Home | Animal Well-Being | Articles

Silence is not golden
By Marlys Miller

No doubt you saw or read one of the numerous news reports last month about what’s now known as the Hallmark/Westland animal-handling case and thought, “Whew, I’m glad that wasn’t our problem?”
Well, it’s not that simple. Sure, the undercover video tape shot by a Humane Society of the United States’ representative involved dairy cattle at the Hallmark/Westland Meat Company in Chino, Calif., and those animals ultimately end up as beef. What exactly occurred, whether USDA inspectors were aware of animal-handling abuses, or how much the plant managers knew about pre-slaughter efforts to move animals through the system remains unclear.

What is clear for anyone who saw the video that showed workers using a forklift, electric prods and something akin to water boarding to get downed dairy cows to stand was disturbing and indefensible. One would like to believe HSUS doctored the tape, but an honest animal husbandry reaction to the scene suggests it was not.

At the same time, HSUS Chairman Wayne Pacelle’s statement that they “chose the California meatpacker at random” is not believable. HSUS is more calculating and cunning than that. 

Making a bad situation worse, Hallmark/Westland was the National School Lunch Program’s second largest meat supplier. To its credit, USDA acted quickly, including putting a hold on meat products from the plant. That, of course, later evolved into the nation’s largest beef recall in history — 143 million pounds.

Two plant employees associated with actions shown on the video have been arrested on animal abuse charges. Most customers stopped payments to the packer, and USDA officials said that Hallmark/Westland may be required to pay costs associated with destroying and replacing meat supplied to the National School Lunch Program. Some 250 plant workers have been laid off, and the processor’s general manager said the plant will likely close permanently.

Now, getting back to why this matters to you and the pork industry.

The harsh reality with an issue like this is customers and consumers won’t separate the species out, and we certainly know the activists won’t. These days meat is meat, and agriculture is agriculture. Such questions come easy: “If it happens with one plant or food-animal species, where else is it happening?”

We’ve long lived in a visual world, but the Internet raises that bar to a new level, and that plays into the activists’ hands. For HSUS, the video is a home run. It will prove invaluable as HSUS and others lobby to end animal agriculture. They can always pull out the video and ask, “Who are you going to believe, the factory farms or this video?”

What’s more, the public’s tolerance level now falls to a new low. If another, even seemingly minor, accusation surfaces, the impact will be exponentially greater. It could easily spill over to raise concerns like, “Maybe gestation-sow crates really are as bad as the activists say. After all, voters in some states have outlawed them, and even some producers have decided to phase them out.”

USDA wants to know whether the video from Hallmark/Westland was an isolated incident. It will ramp up its humane handling observations at all federally inspected U.S. slaughter plants. It will require more staff and money, and there will likely be some policy and procedure changes.

Some congressmen and even presidential candidates are calling for action, saying it’s due time for a single food agency.

Then there’s the international market. USDA Secretary Ed Schafer said, “To other nations, this raises issues of the safety of our food supply system.”

The ripple effect could be broad and long lasting.

Unfortunately, the food-animal industry’s response — or more accurately the lack thereof — when the video was released back in late January didn’t help. I saw the video and awaited the industry’s response — nothing; not from the American Meat Institute, not from the dairy industry, not from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. I’ll even say, not from the pork industry. Silence. 
Weeks later, an NCBA spokesperson’s response that aired on national news was, “It (Hallmark/Westland) is a rare and isolated case.” Granted, she may have said much more, but the response came across as cool and indifferent; and it came from staff, not a producer.

Now, the agriculture industry doesn’t like to point fingers. But silence is not golden.

It was a public relations debacle. An immediate response should have been “What this video shows is unacceptable. As any producer responsible for the daily care and well-being of his animals knows, the mistreatment of any animal is wrong. This case needs to be reviewed immediately and, if confirmed, severe action should be taken.”

The public has to see and understand that you care about the animals that you raise for their food. The meat industry did not show them that face. It was a lost opportunity.

All sectors of the food-animal industry must be willing to implement a sincere zero-tolerance policy on issues such as animal handling; and it has to include penalties. The National Bar Association and American Medical Association have policies to address bad actors, and you expect those professional groups to take action. The food-animal industry should be no different.