Humane treatment

This is completely off-topic, but I just received this awful petition notice from the Humane Society. If you eat poultry, you may hate me for sharing this. But I think you'd feel better eating your chicken caesar salad if this law were amended. I'm an occasional vegetarian precisely for reasons like this one. (And I know there are those out there who think this is BS... if you feel a burning need to leave a comment, I won't take the time to argue with you.) 

If you read through it, there's a pretty condemning statement about Pilgrim's Pride. Talk about damaging a brand...

Last year nearly nine billion chickens, turkeys, ducks, and other birds were slaughtered in the United States with no requirement that their deaths be humane. Why? Because the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act (HMSA), which is supposed to ensure that animals are rendered insensible to pain before being slaughtered, does not cover poultry.

That’s right: The federal law designed to protect food animals from suffering during slaughter excludes a shocking 95% of those animals.

Massive Suffering
Because of this exclusion, chickens and turkeys are entirely at the mercy of major poultry processors. After six weeks of being reared in dreadfully overcrowded factory-like conditions with breeding and feeding practices that leave many birds unable to walk naturally, they are shipped off to the slaughterhouse.  There, at a furious pace, they are grabbed and shackled upside down by their legs on a mechanized line. Still conscious, the birds are then dragged through an electrified water bath designed to immobilize them, passed through a neck-slicer, and dropped into scalding water to loosen their feathers. Due to the speed of the assembly line and their own desperate motions, many chickens evade both the immobilization bath and the neck-slicer and are literally scalded to death.

Federal regulations require that the U.S. Department of Agriculture condemn those poultry carcasses that appear to have died from causes other than neck cutting. In 2003, more than 3.4 million carcasses were condemned by the USDA, meaning these birds died either because they were handled roughly during shackling or because they entered the scalder alive.

What Next? 
The industry repeatedly assures the American public that poultry are being treated and killed humanely. Yet the industry has proven incapable of self-regulation; time and time again companies have shown blatant disregard for animal welfare. The horrifying abuses that were exposed in July 2004 at the Pilgrim’s Pride slaughterhouse in West Virginia--in which large numbers of chickens were thrown against walls and stomped by workers--were among the worst known cases of cruelty in the commercial slaughter business.

However, this wasn’t the first outrageous case, and it won’t be the last--unless strong action is taken to change the attitude of the industry and to require new procedures to prevent such abuses. It’s time that the HMSA bring poultry under its protective wing.

Sign the petition here, and pass on the word. There are a lot of relatively meaningless things that spread through the blogosphere... it would be nice if the power of the blogosphere was used to make a difference on something important. Many thanks.

Comments

[Animal Rights]

Hi...do you know what fast food restaurants kill them humanely? I am trying to find a list and am having trouble.

[Cindy]

I am ashamed of the people who say if you have bad news about a product don't share it with me. I may not be able to change some of the abuses, but that means I do not have to support abuse and slavery. I will only buy meat from places where I know the animals are treated well and I won't buy chocolate from companies that directly or indirectly support child slavery.

I won't trade my convenience for the suffering and torture of animals and children.

[Jeanne Vaughn]

Thanks for posting this. Not many people would have. Jeanne

[Pavan]

Hello People

I am 23 years old and have been a vegetarian from the day I have had and known food. I believe, the best part about being a vegetarian is that it keeps you healthy. And secondly the very thought of some poor creature being killed to be served on my plate makes me never want to eat meat not even if it were the last thing left to eat. Come on ppl be a little considerate and humane. Does anybody ever think about the millions and millions of poor, helpless and speechless animals(cows, pigs, chicken, turkeys) undergoing so much pain just to be served on your plate.

I am not at all imposing my views on anybody. I just wanted to put forth my feelings about it and am requesting all u guys out there to give it a serious thought too. Let us all follow the policy of "Live and let live".

Finally it is your decision. May be you could save a life out there.

Thanking you for your time and consideration.

Pavan

[Kenneth Hemmerick]

Hello,

You may be interested in a new, and free, ebook and on-line course I have created called, A Guide in Humane Awareness. This material leads learners towards a deeper appreciation and understanding of kindness, cruelty and humaneness in their lives.

