The Bond: Our Kinship with Animals, Our Call to Defend Them

Book sheds new light on Chino beef recall

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07:39 AM PDT on Monday, April 4, 2011

By BEN GOAD Washington Bureau

Special Section: Chino Beef Recall

WASHINGTON - The undercover investigator whose video footage at a Chino slaughterhouse led to the largest beef recall in U.S. history was actually planning to infiltrate an Inland egg production facility but couldn't get hired anywhere.

It was late 2007, and the Humane Society of the United States had hoped to capture images of chickens in cages and the general treatment of animals in industrial agriculture settings. The mission came in advance of the ultimately successful campaign for Prop. 2, a 2008 California ballot initiative to ban the extreme confinement of animals.

Unable to find work at several egg facilities, the investigator instead took work at Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. in Chino.

Wayne Pacelle "It was purely opportunistic and not based on knowledge of questionable practices at the plant," Humane Society President Wayne Pacelle writes in a forthcoming book. "In fact, we'd never even heard of the place before."

Pacelle devotes a large section of his book to the group's investigation at Westland/Hallmark, which yielded footage of workers shocking, beating and dragging cows unable to stand for slaughter -- despite the presence of federal food inspectors and an Agriculture Department veterinarian.

The video provided evidence that downer cows were slaughtered, a violation of the plant's government contract that triggered the recall of 143 million pounds of beef and the closure of what was once the second-largest supplier of beef to the National School Lunch Program.

The investigator, whom Pacelle has never publicly named, concealed a tiny camera underneath his clothes. The camera's battery life was limited, allowing the investigator to record only an hour of film each day, according to Pacelle's account.

"(Co-workers) had no idea the he was a vegan and that the 'meat' in his sandwich was actually a soy riblet he'd bring to work every day," Pacelle writes.

In the book, Pacelle responds to criticism over the timing of the video's release. In the midst of the nationwide recall, lawmakers and officials at the USDA questioned why the Humane Society didn't immediately bring the information to federal authorities.

"It did raise a lot of concern," American Meat Institute spokeswoman Janet Riley recalled. "Industry was not happy about the delay."

While the tapes were compiled in late fall 2007, the Humane Society kept them under wraps until mid-December of that year, when they gave them to the San Bernardino County district attorney's office. They were given to the Agriculture Department on Jan. 30, 2008, about the same time as they posted the footage online.

"Everything had happened under USDA's regulatory authority," Pacelle writes. "I thought it highly unlikely that the department would condemn its own employees' performance and highlight the poor oversight procedures at the plant."

Ultimately, the federal government joined a $150 million Humane Society lawsuit against owners of the now-defunct plant.

The case is slated for trial in March 2013.

Pacelle also credited the investigation with helping to pass Prop. 2.

Though the initiative had nothing to do with slaughter practices, it helped put a spotlight on animal treatment in agricultural plants, he said. He recalled watching the 2008 election results from the same Los Angeles hotel where, coincidentally, he writes, the California Democratic Party was celebrating the victory of President Barack Obama.

"The first county returns I looked for were those of the Inland Empire," he writes. "In the end, Prop. 2 got 62.5 percent of the vote in Riverside and 62 percent in San Bernardino. They proved to be the bellwethers we thought they'd be."

Pacelle's book is titled "The Bond: Our Kinship with Animals, Our Call to Defend Them." It is slated to hit bookstores Tuesday. Comment on this story



http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_News_Local_D_hallmark04.256c807.html





Greetings,


Considering what the NSLP and the USDA have done in the past, I would welcome any new standard. So I applaud these new standards.

However, feeding those dead stock downer cows to children for over 4 years was something they should never ever be able to forget about. dead stock downer cows are the most high risk animal for mad cow disease, and they knew this when the feeding to our children of this product was taking place. the USDA et al via the NSLP fed our children all across the USA, from state to state, the largest beef recall in history, they fed our children DEAD STOCK DOWNER COWS, the most HIGH RISK CATTLE FOR MAD COW DISEASE, they fed them to our children, and hid the largest beef recall in USA history, hid this recall under the guise of 'animal abuse'. then told the parents not to worry because none of the kids had been sick or died from it to date. CJD can incubate for decades. anyway, just wanted to tell you about this, and thank you for what you are trying to do...

WHO WILL WATCH THE CHILDREN FOR CJD OVER THE NEXT 5 + DECADES ???

Do you actually believe that the USDA et al jumped in on the law suit against Westland/Hallmark, at the time the largest beef recall in USA history, just because a few animals were abused on a video, or to cover their ass, for letting our children, from school district to school district, from state to state, be fed dead stock downer cows.


