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Newsletter - Animal Writes � sm
7 July 1999 Issue

Animal's Cruelty
Source: [email protected]

Dairy and Beef goes hand in hand. The following are only some of millions cases every year regarding the extreme cruelty of the industries. Here is an account of CALF slaughter (* most of them are by-products of "milk") : "To get done with them faster, we'd put eight or nine of them in the knocking box at a time...You start shooting, the calves are jumping, they're all piling up on top of each other.

You don't know which ones got shot and which didn't.... They're hung anyway, and down the line they go, wriggling, yelling to be slaughtered while fully conscious. ("Slaughterhouse", Gail Eisnitz, '98)

According to one of the Special Reports by Humane Farming Association
(1998) : Some of the slaughterhouse workers described :

"When a conscious cow arrives at the first hind-legger hanging upside down, usually the legger tries to make a cut to start skinning out the leg. Unfortunately, it is very difficult and dangerous to do that when an animal is kicking violently. So the legger will cut off the bottom part of the animal's leg he's working on with a pair of clippers." (Source: "Slaughterhouse", by Gail Eisnitz, 1998)

"It starts when the animals are hauled long distances under extreme crowding and harsh temperatures. Here is an account from a worker assigned to unloading pigs: "In the winter, some hogs come in all froze to the sides of the trucks. They tie a chain around them and jerk them off the walls of the truck, leave a chunk of hide and flesh behind........Once at the slaughterhouse, some animals are too injured to walk and others simply refuse to go quietly to their deaths. This is how the workers deal with it: "The preferred method of handling a cripple is to beat him to death with a lead pipe before he gets into the chute... If you get a hog in a chute that's had the shit prodded out of him, and has a heart attack or refuses to move, you take a meat hook and hook it into his bunghole (anus)...and a lot of times the meat hook rips out of the bunghole. I've seen thighs completely ripped open. I've also seen intestines come out....." "A lot of times the skinner finds a cow is still conscious when he slices the side of its head
and it starts kicking wildly ........" (SOURCE: "SLAUGHTERHOUSE", Gail Eisnitz, 1998)

Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman conceded recently in an interview with C-SPAN Washington Journal that the ENFORCEMENT of the Humane Slaughter Act is almost NON-EXISTENT ! (Source: Humane Farming Association, May, 1999)

MILK's (Cow's Milk) POLITICAL LINKAGE

1. WITH CONGRESS :

Congress has assigned USDA two radically opposing missions. The very same officials who are charged with promoting the sale of agricultural products are also supposed to protect the consumers from filth and unscrupulous practices. President Reagan appointed three agribusiness leaders to head up the USDA: the Secretary of Agriculture was John Block, a corporate hog producer from Illinois; the Assistant Secretary--later to become Secretary--was Richard Lyng, President of the American Meat Institute. The Assistant Secretary for Marketing and Inspection Services was William McMillan, a former meat-packing executive and V.P. of the National Cattleman's Association. Once these officials were placed in positions of such influence, the industry was virtually running the USDA! In may 1989, Bush Administration appointed JoAnn Smith, a cattle
rancher and policy maker to the meat industry, as the Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Marketing and Inspection Services. Her entire career was to convince Americans to eat more BEEF. (Source: "SLAUGHTERHOUSE", Gail Eisnitz, 1998)

The promotion and regulatory functions are all in one Agency -- USDA. The conflict of interests are often clashed.

On March 1, 1999, we (US constituents) contacted Congressman Larry
Combest's office, Chairman of House Agricultural Committee in Washington DC. His Deputy Staff Director Mr. Tom Sell said loud and clear "We represent for the Agricultural business." Shouldn't this Committee represent the American people and NOT just a special interest group ???

2. WITH AGENCIES AND OTHERS :

Any one can request from the Press office of the Department of Health and Human Services a huge poster (2' x 2.5') which showed that Secretary of Health Donna Shalala's White Mustache photo.

Dr. Marion Nestle, who served on the USDA panel when the last revisions were made in 1995, said the food industry traditionally has driven the Diet Guidelines. She said in the past the industry has successfully pressed the USDA to modify initial suggestions from the panel (The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee) that consumers should eat less meat and dairy products.---- Dr. Marion Nestle, a professor and Chairwoman of the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies at New York University. (Source: Chicago Tribune, June 24, 1999, Chicago Sports Final, P. 20).

"The National Fluid Milk Processors Promotion Board, a group created by the US Department of Agriculture and financed by the dairy industry. It spends $80 million a year on the milk-mustache ads. "----(Source: "MILK" ,page A01 of the Boston Globe on 06/08/99. )

"FDA Deputy Commissioner Michael Taylor, a former counsel for Monsanto company, wrote confusing guidelines to prohibit milk Hormone labeling to block the consumers the right to know the truth. " (SOURCE: "A needless New Risk of Breast Cancer" by Dr. Samuel Epstein, Chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition, Los Angeles Times, Mar 20, 1994)

"BGH Hormone is used on dairy cows. BGH manufacturer Monsanto made payments to the American Dietetic Association and the American Medical Association, both of which issued favorable statements about BGH on the same day". (SOURCE: "Good Medicine", "Milk and Breast Cancer" , 1998)

CSPI, one of the biggest consumer advocacy groups, may also linked to Dairy Industry. It can be seen from the following : " FDA's final rule was prompted in part by a petition filed jointly by the Milk Industry Foundation and the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a consumer advocacy group, and a separate petition filed by the American Dairy Products Institute. The petitions asked FDA to lift the labeling exemption provided for in the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990 for lower fat dairy products. " (Source: "FDA Consumer", Jan 1998).

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