Day 233 - 26 03 96 - Page 15
DAY 233
HOWARD LYMAN, Examined:
1 to the kill floor, if you stand there and look at them and
2 you look at them in the eyes -- and, being involved in
3 animal husbandry -- you see the terror in their eyes as
4 they approach the kill floor. The animal behind the one in
5 front of it being stunned sees what is happening, knows
6 exactly what has happened.
7
8 The animals are stunned by what they called a captive bolt
9 pistol. It used to be that they shot them, but it was too
10 expensive. They use a captive bolt; they stun the animal,
11 dump it on the kill floor, hang it up by the hind legs, and
12 then cut its throat, which is what causes its death.
13 Occasionally, the animal is not fully stunned and, when
14 they drop them on the floor, the animal gets up. This
15 usually happens several times a week. That animal is
16 absolutely terrified, running around the floor. It is one
17 of the most dangerous things I have ever seen. No one
18 would want to be on the kill floor at a time a live animal
19 gets in there.
20
21 There is no doubt that those animals going onto the kill
22 floor know they are going to die; and they are not pleased.
23
24 Q. So, in the United States, there is no law which prevents --
25 or, certainly, there was not at the time when you were
26 involved -- which prevents cattle seeing other cattle being
27 killed?
28 A. No. The difficulty that you have in slaughter plants
29 is the turnover of the help that is there. Most employees
30 in the slaughter plants do not survive a month in them.
31 With the gore that is on the floors, it is impossible to
32 shield the animals from what is in front of them, what is
33 going to happen.
34
35 Q. Right. This general scene, did that apply to all or most
36 of the slaughterhouses that you visited both when you were
37 a farmer and when you were making all these visits to
38 slaughterhouses?
39 A. What I am talking about is the absolute standard of the
40 industry. What it is about is: get them in as quickly as
41 possible, kill them as quickly as possible; and the idea of
42 humane slaughter absolutely does not exist.
43
44 Q. OK. I am going to miss out the labelling of meat section
45 for now. Mr. Morris will come back to that at the end of
46 the environmental part and deal with it alongside your
47 supplementary statement. So, if we read from
48 "Environmental problems from animal production":
49
50 "I have witnessed firsthand the problems associated with
51 animal production and the degradation of the land base. We
52 are placing a tremendous financial burden on the farmers
53 and ranchers. In many cases, the production costs incurred
54 by present agricultural practices are equal to, if not more
55 than, the sale price of commodities. This means that most
56 farmers and ranchers are producing at a loss or at best
57 breaking even. Their only solution, in many cases, is to
58 produce more animals on the same acreage and the land base
59 is showing the stress of overgrazing."
60
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