If we can’t feel or see this imaginary stuff, no problem exists, Ms. Kangaroo huffs. But Horton, an elephant of great girth, was certain he heard cries from a teeny tiny earth.

“Then finally, at last! Their voices were heard! They’ve proved they are here, no matter how small.’”

And so little Whos of Whoville were saved by someone who believed in their right to remain. Their world on a dust speck was clearly in tatters, till Horton proclaimed: “Every voice matters!”

In Theodor Geisel’s (a.k.a. Dr. Seuss) fabled tale, Horton the elephant hears pleas for help on a dust speck lodged in a clover. Hollywood’s version of “Horton Hears A Who” paints an animated universe strangely like our own. No one in the jungle trusts the goofy pachyderm because, as Kangaroo warns: You cannot believe in something you can’t see or touch.

Horton defies the code of the jungle to speak for creatures without a voice. This reminded me of animals in society. Specifically, my mind drifted to the cows.

As a rule, we don’t hear much about cows. California’s Milk Advisory Board assures us they are “Happy Cows,” who “make a ton of other delicious dairy products!”

In a Horton-esque twist, cows became news with the release of a video from Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) in February 2008. The footage, shot over six weeks in 2007, shows how Westland/Hallmark Meat Company mistreated sick cows trucked in from industrialized dairies. After HSUS gave their video to the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office, two workers at the Chino, Calif.-based plant were booked on felony charges for animal abuse at a slaughterhouse. So far, none of their superiors face prosecution.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture banned “downed cattle” from entry into the human food chain after the 2003 discovery of a Washington state downer with mad cow disease. Still, close to a half million infirm cows are annually dragged to slaughter, a JAVMA report predicts. Each nonambulatory animal is worth about $30 in hamburger revenue. Big dairy operations account for 90-95% of downed cows, asserts Temple Grandin, an animal science professor at Colorado State University who considers 75% of cases preventable with humane care.

In the HSUS video, Hallmark employees electrically shock the heads, necks, spines and rectums of disabled cows. Former pen manager Daniel Navarro paddles a listless cow in the face and eye. The men hoist cows on forklift prongs and roll their giant bodies over pavement. They fire concentrated water jets into the cows’ nostrils and throats.

I’d Never Heard A Cow Scream Like That Before.
“One cow is down on the truck when she arrives,” the investigator recounts. “Workers shock her from behind, but she’s too weak to stand. A chain is attached to her leg and she’s dragged with a forklift. As she’s pushed along concrete, you can see it causes her so much pain… A worker drives over her leg and face with the wheels of the forklift. I’d never heard a cow scream like that before.”

By itself, Hallmark footage is unremarkable. The breaking news is how they got caught.

It took some guy with a pen camera fastened to his shirt button to reveal that downers — those most likely to test positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease — easily end up as dinner. Among 15 confirmed BSE cases in North America, at least 12 were downers. Impaired cows also harbor more E. coli and Salmonella contamination.

The investigator toiled 12-hour days, at $8 an hour, herding cows down chutes to the kill floor. In an anonymous phone interview, he told the Los Angeles Times he observed “brutalization of animals too weak or sick to walk to slaughter. It was so in-your-face. As cows are making their final steps, there’s no USDA personnel objecting to this behavior.”

His findings prompted a recall of 143,383,823 pounds of beef on February 17, 2008. Hallmark, a partner of Westland Meat, lost its USDA contract to furnish beef for America’s School Lunch Program. Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) suspended its audits, in effect closing the plant. The Office of the Inspector General subpoenaed proof for the Justice Department to pursue criminal prosecution.

It was a whistle-blower’s triumph, as if Horton himself had roused sleeping bureaucrats: “The video, the cows, the people…how true! Hence forth, Kangaroo will protect every creature with you!”

But Capitol Hill isn’t Seuss-world and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Edward W. Schafer is no Kangaroo. In Congressional Hearings spurred by the Hallmark fiasco, Schafer said it’s okay for downer cattle to enter the food supply from time to time. He asked the Senate Appropriations Agriculture subcommittee to strike down a legally binding ban on slaughter of downers.

Kinship Circle's column runs in The Healthy Planet. Ms. Shoss has also contributed to The Animals Voice, Satya Magazine, VegNews, and other publications. To reprint this column, please request author permission at info@kinshipcircle.org

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