness for foreign animal diseases within the United States. This is a critical time in the veterinary world, in which veterinarians must take full advantage of their skill sets to protect the nation’s food supply.

    To read more about the food animal vet shortage, visit the AVMA's Food Supply Veterinary Medicine media page.
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    Animal Welfare, Animals  |  1 Comment
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  • Quiznos: Toasted tastes better, especially if the safety were improved

    Posted: February 11th, 2009 - 8:04pm by Doug Powell

    There’s no ice hockey in Manhattan (Kansas) but we do get the NHL channel, and a hockey game can make some fine background while editing.

    Saturday nights around 6:45 pm (CST), if I remember, it’s off to Hockey Night in Canada for seven minutes of Don Cherry, the 75-year-old former coach and commentator know for his “outspoken manner, flamboyant dress, and staunch patriotism.”

    Cherry also lended his trademark staccato yelling to the Quiznos sandwich chain in Canadian ads, and the “Toasted tastes better” tagline.

    So I thought of Don today, as I pined for hockey and read that Quiznos has adopted a new animal-welfare policy regarding its purchases of eggs, pork and turkey, developed in conjunction with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

    That’s sweet. I wonder if Quiznos modified its buying patterns after tomatoes on its sandwiches in Rochester, Minnesota, sickened at least 10 people with Salmonella in 2007. Maybe Quiznos modified its policies on raw sewage on the floor in its restaurants after a Chicago outlet was closed in 2008. And maybe Quiznos has instituted sensitivity training for its managers after a Toronto spokesthingy said in response to the Canadian listeria outbreak in deli meats which killed 20 last year that, “People are hypochondriacs.”

    This video is aptly titled, Don Cherry is crazy.
     

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    Animal Welfare, Food Safety Policy, Salmonella  |  1 Comment
    Canada, Don Cherry, Hockey, Quiznos, Sewage
  • Jamie Oliver: Slaughtering chickens to raise awareness about slaughtering chickens

    Posted: July 28th, 2008 - 6:31pm by Michelle Mazur

    I’ve never been much of a fan of cooking shows.  The chefs talk, they cook, they even sometimes teach poor food safety.  Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has taken the typical format of a cooking show and added an extra twist; audience members witness the killing of the chicken used in the meal.  Animal rights groups and poultry farmers are outraged over his new television show “Jamie’s Fowl Dinners.”

    The show serves up a giant dose of shock and awe as chicks are gassed to death and an adult chicken is killed for the meal.  Yet throughout the show Oliver insists that he is trying to raise awareness about how chickens are treated in the poultry industry.

    "I don't think it's sensational to show people the reality of how chickens live and die at the moment. It may be upsetting for some people but that's how things are. And if seeing some of the practices helps to change the shopping habits of just 5 per cent of people watching, then it will be worth it.”

    Channel 4 factual entertainment boss Andrew Mackenzie said: "Jamie's simple message, in quite an overt way, will be: 'If you know what happens to a chicken before arriving on your plate, would you change the way you think about chicken? Would you still eat it?'"

    Oliver had criticized Sainbury’s supermarket over its involvement on his show and has since apologized for it.  It appears that his main goal to is encourage people to purchase free-range and organic chicken raised in less intensive facilities.  However I found that most of the program depicting the slaughter of chickens seems to push people towards vegetarianism rather than purchasing their chickens from another source.  You be the judge.

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    Animal Welfare, Celebrity  |  3 Comments
    Chefs, Chicken, Jaime Oliver
  • AVMA's new veal welfare policy

    Posted: July 25th, 2008 - 8:40pm by Michelle Mazur

    The American Veterinary Medical Association announced last week that they had passed a groundbreaking policy on veal calf housing that promotes both animal health and welfare. The resolution passed by a landslide 88.7 percent vote.

    The new policy states "that the AVMA supports a change in veal husbandry practices that severely restrict movement, to housing systems that allow for greater freedom of movement without compromising health or welfare."

    The former policy consisted of only a few points on living conditions, including that the area the calves are kept in permits them to stretch, stand, and lie down comfortably.

    "This is encouraging on two levels," explains Dr. Ron DeHaven, AVMA chief executive officer. "First, we are proactively seeking to improve the welfare of veal calves, and second, the resolution still affords the AVMA Animal Welfare Committee the opportunity to do a comprehensive analysis of the science and to consider all relevant perspectives of veal calf production."

