AR-News: No Ethical Treatment of Hamburgers

[Priscilla Feral]

No Ethical Treatment of Hamburgers

 

In November 2003, humane-treatment advocates were "thrilled to announce" that the U.S. Senate had passed legislation to prohibit the United State Department of Agriculture from "funding the slaughter of downed animals for human food" as part of the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Bill.[1]  2003 was the year of the first confirmed case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (often called "mad cow disease") in the United States. Representatives from a sanctuary in New York stated that "the USDA is putting the U.S. food supply at risk of mad cow disease by allowing downed animals to be slaughtered for human consumption" and pointed out that "[t]he animal who tested positive for mad cow disease was a downed cow."[2] Wayne Pacelle of the Humane Society of the United States, praising the idea of a legislative ban on the use of flesh from the disabled cows, opined, "I do believe that this can restore consumer confidence in the government's regulatory authority as it stops one of the worst abuses that occurs in the modern livestock production system."[3]
 
In early 2004, the Humane Society announced that "[t]he discovery of mad cow disease in Washington state called for swift governmental action to restore consumer confidence in the U.S. beef industry."[4] It was clear that humane-treatment advocates understood that governmental action would now inevitably occur, and that it would occur not in the interest of cows, but rather but so the sale of nonhuman animals for food would be able to continue.  Yet the Humane Society depicted the government's reactions as a victory, for "after a decade of working for the humane treatment of 'downers'-- farm animals too weak or diseased to stand," praise was now due to the Department of Agriculture's decision to finally ban such animals from the food supply.[5] 

Humane-treatment advocates also pointed out that it is not possible to transport disabled cows humanely.  The implied message is that humane transport is normally possible, as long as input is accepted from the humane community. It defies common sense to think nonhuman animals could be handled "humanely" at all when they are being turned into hamburgers.  There will always be physically ill and suffering animals in the $27 billion dollar cattle flesh industry.  Keeping such individuals out of the human food supply does not make animal agriculture healthy; and, more important, it does not make it ethical. 


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[1] Farm Sanctuary E- Newsletter (6 Nov. 2003).

 

[2] Farm Sanctuary E- Newsletter (24 Dec. 2003).

 

[3] Eric Pianin and Guy Gugliotta, "Banning Sale of 'Downer' Meat Represents a Change in Policy" -  Washington Post (31 Dec. 2003).

 

[4] HSUS press release (Jan. 2004).

 

[5] Ibid.



Source:  "Movement Watch" in ActionLine (quarterly magazine of Friends of Animals, Spring 2004).
 
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