Largest US Beef Recall Ever

Jaspenelle
by Jaspenelle
Mon
18
Feb
2008
5:09pm
Posted in sub-blogs:
Tagged as , , ,
17 Comments

This story is so incredibly horrific to me, I am nearly beyond speechless. Is our food inspection system so broken that incidents like this can go so long without notice or punishment?

If you watch the video, was taken by an undercover Humane Society person, you can see abattoir employees pushing cows too diseased to walk with forklifts and pulling them with chains, as well as hitting them in the head with cattle prods and brooms. How can people treat animals like that? Oh My God! I want to push those employees around with a forklift and see if they like it, there is no excuse for torturing an animal, no matter if it is a pet or food! And people wonder why I rarely eat meat. I really hope this makes some people look into where their meat is coming from.

So now that this video has surfaced of course, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is ordering the recall of 143 million pounds of beef from “Westland/Hallmark Meat Co.” The meat was mainly disturbed to schools and fast food places. It affects all beef products dating all the way back to February 1, 2006 (so check your freezers just in case.)

I am so disgusted by the actions of people at times.

17 Comments

  1. Aunt Ruth
    Posted Monday, February 18, 2008 at 6:03 pm | Permalink

    I eat meat very seldom now and never at fast food restaurants. I will only buy certain things from local butchers at the market. Chickens are also treated horrifically in the way they are mass produced.

  2. jett
    Posted Monday, February 18, 2008 at 6:52 pm | Permalink

    What is just as bad is that they’ve waited so long to recall the beef that authorities admit most of it has already been eaten. But of course they say “there is little to worry about”. Public safety and animal care continue to take a backseat to corporate profits. I don’t know how some of these people live with themselves.

  3. Heather
    Posted Monday, February 18, 2008 at 8:28 pm | Permalink

    ..it’s probably just me being hugely cynical, but nothing in that article or video surprised me in the slightest.

    Human beings need a good cosmic kick up the ass to bring them down a notch. I say bring on the bird flu, baby, or some massive natural disaster–carve a nice ol’ chunk out of the population and remind mankind that yes, Mother Nature can STILL kick our ass.

  4. Gesh
    Posted Monday, February 18, 2008 at 8:49 pm | Permalink

    Guess it’s back to eating inhumane chicken as opposed to inhumane beef.
    I keed I keed. Poor cows. Too bad they just taste to damn good.

  5. Alex
    Posted Monday, February 18, 2008 at 11:35 pm | Permalink

    This really sucks… I love meat but there is no reason to treat the animals badly. I’ve been eating Kobe beef when I go out lately… these guys are treated like kings before they get killed.

    The only meat I try not to eat is milk-fed veal… grass-fed is fine though.

    @ Heather: I hope when the bird/baby/mad cow epidemic hits, you are the first to go.

  6. Kasethen
    Posted Tuesday, February 19, 2008 at 12:20 am | Permalink

    If people knew how standard (not free-range) meat is created, as opposed to the modern practice of distancing everything with a veil of ignorance, then there would be more vegetarians and higher standards for the meat industry.

  7. flarecarrot
    Posted Tuesday, February 19, 2008 at 7:59 am | Permalink

    It’s actually an interesting psychology. It doesn’t really matter who the person is, if they aren’t rotated out of the slaughter aspect people become like that. No, seriously, it is a documented psychological effect on human beings in slaughter houses. If they aren’t rotated to other jobs most people get like that. A properly managed slaughter house rotates its employees. There was a little bit about it when Oliver Sacks wrote about an autistic woman in the meat industry in “An Anthropologist on Mars.”

    I wouldn’t treat this case as if the people involved were necessarily bad or evil, if anything they were probably victims as well of bad management.

  8. Heather
    Posted Tuesday, February 19, 2008 at 8:28 am | Permalink

    Granted, I do have the option here, of buying local, free-range meat. Which I’m starting to do. There’s a farmer’s market a 30-minte walk or 10 minute bus trip away that sells all sorts of meat, even crazy stuff like emu… cheaper than grocery stores, and free-range and local.

    Woot.

  9. Lynne
    Posted Tuesday, February 19, 2008 at 8:54 am | Permalink

    Nothing new to me unfortunately (but I stopped eating meat or animal products a long time ago). I’ve lately been more interested (for those who do eat meat) in the smaller and local operations that treat their animals decently and don’t shovel them full of chemicals and hormones and grain and cow parts. I think it’s fine to eat meat if you know where it comes from and what you’re eating… http://www.eatwild.com/

  10. Jaspenelle
    Posted Tuesday, February 19, 2008 at 2:09 pm | Permalink

    The video didn’t surprise me much but it was still horrifying, you are cynical, but that is what the world does to us it seems…

    You realize yourself or people you love would die in a massive epidemic? I don’t think I could wish that upon anyone…

  11. Jaspenelle
    Posted Tuesday, February 19, 2008 at 2:10 pm | Permalink

    I eat beef occasionally (cuz you are right, it just tastes too damn good) but I am very picky about where it comes from. I find natural beef that is grass fed to be much tastier (just like free range chickens taste better to me too…)

  12. Jaspenelle
    Posted Tuesday, February 19, 2008 at 2:11 pm | Permalink

    Don’t they give those cows beer or sake and daily massages? Do you notice a difference between their taste and “normal” beef?

  13. Jaspenelle
    Posted Tuesday, February 19, 2008 at 2:13 pm | Permalink

    I never thought of it that way, but it makes sense that people would become desensitized in an environment like that. I don’t want to make excuses for what they did, however I think if that is the case the employer needs to be held equally accountable.

  14. Jaspenelle
    Posted Tuesday, February 19, 2008 at 2:14 pm | Permalink

    I had an emu burger at a farmer’s market in Kitchener once I think, it was pretty darn good… if slightly odd to be eating the world’s biggest “chicken”….

  15. flarecarrot
    Posted Tuesday, February 19, 2008 at 7:01 pm | Permalink

    Its not that they just become desensitized, they actually become kinda psycotic (although obviously I know nothing of these people, maybe they were just assholes), I believe and without a doubt the employer is extremely responsible. I mean, what kind of monitoring system do they have in place??? Do they rotate employees?

  16. Alex
    Posted Wednesday, February 20, 2008 at 12:30 am | Permalink

    Yes… ’tis good but very expensive.

    I can taste the difference between Kobe and American beef for example, but once you get into comparing it with Argentinian it’s hard to tell. It is quite tender though.

    At the end of the day, since it’s impossible for our bodies to run optimally on a vegetarian diet (we are just not wired that way) we should try to make sure that slaughter-houses/cattle farms etc are run humanely.

  17. the_becka
    Posted Wednesday, February 20, 2008 at 8:49 pm | Permalink

    …and people wonder why I don’t eat meat that often?

    If you’re going to kill an animal for food, kill it humanely. That’s how I feel.