    The confinement of veal calves and other farm animals is one of many issues that animal activists are passionate about.  Currently the Human Society of the United States is leading a campaign in California to pass legislation know as Proposition 2.  Prop 2 is aimed mostly towards egg-laying hens, pregnant sows, and calves raised for veal in order to improve their living conditions.  Perhaps the steps taken by the AVMA with new veal calf policies will help to continue their campaign.

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    Animal Health, Avma, Calves, Veal Calf
  • USDA to ban all downers from meat supply

    Posted: May 20th, 2008 - 12:24pm by Doug Powell

    U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer has just announced plans to ban all downers from the meat supply.

    Parts of his statement are below:

    One day after I was sworn in as Secretary of Agriculture, I learned of the illegal acts of inhumane handling that took place at the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company in Chino, California. I immediately called upon the Office of the Inspector General and the Food Safety and Inspection Service to determine how this happened and what could be done in the future to ensure that animals are treated humanely.

    The 60-day enhanced surveillance period concluded on May 6 and while we are still analyzing those results, today I am announcing that USDA will begin working on a proposed rule to prohibit the slaughter of all disabled non-ambulatory cattle, also know as "downer cattle." In other words, I am calling for the end of the exceptions in the so called "downer rule."

    Last year, of the nearly 34 million cattle that were slaughtered, under 1,000 cattle that were re-inspected were actually approved by the veterinarian for slaughter. This represents less than 0.003 percent of cattle slaughtered annually. As you can see, this number is minimal.

    The current rule, which focuses on cattle that went down after they have already passed pre-slaughter inspection, has been challenging to communicate and has, at times, been confusing to consumers.

    To maintain consumer confidence in the food supply, eliminate further misunderstanding of the rule and, ultimately, to make a positive impact on the humane handling of cattle, I believe it is sound policy to simplify this matter by initiating a complete ban on the slaughter of downer cattle that go down after initial inspection.

    FSIS will draft a proposed rule to remove the exception that allows certain injured cattle to proceed to slaughter. This action is expected to provide additional efficiencies to food safety inspection by removing the step that requires inspection workforce to determine when non-ambulatory cattle are safe to slaughter.

    The decision to ban all non-ambulatory cattle from slaughter will positively impact the humane handling of cattle by reducing the incentive to send marginally weakened cattle to market.

    Cattle producers, transporters and slaughter establishments alike will be encouraged to enhance humane handling practices, as there will no longer be any market for cattle that are too weak to rise or walk on their own.

    Animal welfare shouldn't be a downer.
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    Animal Welfare, Food Safety Policy  |  0 Comments
    Cattle, Downers, Usda
  • How celebs impact food sales: poultry production in the UK

    Posted: April 28th, 2008 - 9:59am by Ben Chapman

    The Independant (UK) ( had an assortment of free range egg articles yesterday, including one from Joanna Lumley. Doug says that Joanna Lumley is famous; in a Coronation Street kind of way, I guess.

    Lumley writes that: Sixty-two per cent of hens in the UK still endure life sentences of frustration and deprivation in the battery cage. How can we let such cruelty continue? For the past two years, Compassion in World Farming has been engaging with the corporate world, persuading big players to abandon battery eggs and pledge to use eggs from more humane systems – at least from barn-kept hens, though free-range is best.

    Celebs getting involved with poultry standards isn't a new issue in the UK: back in January, Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall took part in documentaries discussing poultry-raising standards and urging the public to switch to consumption of a more humane product.  Soon after the documentaries aired, Joanna Blythman (Jan 13, 2008) wrote that she didn't see the latest celebrity chef campaign yielding any better results [than past efforts]:

    The current round of public breast-beating on factory-farmed poultry provokes a sense of déja vu. If Britain really was concerned enough to support more progressive farming methods with its purse, then we would have seen an improvement in animal welfare by now. 

    But Blythman was apparently wrong.  In February it was reported that sales of factory-farmed chickens slumped post-documentary campaign to raise awareness implore consumers to pay more to improve the animals' welfare.  According to the Independent (Feb 28, 2008):

    Sales of free-range poultry shot up by 35 per cent last month compared with January 2007, while sales of standard indoor birds fell by 7 per cent, according to a survey of 25,000 shoppers by the market research company TNS.

