Personal Injury Law

Is Schafer "Swiftboating" On Chino Slaughterhouse?

The Humane Society caught the Chino, CA slaughterhouse processing "downer" cows; breaking a bunch of federal laws.   It was more than an embarrassment to the United States Department of Agriculture as not only was its Food Safety & Inspection Service (FSIS) at Chino not on the job; but federal food buyers were busy buying all the beef produced by the plant for the school lunch program.

Talk about the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing.  Or maybe it did.

Anyway, more than a few people are watching and wondering about how USDA is handling this smelly little situation.   Oh, the Chino plant has been shut down and school districts across the nation have been ordered to sit on the beef in their freezers, but what next?

Blogger Martha Rosenberg is among the watchers and she's been keeping an eye on Ed Schafer, who is serving as the lameduck's last Secretary of Agriculture.  She writes:

"For the new Agriculture Secretary, Ed Schafer, the Hallmark/Westland Meat Company recall has been the perfect storm...

..".With his predecessor Mike Johanns running for the Senate in Nebraska and ex Secretary Ann Veneman safely at UNICEF, Schafer, former North Dakota Governor, no doubt resents the mess he's inherited and has resorted to swiftboating.

"The Humane Society, since late October, has been willing to let animals suffer out there," rather than notify USDA he said in front of a cattle group in Reno last week, ignoring the fact that eight inspectors were on-site.

"But the Los Angeles Times isn't buying it.

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture has 7,800 pairs of eyes scrutinizing 6,200 slaughterhouses and food processors across the nation. But in the end, it took an undercover operation by an animal rights group to reveal that beef from ill and abused cattle had entered the human food supply," it wrote.

Everything Rosenberg had to say can be found here.

"Downer" cattle are many more times likely to contain Mad Cow disease, which is why federal law bans the processing of animals that cannot get up on their own.

Full post as published by Mad Cow Blog on February 12, 2008 (boomark / email).