Thursday, June 26, 2008
By Charles D. Brunt
Journal Staff Writer
A livestock auction in eastern New Mexico has been targeted for the second time this summer by The Humane Society of the United States for alleged “gross mistreatment” of downer cattle — animals too sick to stand or move on their own.
The organization on Wednesday distributed videos of cattle filmed in May at the Portales Livestock Auction, showing downed cattle being shocked repeatedly with electric prods, dragged behind a skidsteer loader and kicked in the head. One with a broken leg was forced through the auction ring where, like dozens of other cattle, she was sold for slaughter, according to Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society.
“The abuses of these suffering creatures must be stopped, to protect both animal welfare and food safety,” Pacelle said in a morning teleconference in Washington, D.C.
The videos released Wednesday depicted abuses similar to those shown in a video released by the organization in May, portions of which were filmed at the Clovis Livestock Auction and the Livestock Exchange in Hereford, Texas, 55 miles northeast of Clovis.
Pacelle’s organization has been pushing for a federal ban against the processing of downed cattle for food, and for the humane and immediate euthanization of downer cattle at dairies, livestock markets and auctions.
Randy Bouldin, owner of Portales Livestock Auction, said he was “very concerned about what I saw” in the video shot during weekend auctions at his facility in May.
“We have implemented policies and procedures, and we try to educate our employees on the correct handling of livestock,” Bouldin said by phone Wednesday afternoon. “I certainly saw that we had some issues, and we need to work on that. We’ve already started educating our employees on the correct way to handle livestock.”
Although Pacelle said the undercover investigator observed the sale of three downed cattle at the Portales facility, Bouldin said the cattle were never sold.
“That’s impossible,” Bouldin said. “That’s completely false; it never happened. Downer animals do not get loaded to go to any packing plant. Any downer animals are euthanized.”
“We have policies that we adhere to,” he said. “Any downed livestock — non-ambulatory animals — are euthanized at the premises. There is no chance that any non-ambulatory animal went to a packing house or went into the food supply.”
Bouldin’s facility dispatches downer cattle with a gunshot, he said.
