see, this is why I don't eat beef under US capitalism, and you shouldn't either

[lapsedmodernist]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23212514

LOS ANGELES - The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Sunday recalled 143 million pounds of frozen beef from a Southern California slaughterhouse that is being investigated for mistreating cattle.

Officials said it was the largest beef recall in the United States, surpassing a 1999 ban of 35 million pounds of ready-to-eat meats.

The federal agency said the recall will affect beef products dating to Feb. 1, 2006, that came from Chino, California-based Westland/Hallmark Meat Co., which supplies meat to the federal school lunch program and to some major fast-food chains.

Now, the fact that it is being investigated for "mistreatment" means that a hidden camera caught downer cows being forced go to slaughter. Federal law prohibits downer cattle from entering the human food supply because inability to walk is one of the symptoms of advanced BSE.:

Federal officials suspended operations at Westland/Hallmark after an undercover Humane Society video surfaced showing crippled and sick animals being shoved with forklifts.

Authorities said the video showed workers kicking, shocking and otherwise abusing animals that were apparently too sick or injured to walk into the slaughterhouse. Some animals had water forced down their throats, San Bernardino County prosecutor Michael Ramos said.

Federal regulations call for keeping downed cattle out of the food supply because they may pose a higher risk of contamination from E. coli, salmonella or mad cow disease because they typically wallow in feces and their immune systems are often weak...

Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer said his department has evidence that Westland did not routinely contact its veterinarian when cattle became non-ambulatory after passing inspection, violating health regulations.

"Because the cattle did not receive complete and proper inspection, Food Safety and Inspection Service has determined them to be unfit for human food and the company is conducting a recall," Schafer said in a statement.

Three ex-employees charged
Two former employees were charged Friday. Five felony counts of animal cruelty and three misdemeanors were filed against a pen manager. Three misdemeanor counts — illegal movement of a non-ambulatory animal — were filed against an employee who worked under that manager. Both were fired.


Officials estimate that about 37 million pounds of the recalled beef went to school programs, but they believe most of the meat probably has already been eaten.


you know why they think most of it has already been eaten? Because the recall includes meat dated back to fucking 2006. The only reason the gov't is forcing a recall is because this company got caught via a hidden camera installed by the Humane Society. What about all the other companies? Hmmm, I will stick to only eating beef while abroad.

Comments

[goddessspiral.livejournal.com]

I was appalled when I heard about this via the Humane society and that's why I posted about it on my LJ (http://paolasp.livejournal.com/252721.html) I'm glad something was done about it. If you check out my post you can see the video that the Humane society took that exposed what was going on. Disgusting.

[boobirdsfly.livejournal.com]

that video is horrible.
i couldn't believe it when i found out about this yesterday.
i already don't buy a lot of beef ever, but this is really making me feel gross.

[goddessspiral.livejournal.com]

It really is horrendous and made me physically sick as well.

[cos]

This incident is horrible, but I'm puzzled about your take-away message ("don't eat beef in the US, only in other countries").

If your motivation is safety: The BSE risk from eating beef is tiny. It is a much much much smaller threat to your health than many things you do regularly without worrying about at all. Like sitting on the grass and being bitten by a diseased tick. (not even talking about truly risky things, like riding in a car on a highway)

If your motivation is the treatment of animals: Pretty much all industrial raised beef comes from mistreated animals, even if their treatment is legally okay. You need to specifically find beef from well-raised cattle. You can find that in the US, though not necessarily at your supermarket. But if you eat beef in another country without knowing where it came from, it may also come from mistreated animals.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

The BSE risk from eating beef is tiny. It is a much much much smaller threat to your health than many things you do regularly without worrying about at all. Like sitting on the grass and being bitten by a diseased tick. (not even talking about truly risky things, like riding in a car on a highway)

I really don't understand how you can say that. My whole problem with the current predicament in the US is that the system is set up to make it IMPOSSIBLE to make an accurate risk assessment, but there is plenty of circumstantial evidence that points toward BSE-infected cows going into the human food chain. If a system is set up in such a way that you cannot get evidence one way or the other, then circumstantial evidence comes in pretty useful. There is stonewalling on testing for this, there is evidence that animals

[cos]

Because if it were a significant risk, there would be more reported cases. Even if it's underreported, the number of cases in the US in the entire decades-long history of this disease is less than the number of people killed by car accidents in a few hours on a typical day. It's truly infinitesimal. It's less of a threat than terrorist attacks (another overhyped but very minor threat, but one that is orders of magnitude greater than BSE).

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

oh, I think the spike in Alzheimer's in recent years is at least partially misdiagnosed BSE. I mean, yes, people are living longer, and diagnostics get refined, but I think BSE gets misdiagnosed as Alzheimer's.

[lady3jane.livejournal.com]

Exactly, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease [the human varient of BSE] is believed to be misdiagnosed often, plus there is no great way for us to know how common it is because the CDC does not monitor it. CJD is not an official disease in this country, despite the fact that people are dying from it, and in clusters that would suggest a common cause. Don't eat deer either: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_3472.cfm

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

that have symptoms corresponding to mad cow are entering the food chain. of course, maybe they have e.coli--but at least e.coli generally forces recalls. there aren't going to be recalls for something that has an incubation period of decades based on evidence of people getting sick shortly after consuming that meat, the way you would have it with e.coli.

[crisis-averted.livejournal.com]

So sick.