When Mori first posted on this subject I mentiuoned that son-in-law is a USDA inspector. Asked him about this particular incident last nite and he said it'd be ok to post his view here.
As follows;
There are humane handling regulations that are a part of the Federal Meat Inspection Act that each plant must adhere to, but as you probably know if you aren't in constant surveillance of your subordinates inappropriate conduct can and will happen.
Ante-mortem inspection is performed by the USDA vet, which consists of the vet standing on a catwalk observing the cows as their moved into the holding pens, the vet is looking for anything that is abnormal in any of the animals such as the cow having trouble standing or walking or showing some other signs that it isn't healthy and worthy of a more thorough inspection by the vet.
When a cow becomes "non-ambulatory" after the vet has passed the lot for slaughter then plant personnel are to notify the vet immediately that there is a "downer" cow in the pens. The plant is then supposed to bring in a forklift and gingerly lift the sick cow onto a large pallet or something that's used to transport the cow to an area designated for such animals. The vet then comes back and does a thorough disposition of the sick cow and makes a decision on rather the cow can be slaughtered or be destroyed without ever making it into the plant. If the vet decides to let the plant slaughter the cow then the plant personnel take steps to ensure that after slaughter and after post-mortem inspection is done by USDA line inspectors(like me) that the carcass is quarantined with it's viscera, head & tongue so that the vet can do another disposition on the cow after it's been slaughtered, de-hided, gutted, and split in half.
This plant apparently wasn't notifying the vet after a cow became non-ambulatory and severely mishandled the cows and then processed them without the vet doing his more in depth inspection. BSE, or mad cow disease along with other diseases can only be tested for in a lab with microscopes and other testing and can't be diagnosed by a line inspector like myself. One of the symptoms of BSE is a cow that can't stand up or is acting in a strange way. Sometimes these animals don't show any outward signs that their ill until after the vet has looked at them and they fall out later. The plant HAS to call the vet to look at any cow that has shown signs of being sick. This plant wasn't doing that.
I can't speak for the plant in question, but at DELETED here in DELETED, which probably slaughters more cows than any other facility in the country, a cow showing signs that he might be sick after one of our vets has performed his ante-mortem inspection is a rare occurrence.
However, erring on the side of caution is what the USDA has done since this plant processed cows that needed to be more thoroughly inspected and weren't. The video captured by PETA was what uncovered this and what brought this violation of federal law to the attention of the Food Safety Inspection Service of the USDA.
I doubt that anyone would become sick from eating meat from this plant, but rules is rules and a recall had to be done. Most of the meat has been consumed already. E-Coli is more a food safety threat than anything IMO.
Hope this is informative to some.
Best,
Bob
