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One A Day » Blog Archive » Argentina gets cow embryos from Vermont

If Jairo Blanco has his way, Vermont might one day become the international home of... more

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Mythology Blog: Between Old and New Moons » A Mythological Cosmic-Lunar Calendar (1 of 13)

There is Cosmic Cow Goddess! She corresponds with the Egyptian Goddess of the 7th... more

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Bovine breakout ties up I-215 morning traffic in Riverside

Runaway moocows story!

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AVMA, USDA react to footage of cattle mistreatment - August 1, 2008

Recent footage of the Portales Livestock Auction in Portales, N.M., shows abusive handling of cattle similar to the mistreatment of nonambulatory animals at a California slaughterhouse that led to the nation's largest-ever beef recall earlier this year.

The Humane Society of the United States released the footage June 25, following an undercover operation in May. The AVMA condemned the cruelty and called for adherence to humane handling guidelines. The U.S. agriculture secretary, Ed Schafer, reacted to the footage by again asking the beef industry to refrain from slaughtering nonambulatory cattle while the Department of Agriculture writes a rule to ban the practice entirely.

The footage from the Portales Livestock Auction shows workers shocking cows with electric prods in attempts to force the animals to walk—as well as dragging a cow and kicking a calf. The HSUS asked the USDA to impose an immediate ban on slaughter of nonambulatory cattle and to regulate handling of such animals by livestock markets.

"The abuses of these suffering creatures must be stopped, to protect both animal welfare and food safety," said Wayne Pacelle, HSUS president and chief executive officer.

The slaughter of nonambulatory cattle at the California plant led to the beef recall earlier in the year because of the possibility that the animals had bovine spongiform encephalopathy or another disease of concern for human health.

"The safety of our nation's food supply depends on the health and welfare of our nation's livestock, and the importance of humanely handling that livestock cannot be overstated," said Dr. Ron DeHaven, AVMA chief executive officer. "Everyone involved in animal agriculture, whether on farms or in processing facilities, shares an ethical responsibility to protect the health and welfare of animals used for food production."

Dr. DeHaven said potential solutions to abuses include comprehensive training and certification of livestock workers in humane handling, additional veterinary oversight at production and processing facilities, vigilance by the livestock industry in ensuring adherence to humane handling guidelines, and rigorous enforcement of state and federal regulations regarding animal care and handling at livestock facilities.

The AVMA has several long-standing policies that emphasize humane treatment of agricultural animals.

"We have worked hard—and will continue to do so—to get our policies fully integrated throughout the industry," said Dr. Gail C. Golab, director of the AVMA Animal Welfare Division. "Those policies clearly state that anyone who deals with animals has an obligation to stop—and prevent—this type of cruelty."

Agriculture Secretary Schafer said the inhumane handling in Portales is an unfortunate situation and his department deplores such behavior. He added, however, that a slaughterhouse would not accept nonambulatory cattle on delivery.

Under current regulations, cattle that become nonambulatory at a slaughterhouse after passing initial inspection can enter the slaughter process if a second inspection finds that the animal cannot walk for a reason that would not threaten the food supply, such as a limb injury. The USDA has proposed a rule to eliminate this exception.Recent footage of the Portales Livestock Auction in Portales, N.M., shows abusive... more

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Eat a Big Mac: Buy a Carbon Credit? | NewsBusters.org

Will we be forced to buy carbon credits from Al Gore in order to assuage our guilt over eating Big Macs or other types of hamburgers? Perhaps. As we saw recently in NewsBusters, there is a theory out there that Bovine "Burps" contribute significantly to causing global warming due to the release of methane by cows during their "burping" process. And now environmental whackos want us to cut back or eliminate our consumption of hamburgers in order to keep bovine methane from destroying our planet. Here are some excerpts from the July 16 article by Jim Motavalli in the San Antonio Current expounding on this subject:

Ask most Americans what causes global warming, and they’ll point to a coal-plant smokestack or a car’s tailpipe. They’re right, of course, but perhaps two other images should be granted similarly iconic status: the front and rear ends of a cow. According to a little-known 2006 United Nations report entitled “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” livestock is a major player in climate change, accounting for 18 percent of all greenhouse-gas emissions (measured in carbon-dioxide equivalents). That’s more than the entire transportation system! Unfortunately, this incredibly important revelation has received only limited attention in the media.

How could methane from cows, goats, sheep, and other livestock have such a huge impact? As Chris Goodall points out in his book How to Live a Low-Carbon Life, “Ruminant animals [chewing a cud], such as cows and sheep, produce methane as a result of the digestive process … Dairy cows are particularly important sources of methane because of the volume of food, both grass and processed material, that they eat.”

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the American meat industry produces more than 60 million tons of waste annually — five tons for every U.S. citizen and 130 times the volume of human waste. Michael Jacobson, the longtime executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, adds the fact that just one midsize feedlot churns out half a million pounds of manure each day. “The methane that cattle and their manure produce has a global warming effect equal to that of 33 million automobiles,” the Center reports in its book Six Arguments for a Greener Diet.

More at the website.Will we be forced to buy carbon credits from Al Gore in order to assuage our guilt... more