Please see:

A Guide in Humane Awareness
www.humaneguide.com

Kenneth Hemmerick

[Harry Joiner]

This is all related to economics. I was a frozen food trader for seven years after grad school, and I've toured plenty of packing plants. I actually worked in a Danish pork packing plant while I was in college (but that's another story) ...

The reason chickens are killed in this manner is that the stunned bird's heart must pump out all of the blood before the animal can be processed. If the animal's heart doesn't pump the carcass dry, then the blood remains in the meat and increases the possibility of contamination later on. So you're right: They're stunned with an electrical charge that pulses through the hot water, and they expire in the processing line.

This process focuses on the safety of the human consumer (which is where the packer's legal exposure is), rather than on the birds' pain and suffering. Additionally, this process translates into a faster "chain speed" in the plant, which allows packers to ramp up production -- spreading their fixed costs over the highest possible number of birds per shift.

Packers aren't bad guys. It's simply that the economics of the U.S. poultry business are terrible. Foreign competition on dark meat is killing American packers, whose white meat customers like KFC are under intense pressure to keep menu prices low. Each bird produces both white and dark meat -- and if packers can't boost white meat margins to subsidize their share of the dark meat export market, then expensive agendas like animal rights will simply remain on their wish list.

Sorry, but that's the reality.

Harry

[malaclypse the tertiary]

So don't buy Pilgrim's Pride. Encourage elements of the industry to engage in co-creation to achieve your goals, but bring the force of law into your pet concern? bah. It is a pox upon our culture that every chicken little (heh) seems to know no other cluck than to call for legislation.

Anyway, try to imagine the derision such a feel-good proposition would engender were it suggested in a farm town in the 18th century.

[Kyle]

I'm pretty ambivalent when it comes to vegetarianism. I have almost no sympathy for animals raised specifically for food. Certainly I have no emotional response to the thought that a chicken might be scalded to death instead of beheaded. One's messier than the other is the only distinction I can make. Since the entire process happens so very fast, I can't make a lot of room in my mind for "pain and suffering"

My question is this: would anesthesia affect the health value or taste of the meat? That's an awful small bird. I don't want to be eating painkillers with my chicken stew.

For instance, this is why animals prepared for biology classes aren't anestized or poisoned. They're shot, so as to preserve the most natural condition of the animal.

[Veronica Combs]

This is why I am a vegetarian ALL the time. Most meat is raised/killed/processed in the worst conditions, which includes the humans doing the work. Don't go near the book Fast Food Nation if you want to keep to keep eating at fast food joints.

[Tim Sunderland]

There are so many issues that need to be dealt with, that I have to pick and choose those that are really important to me and are part of my brand. Besides, I like being a carivore. Although as I get older, my system has become less tolerant of red meat (if I have a steak, it will stay with me for days).

Do me a favor, though, if you hear anything bad about Haagen Daas ice cream, don't share it with me.

[Elisa Camahort]

Seems to me that there is a bug difference between requiring disposal of improperly killed poultry and applying punishment for inhumane treatment of the poultry. That's what inclusion in the HMSA would do, by my amateur reading of the material.

Thanks for sharing this. I'm a marketer and a 16-year vegetarian. I know sometimes it's easy to feel like you should hide your opinions or beliefs, but I read blogs to get to know the blogger and their personal brand. And I want my clients to have the opportunity to know me and mine. If there's a client out there who would reject my professional services because I have some strong personal beliefs, so be it.

Every little personal feeling we have may not be critical to establishing our personal brand. But each person gets to decide which beliefs are part of that personal brand.

[Dustin]

"Federal regulations require that the U.S. Department of Agriculture condemn those poultry carcasses that appear to have died from causes other than neck cutting."

How would inclusion in the HMSA change this? The information both you and the Humane Society does not include information about this? I searched the Internet for a good amount of time, but came up with little information about the HMSA. Seems like the current federal regulations should be enforced in this issue. That could prevent more incidents like Pilgrim's Pride.