AR-News: (CA) Vivid picture of slaughterhouse cruelty

[Barry Kent MacKay]

Mar. 23, 2004. 06:57 AM

The Toronto Star

Selected clips from a video of three seperate North American slaughterhouses
shot last summer by Lesley Moffat of Animals' Angels, a European animal
rights organization. The video is being presented Wednesday at a review into
the province's meat inspection system. 

Pig limping 

Use of electric prodder 

Conscious cow hoisted 


Vivid picture of slaughterhouse cruelty
Cow appears conscious as it's hoisted up by leg
Film to be shown at launch of meat inspection review
ROBERT CRIBB
STAFF REPORTER

Pigs limping out of transport trucks on their way to slaughter, cattle
crammed together for a 67-hour journey across the country and a cow being
hoisted by its back leg without being properly stunned. 

These images, recorded on video by a Canadian animal rights activist, are
slated for public showing at the launch of the much-anticipated review into
the province's meat inspection system tomorrow in Peterborough. 

The Canadian Coalition for Farm Animals is planning to play
sometimes-dramatic footage of animal sickness and mistreatment for Mr.
Justice Roland Haines, the judge conducting the review into the safety of
the province's meat products. 

"You see these injured, sick animals in trucks and slaughterhouses all over
Canada," says Lesley Moffat, who shot the video footage last summer. 

"Customers shouldn't have to risk eating animals that are sick or injured." 
Ontarians are expected to hear other tales of mismanagement, abuse and
political bungling from those who come forward to speak at the review. 

Former inspectors, slaughterhouse operators and industry representatives are
lining up to speak at the public sessions in Peterborough and, later in the
month, in London. 

The review was called by the provincial Liberals in the wake of troubling
revelations about Ontario's meat inspection system last year. 

Last summer, products from the Aylmer Meat Packers plant were recalled and
the business was suspended for two weeks after provincial officers
investigated allegations of illegal slaughter and the processing of
deadstock — animals that died before reaching the abattoir. 

The company has denied the charges.
 
Many of those appearing before the review will be calling for dramatic
reforms to the way meat is produced in Ontario. 

Stephanie Brown, the Toronto-based co-founder of Canadian Coalition for Farm
Animals, says her group will be calling on the provincial government to
impose a ban on transporting "downed" animals that can no longer stand. 
The group will also push for the government to introduce mandatory
animal-handling training for slaughterhouse workers and place limits on the
amount of time animals can be transported without food and water. 

The slaughterhouse video, obtained by the Star, was shot in August, 2003, by
Moffat, a Montrealer who now works for Animals' Angels, a European animal
inspection agency. 

"Transporting animals that have broken backs and various diseases and
injuries is not a good idea for food-safety reasons and it's not a good idea
for animal-welfare reasons," says Brown. 

The video documents one shipment of cows being transported from Alberta to
Quebec in a cramped truck — a trip that took three days during which they
were only fed and watered once, subtitles read. 

In one scene recorded inside a Quebec slaughterhouse, a cow appears
conscious as it struggles to rise to its feet as it is hoisted into the air
by a chain on one leg. 

"She could still feel pain, still try to get up and try to escape the guy
trying to hoist her," says Brown. 

"There's a pattern here of problems — transport problems, slaughter problems
and handlers who can't handle animals properly." 

Scenes from a bison slaughter in an Alberta abattoir show an animal strung
up by one of its hind legs. 

"Whoa, this one's not dead yet," yells a plant worker, grabbing a shotgun. 
In a scene showing cattle slaughter at the same plant, the animals are
ushered into a small holding pen with electric prods. Each is shot in the
head with a rifle between two and four times. 

"It should take one shot," says Brown.
 
While the provincial Liberals promised a public inquiry into the state of
Ontario's meat inspection system during last year's election campaign, the
government later backed away from that commitment. 

The new Liberal government instead decided to hold an internal review. 
The difference is significant, say experts. 

Unlike inquiries such as the one that investigated the contaminated water
disaster in Walkerton that killed seven people, a review does not have the
authority to compel witnesses to testify or produce documents, says Duncan
Grace, legal counsel to the review.
______________________________________________

Barry Kent MacKay
Canadian Office
Animal Protection Institute 
www.api4animals.org