Veal Slaughterhouse Blames Investigator for Abuse

Bushway Packing Inc. is blaming an undercover investigator for some of the cruelty to baby cows secretly caught on tape.

After The Humane Society of the United States on Oct. 30 released video footage of abuse inside the Vermont slaughterhouse, the federal and state departments of agriculture closed the facility pending an investigation.

The undercover video shows "grisly footage of workers kicking, dragging and repeatedly stunning veal calves with electric prods."

In one instance captured on camera an employee swears and strikes "a calf that won't get up. The man then tells the calf, 'You're getting shocked.'"

When the calf fails to stand up, the man dribbles water on the head of the animal and begins poking it with the prod, first on the head and then on other parts of its body.

Peter Langrock, a lawyer for Bushway, claims the idea to put water on the calf was made by the undercover investigator.

To back up the videographer's claim [of innocence], the Humane Society released an uncut version of the water-sprinkling sequence to the Free Press on Friday. No instructions from the undercover investigator about putting water on the calf can be heard during the segment.

Obviously I think the lawyer and all parties related to Bushway are liars. This incident isn't the only act of cruelty depicted on the video. In fact, others involve a co-owner of the slaughterhouse, as well as a USDA inspector.

Although co-owner Frank Perretta claimed he was "absolutely not" aware of cruelty at Bushway, on the video "a voice identified as Perretta's joked to a worker as a calf collapsed after being stunned that it 'looks like you on Friday night.'"

In another scene, the slaughter plant's co-owner [...] is shown shocking downed calves with electric prods in futile attempts to force them to stand. Prodding one calf to stand up, he says to the animal, "There ain't nothing wrong with you, shit box."

Even the presence of a USDA inspector can't stop the abuse.

In one scene, a worker attempts to skin a calf who is still alive, directly in front of a USDA inspector. This government official tells the worker, on hidden camera, that if another USDA inspector saw this, the plant would be shut down, but he allows the abuse to continue.

Curiously Langrock doesn't understand why an investigator would target Bushway, a clean, modern facility. But abuse can occur anywhere regardless of aesthetics.

Bushway was also a producer of organic veal, so if you think "organic" means "humane," think again.

Even if you don't eat veal, if you do consume dairy products, you are supporting this kind of animal abuse.

When dairy cows give birth to male calves, the males are confined to "veal crates" and slaughtered shortly thereafter. Their flesh was also used in hot dogs.

The meat derived from the calves' slaughter was shipped to Atlantic Veal and Lamb Inc., in Brooklyn, N.Y., and ended up in hot dogs and processed meat products.

Think about this image, from the undercover investigator, the next time you reach for milk, cheese or ice cream. (There are plenty of yummy vegan alternatives.)

"The images I have of them following me, bawling and trying to grab my shirt sleeves to nurse are troubling," he said. "I still can't comprehend how desensitized to suffering one would need to be in order to harm these calves the way the workers and co-owner of the plant did."

(Video courtesy of The HSUS.)

'Bones' Features Factory Farm, Slaughterhouse Footage

The TV show "Bones" regularly includes subtle animal-advocacy messages.

But last night's episode featured actual footage of chickens in factory farms, courtesy of Farm Sanctuary.

While the Internet contains far more graphic footage than was seen on "Bones," I applaud the show -- and its vegan actor/producer Emily Deschanel -- for including it. This footage was likely the first many audience members have been exposed to.

We saw baby chicks getting their beaks seared off, hundreds of chickens crowded into a "cage-free" or "free-range" facility and chickens being hooked upside down to the conveyor at a slaughterhouse.

And, in case some viewers weren't moved by these images, a photo of a cute pig was passed around. Hopefully it caused some in the audience to realize who they are eating when they consume bacon or other pig-flesh products.

And hopefully a few chickens will be spared and seeds of compassion planted in many more minds.

You can view the episode for free at Fox.com or at Hulu.com.

(Rudy Tootie Fresh and Fruity -- his nickname -- lives at Farm Sanctuary. Photo courtesy of Susie Coston.)

Electorate Votes Against Animals, Equality

I'm 0-for-3 in the races I cared most about this past Election Day.

I wasn't surprised that Issue 2 -- the creation of the so-called Livestock Care Standards Board -- passed in Ohio. Animal agribusiness had held rallies throughout the state in an effort to win approval for the measure, which will put them in charge of farmed-animal care.

