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opinion editorials
Monday, May 12, 2008
Mandate Humane Handling of 'Downers'
It's a cliché that nobody ought to watch sausage or legislation being made. Recent undercover work by the Humane Society of the United States added slaughterhouses and now livestock auctions — including one in Clovis — to the menu of unappetizers.
As with the widely viewed Web video of a Chino, Calif., slaughterhouse that resulted in recall of 143 million pounds of beef, the focus of the auction videos was on sick and feeble cattle, portrayed as being neglected by workers. The so-called "downer" cows couldn't get off the ground.
Charlie Rogers, owner and manager of the Clovis Livestock Auction, told the Clovis News Journal the auction doesn't accept downers from shippers. Cattle that become sick after arriving at the facility are quickly euthanized, he said.
That's certainly the way it ought to be. The video portrays a different picture. When an undercover HSUS inspector informed a man on horseback that a downer was breathing heavily and in obvious distress, he was assured, “They'll take care of it.” The inspector later commented on tape that an hour had passed and nothing had been done.
Well, something should be done. HSUS chief Wayne Pacelle calls for the “federal government to pass comprehensive anti-downer legislation. We need clear, bright-line laws that say who has the responsibility and when there's a downer, who's going to euthanize that hapless creature.”
That sounds like legislation constituents could watch without losing their appetites.
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