Target: Tom Vilsack, United States Secretary of Agriculture
Goal: Mandate CCTV in all U.S. slaughterhouses and transport vehicles to ensure that animal welfare regulations are being followed.
Billions of animals on factory farms are subjected to routine abuse in the form of painful disfigurements, extreme confinement, and untreated disease. The torture does not end here, but continues until the minute an animal’s throat is slit and blood is drained– oftentimes, while still conscious. Thanks to eyewitness accounts and undercover footage that has been recorded in slaughterhouses across the nation, the cruel methods these animals must endure as they are sent off to be killed have been revealed to the public at large.
As animals enter the slaughterhouse, they can smell the blood and hear the screams of others before them. This is an extremely stressful and fear-inducing process, and animals regularly attempt to escape, though it is often to no avail. Animals are commodified, and workers’ goal is to kill as many animals as quickly and efficiently as possible, rather than to make sure these sentient beings are comfortable in their final moments. Animals that fail to cooperate are brutally kicked and beaten with tools such as shovels and cattle prods. Though animals are often stunned before they enter the slaughterhouse– a practice sought to render them unconscious– many times this is either done improperly or is not effective enough, as it may be hours or even days subjected to the torturous conditions of their impending deaths before an animal is actually killed.
There is still relatively little to ensure the humane treatment of animals in slaughterhouses as according to the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act. While the USDA once required external inspectors to ensure animal welfare and food safety standards were upheld, recent USDA rules have been implemented to allow both factory farms and slaughterhouses to conduct self inspections. Needless to say, this change in legislation is extremely harmful to animals, as workers are now pretty much able to decide their own regulations without fear of governmental intervention. In addition, there has been a recent surge in the campaigning for “ag gag” legislation. Such would make it illegal for undercover documentation of slaughterhouse practices, and would allow companies to avoid any accountability for violations to USDA protections.
England, in particular, has taken extensive measures to ensure the welfare of animals used for human consumption through the mandation of CCTV cameras in slaughterhouses. Many additional countries in the UK, as well as others like France, are in the process of implementing similar protective measures for their own slaughter facilities. This new legislation– which necessitates ongoing surveillance on slaughterhouse plants– would likely deter slaughterhouse workers from actively abusing animals. This footage can be monitored by welfare experts, and in case of any suspected breach of animal welfare standards, can be referred back to in order to ensure no maltreatment has occurred.
Sign this petition to encourage lawmakers to push for similar legislation in US slaughterhouses and transport vehicles and to preserve the rights of sentient farm animals.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Secretary Vilsack,
As of 2021, the United States enacted a law permitting slaughter plants to self inspect, forgoing the standard USDA protocol of external inspection that had previously been in place to ensure that animal welfare standards– as according to the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act– were being upheld. This law poses a huge threat for livestock across the U.S., as the limited protection they once had has been rapidly disappearing. Now, without the deterrence of potential penalization by welfare experts or government officials, slaughterhouse companies are at their own discretion, and the animals at the mercy of people who view them as nothing more than meat to be shipped off and sold for a small profit.
Billions of animals are exploited each year by agricultural practices aimed at feeding the incessant needs of human consumption. Animals that survive the cramped conditions of disease ridden transport vehicles are soon after forced to endure treacherous conditions at the slaughterhouses they are delivered to. Right away, these animals can hear the cries of others killed before them and can smell the blood as these animals are drained of life. Clued into the fate that awaits each and every one of them, these animals are extremely stressed and afraid.
Worker practices at these facilities do not help to soothe the animals. Uncooperative animals are viciously beaten and, although animals are to be stunned before slaughter, this process is usually completed improperly or inefficiently, and animals are many times still conscious when they are hung from their legs and bled out onto the killing floor.
Many other countries are in the process of enacting stricter legislation to protect farm animals from abuse during transport and slaughter. Among these efforts is the mandatory implementation of CCTV cameras in slaughterhouses to allow welfare officials to monitor activity and ensure that animal welfare standards are upheld. We are asking you, Mr. Vilsack, to please implement CCTV cameras in transport vehicles and slaughterhouses across the nation to make sure animals are treated with the respect promised to them by the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act. These animals deserve to have their limited rights protected, not stripped away in the name of corporate greed.
