Thread: PETA wants GOV to shut down ICE raided AgriProcessors

Now PETA gets into the act!!!

http://www.peta.org/mc/NewsItem.asp?id=11420

Kosher Slaughterhouse That Was Found Tormenting Animals and Violating Food-Safety Regulations Now Busted in Big Immigration Sting

For Immediate Release:
May 14, 2008

Contact:
Lindsay Rajt 757-622-7382

Postville, Iowa - Today, PETA sent an urgent letter to Iowa Governor Chet Culver urging him to immediately pressure applicable state and local authorities to revoke all operating licenses for AgriProcessors, Inc., which is located in Postville and owned by the Rubashkin family. PETA's request comes in the wake of Monday's U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid that reportedly led to the arrest of nearly 400 allegedly undocumented immigrant workers at the plant. In its letter, PETA points out that AgriProcessors--the largest kosher slaughterhouse in the country--has a history of violent animal abuse, severe injuries to workers, environmental degradation, and food-safety violations.

The following are just some of AgriProcessors' recent actions:

* In 2004, a PETA undercover investigator documented that cattle at an AgriProcessors plant had their tracheas ripped out while they were still conscious. Then they were dumped on the floor and left to thrash in their own blood as they slowly died. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) investigation concluded that AgriProcessors workers "engaged in acts of inhumane slaughter."
* In 2006, AgriProcessors agreed to pay $600,000 to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to settle a complaint about the company's failure to comply with wastewater pretreatment requirements.
* Between January 1, 2006, and January 24, 2007, the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service issued AgriProcessors five citations for faulty monitoring of mad cow disease and more than a dozen citations for fecal and bile contamination of beef and poultry. In 2007, the company also had two separate meat recalls--one for possible underprocessing.
* U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration logs reveal that there were five amputations along with dozens of other serious injuries to workers, including broken bones, eye injuries, and hearing loss. On March 20, 2008, the Iowa Occupational Health and Safety Agency cited AgriProcessors for 39 new health and safety violations and proposed fines totaling $180,000.

"Mutilating fully conscious animals, exploiting workers, endangering the public's health, and hurting the environment add up to a despicable pattern of behavior," says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. "AgriProcessors has been one horror story after another, and it's past time for the state to shut down this hellhole."

PETA has film of the animal cruelty I believe.

SHUT THEM DOWN. OTHER PROCESSORS WILL PICK UP THE BUSINESS. ANY LEGAL EMPLOYEES CAN WORK AT PLANTS THAT TAKE OVER THE WORK. SEND THE OWNER TO JAIL FOREVER.....AND I MEAN FOREVER. THIS PERSON IS NOT HUMAN.

PETA doesn't exactly have an unbiased opinion. They promote a lifestyle that includes being a vegetarian and their mission statement specifically targets "factory farms", in other words, any farm that takes their animals to market. Farm animals are not pets and it's not a petting zoo, it's a business.

Dixie