At an Ohio fair someone actually wrote "Yes for 2" on his cow. (See photo.) This image shows us that animal ags don't value their animals as individuals. If they did, they would realize that cows wouldn't support an initiative that treats them as property, that clamps machines to their udders, that steals their babies and confines them to crates so small they can't turn around, and that murders their babies when they are only weeks old.

No, animal ags instead view animals as objects, inventory, live stock. They are only as valuable as the price they get for their soon-to-be dead bodies.

The Humane Society of the United States will likely fight for a ballot initiative next year, which could ban gestation and veal crates and battery cages.

In a race indirectly related to animals, Chris Christie was elected governor of New Jersey. Christie was the U.S. attorney for New Jersey at the time that the SHAC 7 -- a group of people who used a Web site to advocate for the closure of an animal-torture ("research") facility -- were prosecuted as "terrorists."

In a decision that surprised me, Maine voters overturned a recent law that had legalized same-sex marriage in that state. "NoOn1" had been a trending topic on Twitter yesterday, so I assumed the measure to ban same-sex marriage wouldn't pass. Sadly it did.

Election Day yesterday was not a good one for animals or for equality.

The Dark Side of Cute Puppies

It's the age-old dilemma: How does one make puppies cuter than they already are?

Furry Babies, a chain of Illinois pet stores, found a solution: Put them in baby cribs.

I would have walked right by the store at my local mall, unaware of its existence, had it not been for my fiance, Keith. He grabbed my hand tighter and eased me in the opposite direction.

When I saw the three cribs and the puppies inside them, though, I was disgusted and marched inside.

As I looked around, determining which customers were there out of curiosity and which were actual, potential buyers, I noticed a sign on the wall, offering free financing up to $1,200 with no credit checks.

Despite the wish to distinguish itself from a pet store -- "Furry Babies, Inc. is an upscale puppy boutique, not just a pet store" -- that's exactly what Furry Babies is.

The company doesn't care if the dogs go to caring homes or even if the buyers can afford them. Can't afford to take care of a living, breathing, feeling being? That's ok -- just use the installment plan!

A couple people walked out after watching two puppies wrestle each other in a crib. But a couple with a young boy looked like potential buyers. So I told them if they wanted a dog, they should get one from a shelter. They were very receptive to my suggestion, and I told them about two nearby humane societies, as well as Petfinder.com.

The woman said her son wanted a dog for Christmas. With the holidays approaching and more people shopping at the mall, I wonder how many puppies will be purchased at Furry Babies -- and how many wonderful shelter dogs will be killed in return.

(Photo of a German shepherd puppy in a crib at Furry Babies in Joliet.)

All Couples Should Have Right to Marry

I got engaged Sunday. My fiance and I are planning a small, outdoor ceremony in June.

But before that, in the next few months, we're going to get married at the courthouse just to make things legal.

The process seems straightforward and simple, which makes me feel fortunate ... and guilty.

The hardest part for Keith and me may be digging out our birth certificates. But for many couples throughout the United States, it's impossible to get married. That's because, possibly through the sheer fluke of genetics, they are attracted to members of their same sex.

Same-sex marriage is legal in only four states: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa and Vermont. It will be legal in New Hampshire beginning next year.

I've always equated same-sex marriage with interracial marriage. Not that long ago many people considered interracial marriage sinful, an abomination. Now, though, aside from a few remaining bigots, it's considered acceptable and is legal.

I believe that in a few decades people will look back on the time when same-sex marriage was illegal and think, "What were those ignorant people thinking?"

People don't choose whom to love -- whether it be heterosexual, interracial or same-sex couples. All couples should have the right to marry.

Forget Halloween! Standard U.S. Diet Oozes With Horror

For her children's Halloween party, my cousin is making ghoulish treats like "bat wings," "bloody fingers" and "dried scabs."

Her menu got me thinking: What could be more terror-filled than the standard American diet?

After all, the average U.S. diet has all the elements of a good horror film:

Blood and Guts -- Ah, blood and guts. The men in the audience tend to love these. The more gore, the better. With 10 billion land animals slaughtered each year (just in the U.S.), think of how much blood is spilled. Cows, pigs, chickens all hanging upside-down on the disassembly lines, their throats being slit, blood dripping onto the floors. It's a horror lover's dream.

And whether it's removing intestines from an animal, "clearing cow innards on the slaughter floor" or experiencing vomiting and diarrhea from eating feces-tainted meat, you gotta love the guts.

Knives -- For slitting an animal's throat, removing those intestines or chopping her body into pieces, knives are essential. Of course, sometimes overworked slaughterhouse employees end up cutting themselves. But the more blood, the better, right?