Sincerely,
[Your Name here]
Photo Credit: Nom d’util
This should never be allowed to happen to an innocent animal and it needs to be stopped immediately. What kind of a society have we become that can murder an innocent animal without giving it a second thought.
Humans have been killing for thousands of years. Torture of the defenseless feeds the bloodlust of many.
I totally agree! The Animal Welfare Act states that animals MUST be desensitized to pain before slaughter but it’s not being enforced. Also, a lot of animals are now being slaughtered in this country with the islamic halal method which is slitting throat & allowing to bleed to death which takes time, very cruel. No one is talking about that. Halal killing should not be allowed in America.
Agree! Just plain disgusting!!
Please stop this horrific practice!!!!
This has to be FORBIDDEN BY LAW- all over the world. The barbarians, that do these horrible, disturbing acts of violence towards helpless animals, have to be thrown into jail. They are ruthless, merciless, soulless- a danger for society. To slit another one’s throat reminds to terroristic acts of criminals. NO PLACE in the year 2022, NO PLACE in a cultivated world.
OMG, Seriously, this reads:”to make sure animals are treated with respect promised to them by the Humane Methods of the Slaughter Act, these animals deserve to have limited rights protected, not striped away”. THEY DESERVE TO LIVE, this whole thing is EVIL, their rights are taken away at birth because of your intent to murder them for your greed, and what you beleive you need to eat. You meat eaters are so shallow, you don’t need to eat meat, I haven’t ate meat all my life, I have zero health ailements, my blood pressure is perfect, my weight is perfect, I am 67 but look 50, I am on zero medications. STOP EATING ANIMALS, their is nothing humane about murdering them.
👍🏻♥️☮️
Total agreement. Stopped eating meat more than 40 yrs ago. Have had no problems and I’m now 85 yrs old.
Well said, Kathleen. You are a better person than I am as I am 76 and have only been a vegetarian (now vegan) for 45 years; it took me far too long to wake up.
Each and every animal (human and non-human) deserves true respect and consideration; not the “respect” promised by the Humane Methods of the Slaughter Act. Farming defenseless, living, feeling beings for the purpose of horrific slaughter to eat the creature’s flesh is beyond barbaric yet there are people who can take a tour of a slaughterhouse in operation then go out and order a burger or a steak for lunch??? And some of these people are raising children. Scary. It boggles the mind.
Kathleen you have my ultimate admiration and honor; Wow, if only I hadn’t been raised in the freezing cold Midwest with health ailments by a mother who had been raised on rice due to her father’s (my grandfather’s) untimely death when she was 5, and her growing up as an adult loving meat to the point that she washed and saved and orderly hoarded foam plastic meat trays, cleaned and stacked nicely in a pantry cupboard falling out when we opened it after she died of high blood pressure and heart disease at age 72, when I was 27.
I am unable to eat gluten (which includes most ‘good’ breads,) and am lactose free due to lactose intolerance, (thankful for.)
I am allergic to almost all nuts, (not fun.)
Please PLEASE tell people about meat free options like …meatless frozen “Simulate Chicken Nuggs” brand as it is so very very hard for diabetics and hungry ‘big eaters’
People that literally do not get full without eating meat or require a high amount of protein just to be able to function. I have only found the above mentioned brand at Smiths stores. Thank you Smiths stores!!!! I will not eat most animals especially
dogs, cats, pigs, etc. When your stomach is hurting so bad and you are starving and you feel like it is churning and eating itself and you turn down meat that is when I have a little bit of nirvana in my life. Many people have lives that are hell, the animals do not need to suffer never ever. Eat anything else please and promote vegan options.Help and assist those who are actually trying and have health challenges; It is hell trying to get full, and when I don’t eat meat, but it is entirely so very worth it.
Coincido totalmente contigo…Esto es aberrante😡
This inhumane and cruel act has been going on way to long. The greed and selfishness of these Farm factories is a horror to see. If the world could only be allowed to really know what goes on in these slaughter houses most people would be vegetarian’s or vegan’s. Why must humans be so cruel and evil towards these innocent animals that don’t deserve this treatment. Please stop it. I can’t eat meat anymore because of learning the truth behind closed doors. Very heartbreaking.