" In the papers, the government alleges the meatpacking plant slaughtered and processed downer cows for nearly four years — from January 2004 to September 2007 — at the average rate of one every six weeks "



http://downercattle.blogspot.com/2009/09/suit-meatpacker-used-downer-cows-for-4.html



Do you actually believe all these schools recalled this meat because of a few cattle being abused, see list ; FNS All Regions Affected School Food Authorities By State United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service National School Lunch Program March 24, 2008 School Food Authorities Affected by Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. Beef Recall February 2006 - February 2008


http://www.fns.usda.gov/fns/safety/Hallmark-Westland_byState.pdf


http://www.fns.usda.gov/fns/safety/pdf/Hallmark-Westland_byState.pdf#xml=http://65.216.150.153/texis/search/pdfhi.txt?query=Hallmark/Westland+Meat+Packing+Co.+Beef+Recall&pr=FNS&prox=page&rorder=500&rprox=500&rdfreq=500&rwfreq=500&rlead=500&rdepth=0&sufs=0&order=r&cq=&id=4bc8d6e114


IF url does not work above, go to this link to find out if any of your children and their school were part of this recall ; go to this site ;


http://www.fns.usda.gov/fns/ left hand corner search ;


Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. Beef Recall your should get this ;


http://65.216.150.153/texis/search?pr=FNS


1 through 1 of 1 matching documents, best matches first. sort by date 1: Hallmark - Westland SFA Reporting by State - 3-24-2008.xls Lunch Program March 24, 2008 School Food Authorities Affected by Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. Beef Recall February 2006 - February 2008 The U.S. Department of Agriculture ...


http://www.fns.usda.gov/fns/safety/pdf/Hallmark-Westland_byState.pdf#xml=http://65.216.150.153/texis/search/pdfhi.txt?query=Hallmark/Westland+Meat+Packing+Co.+Beef+Recall&pr=FNS&prox=page&rorder=500&rprox=500&rdfreq=500&rwfreq=500&rlead=500&rdepth=0&sufs=0&order=r&cq=&id=4bc8d6e114


PLEASE SEE ALSO ;


Members of The HSUS are also concerned about the meat products provided to their children through the National School Lunch Program. More than 31 million school children receive lunches through the program each school day. To assist states in providing healthful, low-cost or free meals, USDA provides states with various commodities including ground beef. As evidenced by the HallmarkNVestland investigation and recall, the potential for downed animals to make their way into the National School Lunch Program is neither speculative nor hypothetical.


http://biotech.law.lsu.edu/cases/FDA/hsus-v-schafer-usda-complaint.pdf



PLEASE NOTE *


Over the next 8-10 weeks, approximately 40% of all the adult mink on the farm died from TME.


snip...


The rancher was a ''dead stock'' feeder using mostly (>95%) downer or dead dairy cattle...



http://web.archive.org/web/20030516051623/http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/mb/m09/tab05.pdf





PLEASE be aware, for 4 years, the USDA fed our children all across the Nation dead stock downer cows, the most high risk cattle for BSE aka mad cow disease and other dangerous pathogens. who will watch our children for CJD for the next 5+ decades ???


SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM FROM DOWNER CATTLE UPDATE


http://downercattle.blogspot.com/2009/05/who-will-watch-children.html



http://downercattle.blogspot.com/



Transmissible Spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) animal and human TSE in North America

14th ICID International Scientific Exchange Brochure -

Final Abstract Number: ISE.114

Session: International Scientific Exchange

Transmissible Spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) animal and human TSE in North America

update October 2009

T. Singeltary

Bacliff, TX, USA

Background:

An update on atypical BSE and other TSE in North America. Please remember, the typical U.K. c-BSE, the atypical l-BSE (BASE), and h-BSE have all been documented in North America, along with the typical scrapie's, and atypical Nor-98 Scrapie, and to date, 2 different strains of CWD, and also TME. All these TSE in different species have been rendered and fed to food producing animals for humans and animals in North America (TSE in cats and dogs ?), and that the trading of these TSEs via animals and products via the USA and Canada has been immense over the years, decades.

Methods:

12 years independent research of available data

Results:

I propose that the current diagnostic criteria for human TSEs only enhances and helps the spreading of human TSE from the continued belief of the UKBSEnvCJD only theory in 2009. With all the science to date refuting it, to continue to validate this old myth, will only spread this TSE agent through a multitude of potential routes and sources i.e. consumption, medical i.e., surgical, blood, dental, endoscopy, optical, nutritional supplements, cosmetics etc.

Conclusion:

I would like to submit a review of past CJD surveillance in the USA, and the urgent need to make all human TSE in the USA a reportable disease, in every state, of every age group, and to make this mandatory immediately without further delay. The ramifications of not doing so will only allow this agent to spread further in the medical, dental, surgical arena's. Restricting the reporting of CJD and or any human TSE is NOT scientific. Iatrogenic CJD knows NO age group, TSE knows no boundaries. I propose as with Aguzzi, Asante, Collinge, Caughey, Deslys, Dormont, Gibbs, Gajdusek, Ironside, Manuelidis, Marsh, et al and many more, that the world of TSE Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy is far from an exact science, but there is enough proven science to date that this myth should be put to rest once and for all, and that we move forward with a new classification for human and animal TSE that would properly identify the infected species, the source species, and then the route.

