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Editor's Note: This is the last article in a three part series. Parts one and two are here and here.
Humane Slaughter: An oxymoron?
“Slaughter can be less cruel [ . . .] but not humane,” says Ashley Byrne, a campaign specialist at PETA, in a Modern Farmer article, published in April, titled “This Is What Humane Slaughter Looks Like. Is it Good Enough?” Author Mac McClelland visited Prather Ranch Meat Company to determine if any kind of slaughter—even that at a small, family-owned operation—can truly be considered humane.
The author alternates between her experience watching cattle being slaughtered at Prather and an interview with Grandin. By the end of the article, McClelland orders a burger with Prather meat “without hesitation,” suggesting that the slaughter she witnessed was in fact humane . . . at least humane enough to assuage any feelings of guilt.
When I interviewed Grandin in May, she repeated what she tells McClelland (right): we should be more worried about some of the smaller plants that slip under regulators’ radar compared to larger industrial slaughterhouses, where third-party auditing takes place.
In an attempt to make industrial slaughter more transparent, Grandin narrates two videos produced by “The Glass Walls Project” that show cattle and pig slaughter, from the trucks pulling up to the plants and unloading to the holding pens to the kill floor. Although difficult to watch, the videos show calm animals, clean conditions, competent workers, and overall humane handling. The problem is, of course, as the OIG’s report clearly indicates, not all industrial slaughter plants operate this way.
Small Producers and Labels: How can one eat meat without guilt?
When faced with all of this information, what’s a person to do? Some would argue that becoming a vegan or at least a vegetarian is the best thing to do. Others advocate for eating less meat and knowing where the meat came from. Locally, more and more meat from small farms has become available in the last few years, but the trick is to know the producers and ask not just how the animal was raised, but how it died. Some meat carries labels that may help customers decide what’s best.
The Modern Farmer article referenced above contains a handy breakdown of the various labels out there: Animal Welfare Approved and Certified Humane, which have the strictest slaughter standards and factory audits in the case of Certified Humane; American Humane Certified, which has slaughter recommendations; Global Animal Partnership, which has living but no current slaughter standards; and USDA Organic, which has some humane animal standards. A Certified Humane mobile app is also available, indicating where you can buy meat that carries the label in your area.
Whole Foods, which sponsors the Global Animal Partnership label, has a 5-step animal welfare rating system at its stores. The higher the number, the more humanely raised the animal. At step 1, for example, there are no cages, no crates, and no crowding, whereas at step 5+, the label reads, “animal centered; entire life on same farm.” Such a labeling system is great for helping a consumer know about how the animal was raised, but that murkier problem remains: how did it die?
Other organizations that may be of interest to consumers include the Animal Welfare Institute and its petition to the USDA to make slaughter more humane, The Humane Society, and the Center for Animal Law Studies at Lewis & Clark Law School.
The Future: Looking to the past for answers
It’s become clichéd to reference Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel The Jungle (right) in articles about slaughter but with good reason. Sinclair, a journalist and novelist, went undercover in Chicago meatpacking plants to gather material for a newspaper article, and that material ultimately found its way into a novel that few have read but many recognize.
What some don’t realize is that Sinclair’s primary aim was to expose the substandard working conditions of the laborers, particularly immigrant laborers. Along the way, he also revealed serious concerns about health violations. Animal welfare was not an important part of Sinclair’s agenda, even though many lump the issue in with the others when noting the book. Of the novel’s reception, Sinclair is famously quoted as saying, “I aimed at the public’s heart and by accident hit its stomach.”
With so many recent works, like Pachirat’s and Conover’s, the Kansas City Star report, and the Chipotle ad, which collectively hit both the stomach and the heart like modern-day Jungles, one wonders where the reaction is. Perhaps we’ve become like the Crowbots in the Chipotle game, moving through our lives, either too busy or too defeated to effect any real change. Here’s hoping a Scarecrow or two (who also raises animals) is out there among us.