No they would not! Humans are apex predators who learned and acquired the taste of blood. It’s unfortunate but true humans will never give up their lust for flesh.
They may have to for environmental reasons if it isn’t available you can’t eat it. Disgusting habit. People can live much cheaper and more healthily without meat.
These people should be thrown in jail for good
This is so AWFUL!!!! PLEASE stop these horrific acts!!!! I WISH I COULD BE GOD FOR A DAY!!!!
Though it is unrealistic to think everyone will choose a vegan lifestyle, everyone, vegan or not, could and should demand the innocent animals destined for human consumption be treated humanely, with respect for their unwilling sacrifice of losing their life to feed humans. They deserve an actual comfortable life, for however long, not a miserable existence filled with cruel abuse and torturous conditions. When the time comes for their unfortunate slaughter, it should be done by a method deemed to be as quickly and painlessly as possible. To do anything less is just beyond cruel and totally unacceptable!
I so agree with your thoughts and feel exactly the same as you.
This is so AWFUL!!!! PLEASE stop these HORRIFIC acts!!!
Round up all these animal torturers and slit their throats in front of their families and let them lay there and bleed out. Let them see, before they die, how it feels to be tortured and their throats slit. Video tape it and put it on Pay-Per-View. I just imagine you could make a million bucks from people willing to pay to see animal torturers die a slow death. Now that would be a happy day!!!!!!!!!
I love the way you think.
Sounds like a solution to stop the animal murderers. The very thought of eating these poor animals absolutely sickens me.
And the USA prides itself as being a First World Country. But here’s some news: YOU AREN’T. But you’re doing a darned good job lying to your own people, aren’t you?
Usa is def not a first world country, they just like to think they are.
Please STOP such inhume and barbaric practices!!! While the meat industry may never completely end this is surely NOT as God intended us to treat these creatures!!!
Stricter rules are needed to protect these poor animals going to slaughter. Why does the USDA give these slaughter houses self inspections and who monitors them ? These animals are brutalized and tortured before being killed in the most horrific ways. We can do better and find a more compassionate way to end their suffering.
It’s a damn shame the government choose to do nothing and let this happen. Cruelty like this is not allowed to be shown on the news and make people aware because, no doubtedly their greed and making a profit takes precedence over suffering animals. Those poor animals are already being sent to their deaths, yet instead of being humane about it, workers are going to make it worse by abusing, torturing and terrorizing those poor souls beforehand. Who are these people (I refer to as pieces of crap),that can work in such a way as to inflict such unecessary pain and cruelty on animals? They are heartless, evil beings that has acquired negative KARMA on their souls. They will have to pay for the devastating treatment they have done and are doing to god’s creatures. Its called KARMA (spiritual law). There is no getting out if it and no escaping it. They too (their souls) will go through and feel what they have put each and every animal through. This is not a myth, this is how karma works. People who treat animals and humanity in a cruel way, better start realizing what their soul, upon their life’s review, will have to experience.
For God’s sake USA, sort this horror out.
It takes a soulless person to kill animals. So sad!!!
STOP SLAUGHTERING ALL ANIMALS IN INHUMANE TORTOROUS CRUEL WAYS IMMEDIATELY!!! These CRUEL IDIOTS SHOULD DIE THE EXACT CRUEL WAYS AS THEY INFLICT ON ALL THESE INNOCENT ANIMALS!!!!
Monstrous monstrous evil, heartbreaking and horrific, karma is theirs – I feel you, poor lost innocent souls; their blood on your souls
The abuse, torture & murder of the innocents
Some heartbreaks can never be unseen, some horrors never unheard – PLEASE GOD
And the universe weeps tears of blood
Your life as theirs, as their death
Ppffff this will NEVER happen. Animals aren’t living, autonomous, feeling creatures, they’re products for human exploitation and consumption.
I hope EVERYONE who commented here is vegan. Put your $ where your mouth is.
I have nothing to add to what already has been said. Since I have read about such things I find it has shattered my soul. I cannot imagine eating meat knowing what it went through to become food.