page 114 ;

http://ww2.isid.org/Downloads/14th_ICID_ISE_Abstracts.pdf




International Society for Infectious Diseases Web: http://www.isid.org/



please see full text ;

http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/




To date the OIE/WAHO assumes that the human and animal health standards set out in the BSE chapter for classical BSE (C-Type) applies to all forms of BSE which include the H-type and L-type atypical forms. This assumption is scientifically not completely justified and accumulating evidence suggests that this may in fact not be the case. Molecular characterization and the spatial distribution pattern of histopathologic lesions and immunohistochemistry (IHC) signals are used to identify and characterize atypical BSE. Both the L-type and H-type atypical cases display significant differences in the conformation and spatial accumulation of the disease associated prion protein (PrPSc) in brains of afflicted cattle. Transmission studies in bovine transgenic and wild type mouse models support that the atypical BSE types might be unique strains because they have different incubation times and lesion profiles when compared to C-type BSE. When L-type BSE was inoculated into ovine transgenic mice and Syrian hamster the resulting molecular fingerprint had changed, either in the first or a subsequent passage, from L-type into C-type BSE. In addition, non-human primates are specifically susceptible for atypical BSE as demonstrated by an approximately 50% shortened incubation time for L-type BSE as compared to C-type. Considering the current scientific information available, it cannot be assumed that these different BSE types pose the same human health risks as C-type BSE or that these risks are mitigated by the same protective measures.

http://www.prionetcanada.ca/detail.aspx?menu=5&dt=293380&app=93&cat1=387&tp=20&lk=no&cat2




Thursday, August 12, 2010

Seven main threats for the future linked to prions

First threat

The TSE road map defining the evolution of European policy for protection against prion diseases is based on a certain numbers of hypotheses some of which may turn out to be erroneous. In particular, a form of BSE (called atypical Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy), recently identified by systematic testing in aged cattle without clinical signs, may be the origin of classical BSE and thus potentially constitute a reservoir, which may be impossible to eradicate if a sporadic origin is confirmed. ***Also, a link is suspected between atypical BSE and some apparently sporadic cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. These atypical BSE cases constitute an unforeseen first threat that could sharply modify the European approach to prion diseases.

Second threat

snip...


http://www.neuroprion.org/en/np-neuroprion.html



http://prionpathy.blogspot.com/2010/08/seven-main-threats-for-future-linked-to.html




http://prionpathy.blogspot.com/




http://prionopathy.blogspot.com/





Saturday, January 29, 2011

Atypical L-Type Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (L-BSE) Transmission to Cynomolgus Macaques, a Non-Human Primate

Jpn. J. Infect. Dis., 64 (1), 81-84, 2011


http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2011/01/atypical-l-type-bovine-spongiform.html





Wednesday, March 9, 2011

27 U.S. Senators want to force feed Japan Highly Potential North America Mad Cow Beef TSE PRION CJD

March 8, 2011

President Barack Obama The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, W Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Obama:


http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2011/03/27-us-senators-want-to-force-feed-japan.html





Saturday, March 5, 2011


MAD COW ATYPICAL CJD PRION TSE CASES WITH CLASSIFICATIONS PENDING ON THE RISE IN NORTH AMERICA


http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2011/03/mad-cow-atypical-cjd-prion-tse-cases.html




Based on a $35 million investment by the Government of Alberta, the Alberta Prion Research Institute (APRI) supports fundamental, applied and multidisciplinary research geared toward providing solutions and models of policy action that can meet the BSE challenge for the beef and food industries, and similar challenges from other prion diseases as well as other diseases in animals and humans related to protein misfolding. APRI supports outcomesoriented research on prevention, mitigation and treatment of these diseases, and is developing the scientific evidence to inform public policy on solutions and best practices. The initiative supports projects that: . Focus on excellent research and innovation . Develop world-class capacity . Help the Alberta livestock industries . May eventually translate into products, services, and public policies . May help Alberta companies develop, for example, new handling practices, surveillance procedures, diagnostic tests, decontamination technologies . Can be applied beyond Alberta's borders-nationally and globally FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT www.prioninstitute.ca


http://www.prion2011.ca/files/PRION2011_Prospectus_ENG.pdf




COMPARE TO USA PRION FUNDING 2011



"which includes the ___elimination___ of Prion activities ($5,473,000),"


All Other Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases CDC's FY 2012 request of $52,658,000 for all other emerging and zoonotic infectious disease activities is a decrease of $13,607,000 below the FY 2010 level, which includes the elimination of Prion activities ($5,473,000), a reduction for other cross-cutting infectious disease activities, and administrative savings. These funds support a range of critical emerging and zoonotic infectious disease programs such Lyme Disease, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and Special Pathogens, as well as other activities described below.


http://www.cdc.gov/fmo/topic/Budget%20Information/appropriations_budget_form_pdf/FY2012_CDC_CJ_Final.pdf




PRION MAD COW UDPATE NORTH AMERICA 2011


Sunday, April 3, 2011


PRION 2011 NEWWORLD MONTREAL CANADA MAY 16 - 19


http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2011/04/prion-2011-newworld-montreal-canada-may.html





Terry S. Singeltary Sr.
P.O. Box 42
Bacliff, Texas USA 77518