Calif. Judge Gives the OK to Keep Dragging Downed Pigs to Slaughter

Two months ago, on December 26, I wrote a post titled "Industry Sues to Re-Allow Slaughter & Sale of Ill, Injured Animals." The judge in that lawsuit just ruled in favor of the National Meat Association and American Meat Institute--apparently the ruling will become permanent if the state doesn't appeal. A federal judge has essentially said, "Sure! Drag those injured, broken, lame pigs into the slaughterhouse screaming if you have to! That's good meat!"

-Read on after the jump-

First, for background, let's look back at part of the December post (emphasis newly added):

In keeping with the holiday spirit, animal agribusiness groups went to court on Christmas Eve demanding to be allowed to push, shove, drag, and kick even the most ill and injured pigs, goats, and sheep to their death in California--federal law applies only to cattle, and slaughterers think that what is good for the U.S. government should be good enough for California's state government too. Industry publication Feedstuffs reported on December 25 that "the National Meat Assn. (NMA) has filed a lawsuit in a federal court in California seeking to overturn part of a California law passed this summer that bans the slaughter of non-ambulatory livestock for meat for human consumption, and the American Meat Institute (AMI) has moved to intervene in and broaden the action."

Feedstuffs further explains, "NMA and AMI maintain that federal law permitting the slaughter of non-ambulatory hogs, goats and sheep takes precedent over the California law and that animals are often non-ambulatory due to injuries, not disease." Oh, that makes it so much better! These animals are lame and dying because of abuse, neglect, and horrendous transport that have caused just injuries, not illnesses. Unbelievable.

Now from an article on the ruling:

Pigs that can't stand up on their own may still be butchered and their meat sold for human consumption despite a state law designed to prevent that, a federal judge ruled Thursday in Fresno.

The law, which took effect Jan. 1, made it illegal for anyone to butcher and sell animals too sick to stand. But slaughterhouses argued that the law was too broad and caused meat from healthy animals to go to waste. . . .

In his 21-page ruling, O'Neill stopped the state from enforcing the law against swine slaughterhouses. . . .

American Meat Association spokeswoman Janet Riley praised the decision. . . . [I'm shocked]

Riley said pigs can become stressed and fatigued, especially after being moved. When they arrive at a processing plant, they might not want to walk, but are not necessarily sick. If given a chance to rest, they often walk, she said.

You notice anything different between what was being said back in December on an industry Web site and what's being said now publicly? Back in December there was clear acknowledgment that some pigs are badly injured by the time they arrive at the slaughterhouse (both from farm conditions and from horrendous transport), so badly injured and weak that they can't stand and walk into the slaughterhouse--and given the way that was casually presented, it's obvious that the industry finds that perfectly acceptable: they should be able to drag those suffering pigs into the slaughterhouse because they're only injured and not ill. In other words, the industry has made it crystal clear that from their perspective, all these rules are solely about human health, profit, and food-supply safety and not at all about animal well-being.

But now all of a sudden, all those pigs whom the industry wants to drag inside are neither ill nor injured, and mostly, they just don't want to walk. Mm-hmm.

And "given a chance to rest"? Are we really supposed to take that seriously? We--we who have seen how the pigs are crammed into the transport trucks, who know there's no place or way for the pigs to truly "rest" anywhere during this process, who know that the pigs are denied any food or even water both during and after days-long transport, who know that the pigs are just money-makers and time is money, who have seen the pigs "encouraged" to walk via brutal beatings, kicking, and electric prodding--we are supposed to believe that upon arriving at the slaughterhouses, the pigs are given the opportunity, time, and comforting surroundings and nourishment necessary to "rest" before being forced to the kill floor? How stupid does the industry think we are?

No, that's not the right question. They don't think we're stupid. They're just betting on the fact that most of us don't care, that most of us will ignore facts and evidence and believe whatever they say--because we want to believe what they say. People don't want to envision a pig being dragged out of a truck or hear in their heads the scream of a pig being kicked and dragged into the slaughterhouse as they're chewing on their bacon (and yes, a scream--a pig's scream while being abused is an awful sound; if you don't believe me, see if you can get through this video and this one), so the industry is betting that many will choose to believe whatever they're told, whatever is designed to make them feel better.

In seeking to overturn this law, the industry is boldly betting that people are selfish and stubborn enough that they'll shrug their shoulders at this so-very-obvious proof that animal cruelty is par for the course, that suffering is inherent in animal agriculture and slaughter, and that the industry doesn't much care. They're betting that they can come right out and file a lawsuit in which they admit many animals can't get off the truck and into the slaughterhouse because they've been so badly injured, in which they admit to (and ask for approval for!) dragging them in, and you'll say "I don't want to think about it," hand them your money, and eat that ham sandwich anyway.

Prove them wrong if you're not proving them wrong already. There are vegan sausage patties out there with your name on them.

Quoting myself again:

We know that animal rights is an utterly foreign concept to the animal ag industry, but this move proves, once again, that despite all the pretty words and public relations posturing about its "humane" standards and good care, the industry doesn't give a damn about welfare either; the animals it kills en masse every day are just products, products from which the exploiters are determined to squeeze every last dime--even if they have to drag the tortured beings to their violent deaths.

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Following is a video from a COK transport investigation (upsetting but not graphic; includes pigs on their 2,000-mile trip to California slaughterhouse). Go here for the detailed, disturbing Investigation Log Notes.

And while we're talking pigs, see also the following compelling video of a recent pig farm investigation by Igualdad Animal (Animal Equality), originally shared on this blog here.