Chain Saws -- Chain saw massacres don't just occur in Texas. No, sirree. Slaughterhouse workers across the country cut the flesh from a cow's corpse using these fine instruments.

Fear -- The essential element of a horror film. Even if the murder occurs off-camera (arguably more frightening than on-camera slayings), the audience must feel a sense of fear, for it provides a rush -- albeit a safe one. The viewer is able to get his rocks off and return to a relatively safer reality when the credits roll.

Not so for farmed animals. They experience fear daily -- from suffering in cramped, overcrowded cages to being transported to slaughterhouses in frigid or sweltering temperatures to taking that walk to the kill floor. It's non-stop fear.

Blood-curdling Screams -- While I've seen many videos of agribusiness cruelty, I was unable to make it through one taken at a pig farm that supplies Hormel. The video began with a blood-curdling scream that sounded human.

Murder and Death -- So many ways, so little time. Although why kill quickly? The fun is in the torture, isn't it?

For example, here are some notes from my blog post about the Hormel video.

[W]e see someone beating a pig and then telling the undercover PETA investigator, "Don't be afraid to hurt 'em."

In the next scene an employee says, "When I get pissed or get hurt or the fuckin' bitch won't move, I grab one of those rods and jam it in her asshole."

In another scene "a worker slams piglets deemed 'runts' headfirst into the concrete floor in an attempt to kill them." These little babies lie in a bloody pile and twitch because they're not dead yet.

Of course, there are other ways to do it. One could improperly shoot a cow's head with a bolt gun and have her wake up and struggle as she's hanging upside-down getting her throat slit.

Or a chicken would be improperly stunned and boiled alive in the de-feathering tank. And let us not forget all those male baby chicks who can't produce eggs, so they are ground up alive in machines called macerators.

Mummies -- Not all horror movies contain mummies, of course. But they can be frightfully scary. Just take a look at this photo.

What's worse than being pursued by a mummy? Having to live with one. That's right -- chickens at a Dunkin' Donuts egg-laying facility were forced to live in overcrowded cages along with their dead, decomposing and sometimes mummified former cagemates.

Flesh Eaters -- Braaaains! Braaaains! What -- you don't eat brains? Oh, but you do eat legs, shoulders, breasts, hips, thighs, arms, butts -- even anuses. Now that's disgusting!

Zombies -- Yes, the average American is a zombie, sleepwalking through her meals, eating what she's been taught to eat, never questioning.

Leave the horror off your plates -- go vegan!

(Photo of slaughtered chickens courtesy of Farm Sanctuary.)
(Photo of murdered pigs courtesy of World News Network/Sweet Radoc.)

Animal Agribusiness Continues Defensive Dance

A story in a Minnesota newspaper questions the legitimacy of an undercover video of an egg-laying facility.

Last month Washington, D.C.-based Compassion Over Killing released the video showing mummified hens at a supplier of Dunkin' Donuts, owned by Michael Foods.

Michael Foods claims that "[s]ome or all of the scenes showing dead birds being removed from cages were staged."

It's a ludicrous charge, and if the company actually believes that, they should file a defamation suit against COK. But they won't because 1) they know the video wasn't staged and 2) they don't want the negative publicity that will come from showing a jury and the media dead, rotting, mummified corpses stuck in cages with living, suffering birds.

The author of this piece, Tom Webb, chose to follow in the footsteps of countless reporters who have used the deceptively named Center for Consumer Freedom as a source.

Ironically David Martosko's first quote -- about PETA -- could just have easily referred to his own organization.

(The original headline for the story had to be retracted because PETA was not accused of staging videos. Yet Martosko went after the group anyhow.)

"PETA in particular has a long history of bending the truth and hiding its own complicity in some really shady stuff."

"Bending the truth"? "Hiding its own complicity in some really shady stuff"? Martosko, are you sure you're not talking about the CCF?

Regular readers of my blog know that the MO of the CCF is, in the words of its founder Rick Berman, "to shoot the messenger."

The people at the CCF bend the truth and, more likely, outright lie. And they hide the corporations that fund the organization, pretending they're working instead for average Americans.

Despite Webb's opinion that "[t]he general public, however, doesn't show many signs of giving up its" non-vegan foods, Michael Foods' accusation of a staged video shows how vulnerable the animal agribusiness industry is feeling right now.

(Undercover video image of a mummified chicken at a Michael Foods facility, courtesy of Compassion Over Killing.)