In the last edition of the paper, I wrote an article about how animals are treated in the food industry. Unfortunately, the article got a lot of negative feedback. In response, I decided to write this article, to clear things up.
As I said in the article, my source was PETA’s, (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) website. I did make a mistake in that this was my one and only source, and PETA has been known to be biased. This is something that I should have mentioned in my article. Also, another problem seems to have arisen. In that the way the article was written, it was not meant to include ALL farms and facilities in the industry. I was certainly not insinuating that every company treats their animals badly. Judging from responses, people read the article as though it was meant to be offensive, however that was not at all my intention, and my editor and supervisor did not see the article in that light when they read it either.
That being said, I went back to get more unbiased sources on the subject.
In 1958, humane slaughter became law in the U.S. with the Humane Slaughter Act. According to the ‘Modern Farmer,’ it has historically been hit or miss whether or not the law is always followed, however more recently, consumers seem to care more about the manner of death of the animals they’re eating, and this has had an effect on the behavior of the farms. One farm in particular that is praised by the website is Prather Ranch Meat Company in California. Prathers holds the ability to advertise their meat with the phrases, “Contains no nitrates,” “Organic grass fed,” and “Certified humane raised.” The 34,000 acres is described to be “a unique closed-herd operation that raises its own hay, breeds its own cattle and does its own slaughter and processing.” They have also earned the Certified Humane Raised and Handled approval.
‘Modern Farmer’ also mentions Temple Grandin, an activist for ethical killing of animals. She is a bestselling author, and her Animal Welfare Audit is the standard that all farms in the industry follow. Half of the cattle in the United States are handled with the equipment Grandin designed. “McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, Cargill, Tyson- pass the points of her audit: at least 95 percent of animals stunned on the first shot (usually with a captive-bolt gun that shoots a steel bolt into the head). No more than once percent falling. No more than 3 percent mooing. No more than 25 percent being hit with an electric prod. At this point, she says, ‘You can take someone right to the stunner line at one of the biggest slaughterhouses in the world and they’ll approve of what they see.’” Overall, Grandin’s opinion of Handling today, is that it’s “great.”
The conditions that PETA’s website raved about may have been in the past, or else have been isolated incidents. On the whole, people do make mistakes, Grandin says, but for the most part, this new form of unbiased research seems have much better things to say about the industry.
With this information, I would like to apologize for the misleading nature of my last article. However, it was an opinion piece. Also, while most of the replies sent to us at The Chronicle were respectful, there was a message sent over social media that had a bullying nature to it, where someone went so far as to
Comments