SHOCKING VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS NEED TO AMEND
HUMANE SLAUGHTER LAW:
Last week, video footage showing appalling cruelty at a West Virginia
poultry slaughterhouse received
extensive media coverage by major news media outlets – paving the way
for Congress to curtail some of the worst abuses of animals killed for
food. The video, shot by an undercover investigator from People for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), reveals workers at a Pilgrim's Pride
slaughterhouse in West Virginia repeatedly, deliberately stomping on
chickens and hurling them against walls for apparent “amusement.”
About 9 billion birds a year are killed at U.S. slaughterplants with NO
federal requirements whatsoever that they be humanely handled. This leaves
the door open to all kinds of unfettered cruelty, underscored by the video
taken at the Pilgrim's Pride facility. The federal Humane Methods of
Slaughter Act (HMSA), which requires that animals be rendered insensible
to pain “before being shackled, hoisted, thrown, cast, or cut” for
slaughter, applies only to cows, pigs, sheep and other livestock. It
exempts poultry (chickens, turkeys, ducks and other birds) – which account
for 95% of all animals slaughtered for food in this country.
To correct this glaring oversight, last Wednesday (7/21), The HSUS called
upon the leadership of the Senate and House Agriculture Committees to
amend the federal HMSA to include poultry. A week later (7/28), the
Chicago Tribune ran an
incisive op-ed as a follow-up to this urgent call to action. (To read the
Chicago Tribune op-ed, free registration is required.) Additionally, The
HSUS has sent letters to Pilgrim’s Pride and to some of its client
companies asking them to join in the effort to correct the HMSA. We are
hopeful that the current media attention and public outrage will provide
the needed impetus to enact this long-overdue reform. Stay tuned for ways
you can help!
UPDATE:
LETTERS NEEDED TO URGE ACTION IN CRUEL CAT KILLING CASE:
The Eagle Herald (7/16) has
reported that the prosecuting attorney for Alger County, Michigan has
decided not to investigate and pursue animal cruelty charges against three
police officers who allegedly drowned a cat in the Menominee River last
December. According to reports, Sgt. Alan Gritzon, Officer Chad Racine and
Officer Brooke Foster of the Menominee Police Department decided to kill
the cat by submerging her within her carrier into the icy river after the
cat's caretaker said she no longer wanted her (see
HUMANElines Issue 288 ).
In explaining her decision to not prosecute, Alger County Prosecuting
Attorney Karen Bahrman told the Eagle Herald that "trapping and its
methods do not constitute cruelty to animals." The decision has outraged
animal protection advocates who see Bahrman's argument as specious, at
best.
In a letter to Michigan's Attorney General Mike Cox, HSUS Counsel to
Investigations Ann Chynoweth wrote, "[I]t is not the “trapping” of the cat
– the placing of the animal in the carrier – that is the issue of
complaint in this case. The criminal act for which the three police
officers should be investigated is their dropping the cat, in her carrier,
in the river to drown."
The decision made by the Alger County prosecutor's office is dangerous not
only because of its inherent injustice. If it is allowed to stand,
domestic animals in Michigan will be vulnerable to all forms of cruelty,
if they are first "trapped".
WHAT YOU CAN
DO:
Contact Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox and let him know that
you want to see the three officers made accountable for the cruel way in
which they reportedly killed this poor cat. Ask him to re-appoint a
special prosecutor to again consider this case so that Michigan’s animal
cruelty law can be appropriately enforced.
Attorney General Mike Cox
G. Mennen Williams Building, 7th Floor
525 W. Ottawa Street
P.O. Box 30212
Lansing, MI 48909
Fax: 517-373-3042
Let Mr. Cox know how important it is that his office acts quickly and
emphatically to make it clear that animals in Michigan are protected from
such gratuitous abuse.
CALIFORNIANS: FOIE GRAS BAN NEEDS YOUR
SUPPORT
In the next few weeks, members of the California Assembly are
expected to vote on Senate Bill 1520 (SB 1520), the bill that will ban the
production and sale of foie gras in California. SB 1520 was passed by the
full Senate as well as the Assembly Business and Professions Committee
earlier this year, going further than any previous such legislation in the
U.S.
If passed by the Assembly, this groundbreaking legislation will ban the
force feeding of ducks and geese to make foie gras, as well as the sale of
foie gras produced by force feeding. Currently, the only known production
methods of foie gras involve force feeding ducks and geese until their
livers swell up to ten times their normal size. Needless to say, the
animals endure enormous suffering, and many of them die before the end of
the force feeding cycle.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
If you are a California resident, please contact your state Assemblyperson
as soon as possible and ask him or her to support SB 1520, to ban the
cruel force feeding of ducks and geese to make pate de foie gras.
If you need to look up the name of your
state Assemblyperson and his or her contact information, visit the
California legislative website ,
send an email to
humanelines@hsus.org or call The
HSUS at 202-955-3668
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