When a local news station in Seattle, Washington broadcast graphic footage
of "downed animals" being mistreated at a slaughterhouse, viewers were
shocked. KIRO 7 news investigators videotaped and aired footage of cows
too sick or crippled to stand, being dropped off at slaughterhouses and
then dragged or pushed with bulldozers to the killing floor. A reporter
narrates one gruesome scene taped at Midway Meats, a slaughterhouse near
Olympia:
Unable to stand, the old dairy cow was dragged from its trailer into the
parking lot. There it struggled in pain for about five minutes before
being lifted off the ground by its neck. Workers swung the wide-eyed,
still kicking animal straight into the plant while a white-coated USDA
meat inspector watched.
Based on this extensive investigative news footage, Pasado's Safe Haven,
an animal sanctuary in Washington state, has asked the Washington State
Attorney General and Lewis County Prosecuting Attorney to file first
degree felony animal cruelty charges under RCW 16.52 against Midway Meats,
Inc. and individual employees. This is the second time in as many years
that a slaughterhouse in Washington State has been investigated for animal
cruelty, and so far, the state has refused to take action.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Contact the Lewis County Prosecuting Attorney, and ask him to pursue
first-degree animal cruelty charges against Midway Meats for causing
"undue suffering" to animals on their property. Remind him that it is a
felony in Washington state to "inflict substantial pain, cause physical
injury, or kill an animal by a means causing undue suffering," and that
dragging and otherwise abusing downed animals is in no way consistent with
"accepted husbandry practice(s)." Let him know that ignoring
slaughterhouse abuses overlooks what is one of the greatest sources of
animal suffering today.
Jeremy Randolph, Lewis County Prosecuting Attorney
County Courthouse
351 NW North St. MS:PR001
Chehalis, WA 98532-1900
Ph: (360) 748-9121
Fax: (360) 740-1475
email: jrrandol@co.lewis.wa.us.
Please also cc your letters to:
Christine O. Gregoire
Washington State Attorney General
1125 Washington St. SE
PO Box 40100
Olympia, WA. 98504-0100
Ph: 360-753-6200
Fax: 360-586-8474
email: emailago@atg.wa.gov.
To view the news report, see:
http://www.seattleinsider.com/partners/kirotv/specialreports/downers_3.html|
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