Meat from dying/sick/diseased cows getting into food

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http://www.seattleinsider.com/partners/kirotv/specialreports/downers.html

 

Meat from Dying, Sick or Diseased Cows Getting into Food KIRO 7 Video

 

Chris HalsneKIRO 7 EYEWITNESS NEWS INVESTIGATIVE REPORTERA KIRO Team 7 Investigation discovers an explosive story about meat fromdying, sick or diseased cows getting into your food.

 

Some images are exceptionally disturbing and may be upsetting,especially to children.

 

Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne spent six months under cover,exposing something the meat industry would rather keep secret fromconsumers.

 

They're called "downers," getting that name because healthy cattle walkinto the slaughterhouse but the "downers" are too ill or injured to doso.

 

Video shot by KIRO Team 7 Investigators raises serious questions aboutthe quality or safety of this kind of beef.

 

We've seen a healthy cow, one you might expect to become steak some day.

 

Downers, however, are delivered by pick-up truck to slaughterhorizontally, in a pile of manure. This meat gets to your dinner platewith the help of some hoisting and dragging.

 

Gaylis Linville wonders how downers can become food. She's a consumerexpert of sorts when it comes to food safety. Her son, Max, nearly diedfrom an E. coli-contaminated Jack in the Box hamburger.

 

She was surprised to learn from our videotape that sick, diseased, orinjured dairy cattle still make their way into federally-inspectedslaughterhouses.

 

"I don't understand how it can be accepted and ground up into the foodsupply. It seems like that type of animal should go to a renderingplant," Linville says.

 

The US Department of Agriculture labels downers "high-risk or suspect"but under proper inspection allows their use for hamburger, soups andhot dogs.

 

That's a dangerous practice, according to former USDA veterinarian Dr.Lester Friedlander. He trained federal meat inspectors for years, andhas personally examined hundreds of thousands of downers.

 

"If it was up to me, I'd probably condemn all downers because I wouldn'twant to take the chance of my family eating it," Dr. Friedlander says.

 

Federal law is clear: livestock found in a dying condition shall becondemned and disposed. Dr Friedlander says federal meat inspectorsroutinely ignore that segment of the food safety regulation underpressure from plant owners and the USDA.

 

That brings us back to our surveillance video. KIRO Team 7 Investigatorsrecorded several hours worth of downer transactions at Midway Meats inChehalis. A number of animals we saw enter the plant were too sick orinjured to even stand up.

 

We asked Friedlander and another former USDA vet to review largeportions of our unedited tape.

 

"After looking at a tape like this you ask 'Where do you think fecalcontamination comes from? Is this a good source? Obviously, it is a goodsource, the main source.'"

 

Friedlander isn't offended by unconscious cows hanging by their necks,but is outraged he doesn't see white-coated federal meat inspectorsdoing their jobs. He says if the downers we videotaped were healthyenough to eat, the USDA inspector wouldn't know it.

 

Midway Meats says our videotape doesn't tell the whole story. Some cowsmay look lifeless, but that's because they were stunned with a captivebolt gun while inside the trailer, where we couldn't see.

 

Owners of the plant also say USDA vets examined the animals inside thetrailers. Again, that's something we didn't see.

 

Bill Sexsmith owns Midway Meats.

 

"I have every confidence in the world that the meat that goes through isabsolutely safe," Sexsmith says.

 

He says USDA vets review all his downer business and do a good job atdisqualifying diseased animals.

 

"It has to be done effectively or they'll tag us and we can't continueto operate."

 

Sexsmith says federal meat inspectors do a quick health check in hisparking lot but normally retest downers inside the plant as well. Somenational experts like Dr. Friedlander tell KIRO Team 7 Investigators therisks of processing downers at all are just too great.

 

"If you take care of the downers, you'd probably see a lower incidenceof these outbreaks of E. Coli," Friedlander says.

 

Gaylis Linville, who watched her son suffer for three months from E.Coli, would love to see downer meat banned.

 

"There's not anything here to debate. Clearly it's a sick animal beingdragged into a slaughterhouse and USDA inspectors are just turning theother cheek and letting this occur!" she says.

 

Midway Meats owner Bill Sexsmith says he's unaware of any consumercomplaints regarding quality or safety of his products.

 

We repeatedly asked the USDA to comment on the apparent lack of properoutside inspection by their vets, but so far, nothing.

 

Congress recently banned the use of downer meat in the federal schoollunch program. However, there is no current requirement for meatprocessors inform consumers about downer meat or label packages that maycontain it.

 

If you want to comment on the use of downers to Congressional members onthe Agriculture Committee, send them an email.