<b>By LINDA McGURK<br>
Indiana Correspondent</b></p><p>

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A lack of standard operating procedures, a poor attitude among workers and inadequate training and equipment may have been some of the factors at play behind the mistreatment of “downer” cattle at the Hallmark/Westland meat packing plant in southern California, according to a an animal behavior expert.<br>
“First of all, the type of handling of cattle that was done at this plant is completely unacceptable, there’s no discussion about that,” said Edmond Pajor, a Purdue University associate professor of animal behavior and welfare.<br>
An undercover video released by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) on Jan. 30 showed workers at the plant kicking, shoving and picking up sick or injured animals with a forklift and rolling and dragging them across a concrete floor.<br>
“The level of abuse captured on the video was a little surprising. There’s been a lot of discussion about how to handle downer animals at the plants, and the industry has worked very hard to establish guidelines,” Pajor said, adding that downer cows should be moved using a sled, or, in severe cases, be euthanized first and then moved.<br>
Pajor suggested long transportation times and inappropriate care during transportation can cause stressed and fatigued animals to become non-ambulatory once they arrive at the processing plant.
When that happens, it’s important that the plant has standard procedures in place for evaluating and dealing with the animals.
“The problem (of non-ambulatory animals) is not uncommon. It’s the treatment of the animals that I hope is uncommon,” Pajor said.<br>
He added it’s the responsibility of the management to make sure the plant’s staff is properly trained in humane animal handling. He also suggested the role of the public health veterinarians in charge of meat packing plant inspections change.<br>
“The role of the inspector is mainly to ensure food safety and to evaluate whether an animal is diseased or not … The food safety issue is important, but I think an increased emphasis on how the animals are treated would help a lot,” Pajor said. “I think the video is obvious evidence that more needs to be done.”<br>
Two years ago, the USDA adopted a surveillance program to perform random checks of the handling of animals at the nation’s meat processing plants, according to Kenneth Petersen, an assistant administrator with the USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service. In the wake of the Hallmark/Westland investigation, the USDA will evaluate this program.<br>
“We’re going to take a closer look at it and see if we’re getting everything out of that that we envisioned,” Petersen said during a Feb. 21 media briefing.<br>
Installation of surveillance cameras in the live pens is one of several ideas that are on the table.
Several industry associations condemned the treatment of cattle shown on the HSUS tape, including the National Institute for Animal Agriculture (NIAA).<br>
“The abuse recorded is an isolated incident and is not common practice within animal agriculture. NIAA stands for responsible treatment of livestock, and therefore does not condone this incident,” said Scott Stuart, chairman of NIAA, in a statement.
“We urge the USDA to fully investigate the downed animal incident and the undercover investigation. In addition, NIAA recommends that animal agriculture immediately report violations of food safety regulations and inhumane treatment of livestock to appropriate authorities.”