Killing Turkeys and the “Win-Win” Scenario
by Lee Hall
“Animal rights activists are using an insurgent tactic,” Minneapolis-St. Paul’s Star Tribune proclaimed, “to protest how turkeys are processed.”
The plan: An employee from an animal-advocacy group would go, as a stockholder, to the annual meeting of Hormel Foods Corp. in Austin, Minnesota. As in previous years, said the newspaper, the group was “imploring Hormel to adopt what it says is a less-cruel slaughter method as turkeys make their way to store shelves and kitchens around the world.”
The subject of this imploring, in a nutshell: The activist group wants Hormel to discontinue electrical stun baths and shift to the exclusive use of controlled-atmosphere killing. The latter method kills birds by putting them into a chamber containing nitrogen or argon, possibly mixed with CO2, to cut off their oxygen supply. The group has, in the past, offered to drop the shareholder resolution if Temple Grandin, a slaughter plant design expert, would be allowed to inspect Hormel’s sites to certify they were using a gas technique.
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2 Comments
On February 6, 2008, jbs wrote:
I do not like to see good horses go to the slaughter. I have taken in free unwanted horses and was buying them at the horse sell and gave them a good home on our 800 acres cattle farm in Tennessee , got them back in good heath and trained them ,then sell them to good homes for around 600$ - 1000$ . Did not ever really make that much gust enough to take care of other horses and find them good homes. and its not all about making money , I have a job I am a Farrier and the cattle and take care of my kid’s . I always tide to brake even on the horses that took in , but now with the horse and cattle market so low and feed , hay and fertilizer so high I can not afford to take in anymore horses , I still have 5 horses and I like them a lot , one of them is almost like family she is not going anywhere but she and all other animals are not equal and on the same level as humans , now There are more horses everyday. Seeing as how they have stopped the slaughter of horses, these animals are everywhere , people that could not afford to buy a horse before have horses now the horses are given to them getting a horse is the easy part taking care of them is the hard part , so people if you can not afford to take care of them do not take them in, there is a reason there free , most people get a horse to ride and a lot of times people get taken buy the seller get the horse home and is something bad with the horse it was doped up or a lot older than told and now they have a horse they can not ride and some times have a lot of money in them and can not ride, it is not right for them to have to feed and put a lot of money in them if slaughter was open they could get some of the money back ,would be better than let them starving to death, Some horses are literally being turned out due to an owners inability to take care of them. What would you do if you met some horses on the road one day? It would be so much worse than meeting the dreaded deer on the road. I almost hit 2 one night and 3 another night , if the slaughter is not the way to go what way is there, we in the US may see a day wend we all wish we had a horse stake I will eat my horse before I will let myself and my kid’s go with out something to eat maybe we should think about all thaws people in the world that are starving to death they would gladly take a horse after all people are more impotent than any other animal
On February 19, 2008, kmm wrote:
Oh please. Animals are not equal to humans? Humans are the reason most of these animals need help. We’re the ones who ruin the environment and have no respect for animals. Get a life!