A Downer of a Problem

In the days before You Tube and high-speed internet connections, it would have been a lot harder for the Humane Society’s video clip of mistreated cattle at a California meat packing plant to reach many people. But we live in a much more interconnected world today, and that has implications for the whole food industry.

Thanks to both extensive media coverage and the internet, the “picture is worth 1,000 words” images of the dreadful abuse of downer cows at the Westland/Hallmark slaughter facility in Chino has been widely viewed. And while it’s only a few minutes worth of undercover video, the impact of those images may have longer-term repercussions…which is saying something, in that it’s already precipitated the largest-ever U.S. beef recall, generated two congressional hearings, and shuttered the facility in question, probably permanently.

Here are a few points that also need to be made, since they haven’t really been the focus on the ongoing investigation into the Hallmark scenario:

The USDA banned downer cows from leaving farms, but it can’t ensure that there will never again be downed animals. After the discovery of mad cow disease in the U.S. at the end of 2003, one step the government took was to restrict the ability of meat processors to take non ambulatory animals and process them into human food. That has placed additional pressure on those in the cattle business, especially dairy farmers, because it’s not always possible to know when and why an animal will suddenly (or gradually) become a downer. At the same time, that ban also allows us to remind people that the dairy cattle in the video had to be walking when they left their farm, otherwise they couldn’t have been available for further processing by Hallmark. The restrictions on allowing downed animals into the food supply are actually a net plus in this situation. But no amount of regulation can guarantee that none of America’s 100 million cattle will become non ambulatory in the future.

Most of the coverage of this issue has focused on the possible connection between downed animals and BSE, or mad cow disease. Although late-term BSE-infected animals can have trouble standing, the fact is that we’ve had only three cases of BSE in this country, and the only dairy cow was one born in Canada (where they continue to have issues with mad cow, but that’s a story for another column). So, for the animal rights community to emphasize that this is about keeping BSE out of the food supply is really misleading, since we don’t have BSE in our cattle herd, while we do have strong firewalls both to prevent it from infecting cattle in the first place, and to prevent it from ending up in the beef supply.

The USDA initiated a recall of 143 million pounds of beef, even without any evidence that the food was unsafe. Obviously, Hallmark appears to have had some management issues leading to the mishandling of the cows in the video, and as a result USDA has ordered the recall of two year’s worth of beef production…but not for food safety reasons. Yet that point is easily lost in all the criticism of the problems at the Hallmark plant. It’s a mixed message indeed when an enormous amount of food (much of it eaten more than a year ago) is recalled even while people are being reassured by the government not to worry too much about it.

The business and regulation of cattle processing is making culling decisions more complicated. Just as there are fewer beef and dairy farms today, there are fewer meat packing and rendering plants in the U.S. Cattle often have to travel greater distances to reach their final destination, which places additional stresses on them, and can lead to them going down after a long haul. Also, the costs that plants have to incur to manage neurological tissues, such as brains and spinal cords, mean that the rendering industry’s economics have changed dramatically. One thing the USDA and FDA will have to carefully consider is how do we all responsibly manage the processing, and in some cases, disposal on-farm, of 1,500 pound animals if they can’t be made into meat.

Lastly, as with all food quality issues, this is a system-wide challenge that has repercussions across the food chain. Ultimately, while the handling of the animals in that video was not within the control of any dairy farmer, everyone who touches the animal at some point in her life has a role to play. That’s a big reason why NMPF developed specific criteria for animal care more than five years ago, with our Caring for Dairy Animals guidebook. That’s also why we’re part of a coalition of other organizations endorsing broad criteria for animal care as part of the National Dairy Animal Well-Being Initiative.

We can’t afford to be cavalier about what happened in Chino, because our whole industry, fairly or not, may be judged by what happened at that one plant. And that may affect the ability of dairy farmers to market their cows in the future. As with most challenges, this one begins and ends with education. We need to educate people about some of the facts I just highlighted. But livestock producers also need reminders that they have to make educated decisions about the care of their animals.

National Milk Producers Federation

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