Industry Sues to Re-Allow Slaughter & Sale of Ill, Injured Animals

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 [banning the slaughter of all non-ambulatory animals] 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.

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. And the industry cares about human health just about as much as it cares about the animals. What matters--all that matters--is profit. I tire of being told, over and over again, by people and groups who desperately want to hold on to the idea that they are not contributing to a cycle of immense suffering and injustice that we have laws, that we have standards, for how animals must be treated and that they are sure those laws and standards are upheld, and the newsworthy instances that reveal the opposite are just exceptions. I tire of hearing this because it's simply and so obviously not true.

Never will there be a policy or a welfare law that makes a real difference. As long as these animals are commodities, as long as they are merely units of production, as long as humans profit from their death, they will suffer, period. Profit and cost-effectiveness will always be more important than the animals. And this action taken by the National Meat Association and American Meat Institute makes that as clear as ever.

And perhaps you noticed that chickens and turkeys are not mentioned here? Yes, that's right--we are reminded once again that the industry doesn't even have to ask for any more lax regulations with regard to the slaughter of birds--they can torture and kill tens of millions of chickens and other birds however they want every single day without having to worry about the silly so-called protection laws that apply to other animals. Indeed, I find myself wondering why the industry didn't spend this holiday season just being grateful for all the power to freely torture and kill that it does have instead of trying to get its greedy, bloody hands on more.

---

Photo source: Empty Cages gallery