    Celeb endorsements of food issues isn't strictly a British tactic either. Pam Anderson was famously linked to PETA animal welfare protests at KFC outlets a few years ago and maybe the threat of these protests resulted in Burger King's animal welfare systems?  In a Burger King press release PETA Vice President, Bruce Friedrich was quoted as saying “The BURGER KING brand’s influence has moved the entire animal industry. The availability of cage free products is growing, a credit to BKC’s leadership on the issue.”  California, hot bed of US celebrity action will be voting on animal welfare legislation, "The Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act" which would mandate roomier housing for pregnant sows, veal calves and laying hens.

    The message to the food industry is that celebs (no matter how minor, or how British) can make a stir (whether around animal welfare, local diets, food safety, etc.) and really affect purchasing habits.  So be prepared and find a way to work alongside them on the issues; you can't ignore them.
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    Anderson, Joanna, Lumley, Pamela, Poultry
  • USDA says newfangled technology not required, slaughterhouses are fine

    Posted: April 17th, 2008 - 7:45pm by Doug Powell

    Dr. Raymond has spoken: the U.S. Department of Agriculture needs neither videocameras nor more inspectors to police slaughterhouses after the country's largest beef recall earlier this year.

    Everything is just fine.

    Raymond, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's undersecretary for food safety (right, on the left, at Marler's food safety bash last week), told a House subcommittee that USDA has enough food inspectors after hiring more than 190 last year and videotaping meat plant operations would be costly and practically difficult to implement, adding, "It's not as simple as a camera," and that the agency was "not stretched too thin."

    Raymond's response angered House members    , who said the recall of beef slaughtered in the Hallmark/Westland plant in Chino, Calif., showed a need for improvements.

    The beef was recalled after the Humane Society of the United States released an undercover video showing the mistreatment of sick cows at the Westland/Hallmark plant in Chino, Calif.

    As I've said before, USDA may need to adopt some new inspection and investigative techniques if the HSUS can so easily document such grotesquely poor treatment of animals.

    And unlike 12th century France, USDA has access to the same video technology that a single undercover worker -- not the five USDA inspectors on-site -- was able to use to bring down a large corporation. Producers and processors who say their food is safe should be able to prove it. Producers and processors who say they treat animals humanely should be able to prove it.

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    Animal Welfare, Food Safety Policy  |  2 Comments
    Cooking Show Video, Slaughterhouse
  • Cattle abuse wasn't rare occurrence

    Posted: March 24th, 2008 - 9:39pm by Doug Powell

    Julie Schmit reports in USA Today Tuesday that the abuse of non-ambulatory cattle at a California slaughterhouse has renewed calls for a ban on the slaughter of such animals, and newly released government records show such mishandling in past years was more than a rare occurrence.

    The Animal Welfare Institute, an animal-protection group, said that more than 10% of the humane-slaughter violations issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the 18 months ended March 2004 detailed improper treatment of animals that couldn't walk — mostly cattle.

    The finding, drawn from USDA records the institute recently received in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, is included in a report to be released Tuesday on humane-slaughter violations. It comes as the USDA steps up checks on conditions at the nation's 900 slaughterhouses following abuses at Westland/Hallmark Meat, now at the heart of the biggest beef recall ever.

    An undercover animal-rights worker at the plant used a video camera to document workers moving downed cows with forklifts, sticking them repeatedly with electric prods and spraying water down their noses to make them stand, allegedly to get them to slaughter (below).

    The USDA called the actions "egregious violations of humane-handling regulations." American Meat Institute (AMI) spokeswoman Janet Riley called them an "anomaly."

    But the USDA records obtained by the Animal Welfare Institute describe 501 humane-handling or slaughter violations that occurred at other slaughter plants. At one plant, a downed cow was pushed 15 feet with a forklift. Other companies were cited for dragging downed but conscious animals, letting downed cattle be trampled and stood on by others and, in one case, using "excessive force" with a rope and an electric prod to get a downed cow to stand, the enforcement records say.

    As I wrote in Feb., the city leaders in Toulouse, France, figured out by 1184 that selling the meat of sick animals was forbidden unless the buyer was warned.

    In the Middle Ages, violation of regulations ranged from fines to flogging to banishment._Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. will be flogged in the media and the two-year recall should effectively banish the company.

    But unlike 12th century France, USDA has access to the same video technology that a single undercover worker -- not the five USDA inspectors on-site -- was able to use to bring down a large corporation. Producers and processors who say their food is safe should be able to prove it. Producers and processors who say they treat animals humanely should be able to prove it.

     
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    Cattle, Downers