AFF Sentinel Vol.5#29
The Humane Society of the U.S. (HSUS) has implied
that a packer violated national school lunch meat supply rules apparently just
because the packer sometimes bought cattle at an auction market at which an
alleged HSUS video showed downer cattle being mistreated.
Akin to branding everyone who drives down a
certain street as wrongdoers just because some people commit crimes on that
street, HSUS could easily find itself the target of a lawsuit for their stunt
at a news conference last week.
HSUS has evidently decided that kids and the
national school lunch program is an emotional key they can use in attacking
America's beef production system. But after months of undercover surveillance,
unable to establish links between its auction videos and the school lunch program,
HSUS concocted an elaborately contrived propaganda stunt at a media
conference to suggest a "link," even after admitting that is has no
evidence.
In true tabloid-style, sensationalist fudging,
HSUS referenced its video clips allegedly obtained at a livestock market in
Portales, N.M. showing sick and/or injured animals - "downers" --
being improperly handled at the market. Then it recounted the Hallmark/Westland
case of a slaughter facility mishandling animals and allegations that downer
animals entered the supply chain of Hallmark's school lunch contract. HSUS then
mentioned that Caviness Packing of Hereford, Tx. sometimes buys cattle from
Portales and that Caviness' Palo Duro division is now the largest school lunch
ground beef provider since Hallmark is out of business -- for which HSUS takes
credit.
All this under a subheadline reading,
"Offenders Include Suppliers to the National School Lunch Program."
Of course, HSUS does not mention that even in the
Hallmark case, the recall was based on the potential that some downer
cattle that had passed initial inspection were slaughtered for the school lunch
program -- not proof made public that any did. HSUS also referred incorrectly
to Palo Duro as the top school lunch program supplier.
HSUS wants everyone to jump to the conclusion -
especially in its artfully edited and narrated video -- that downer cattle from
Portales end up at Caviness and eventually in the school lunch program.
Yet Wayne Pacelle, HSUS CEO, himself admitted privately
prior to the group's Washington news conference that it has no proof that
Caviness bought downer cattle or that such cattle ever got into the school
lunch supply chain that way.
"HSUS does not have any evidence that
downers abused at Portales went into the food supply or into the National
School Lunch Program," Pacelle wrote.
Both Caviness Beef Packing and the National Meat
Association have confirmed in releases that HSUS has admitted having no proof
of any link between downer cows, Caviness and the school lunch program, yet
HSUS obviously wants people to believe there is one.
Caviness has added that it has both in-house and
third party records and the audit reports to verify that it does not accept or
process any downer cattle.
The release and video then points out that USDA
regulations banning downer cattle in federal meat supplies "may not extend
the policy to downed dairy cows at livestock auctions where the same sort of
animal cruelty exists" -- implying that animal mistreatment is common at
auction markets. HSUS is asking the federal government for further regulations
on animal handling at auction markets.
That HSUS is obviously trying to mislead the
public and the government with inaccuracies and imaginative
leaps, throws doubt on the credibility of HSUS' campaign against the
meat industry.
While mistreatment of animals is never proper,
HSUS using video to suggest wrongdoing without proof and using kids and
the school lunch program as a pawn is a disgusting ploy neither
the public, government officials nor Congress should fall for.
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