CRIMES WITHOUT CONSEQUENCES - gpvec

enforCement of state laWs
However, shortly after the airing of the television segments, the slaughter plant stopped
accepting downed cattle for slaughter. 217
Arkansas, 2003
In February 2003, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) asked the
prosecuting attorney for Polk County to bring animal cruelty charges against a Tyson
Foods chicken slaughter plant located in Grannis. The request for prosecutorial action
was based on statements made by Virgil Butler, an employee at the Tyson plant from July
1997 to November 2002. Butler said he personally witnessed numerous acts of cruelty
perpetrated by workers and supervisors at the plant including intentional ripping off the
heads, legs and wings of live birds; stomping birds to death on the floor; running over
birds with forklifts and blowing apart live birds with dry-ice “bombs.” The Polk County
Sheriff’s Office, along with the USDA, said they investigated Butler’s accounts but could
find no substantiating evidence. 218
Iowa, 2004
In November 2004, PETA released a videotape of kosher slaughter practices at
AgriProcessors in Postville. The videotape showed cattle having their tracheas and
esophagi ripped out after throat-cutting and while the animals were still conscious, and
then being dumped from the restraining device onto a concrete floor. Many of the animals
shown were struggling to stand, and some were able to walk, for up to three minutes
after being cut. The USDA-FSIS conducted its own investigation and determined
that employees for Agriprocessors had engaged in acts of inhumane slaughter, and
that FSIS employees observed the cruelty and took no action to stop it. As a result, the
USDA suspended one inspector for 14 days and gave warning letters to two more; however,
the assistant U.S. attorney declined to prosecute the plant for violating the federal
humane slaughter law. 219 The Iowa Department of Agriculture referred the issue of
state-level animal cruelty prosecution to local law enforcement officials. 220 No charges
have been brought. A newspaper article authored by an Iowa Associated Press reporter
said, “The state has no jurisdiction over meatpackers.” 221
Maryland, 2004
Between September 16 and October 1, 2004, an investigator for Compassion Over
Killing (COK) worked at a Perdue slaughter plant in Showell. The group released a
videotape taken at the plant showing conscious chickens being shoved and thrown
down the slaughter line and others having their legs roughly shoved into shackles.
Injured birds are also shown being abandoned to die on the conveyor belt and
elsewhere on the grounds of the plant. The investigator stated he received no training
in animal handling when hired to work in the shackling area. Perdue argued that no
217 KIRO-TV segments airing October 21, 2002; November 1, 2002; May 12, 2003; Emerson A, Midway Meats
stops accepting ‘downer’ cattle, The Chronicle, November 3, 2002.
218 Simon S, Web writer sorry for killing chickens, Miami Herald, December 14, 2003.
219 McNeil D, Inquiry finds lax federal inspections at kosher meat plant, The New York Times, March 10, 2006.
220 Eby C, Ag Secretary Judge: Postville slaughter video is ‘disturbing’, Globe Gazette, December 7, 2004.
221 Dvorak T, Tour of kosher plant reveals company’s view of events, Waterloo/Cedar Falls Courier, December
14, 2004.
77