The Truth About Kaufman?

“The slaughtering of horses in the town of Kaufman began more than 25 years ago by the former owner of the plant.
The business from the beginning provided numerous jobs and injected millions of dollars into the local economy.
The business for many years enjoyed an excellent relationship with the community with no complaints.
It was only in the last couple of years prior to closing that the company came under attack, and this was primarily from sources outside the City of Kaufman.
When the attacks began against the Dallas Crown the same individuals and groups began their attacks against the two other horse slaughtering plants in existence at the time.
Although certain individuals with the city of Kaufman jumped on the band wagon and manufactured complaints against the company this was mainly brought on by the media attention.
The mayor, Paula Bacon, was able to get her 15 minutes of fame on Nightline and was subsequently defeated at the polls.
None of the alleged complaints brought by the city were ever prosecuted to a conclusion.
When the company shut down hundreds of individuals and families suffered financially and the City of Kaufman had nothing to offer them.
The meat processing business has often been unfairly criticized for its treatment of animals and this seems to play well to the media.
However this type of business has always been regulated and inspected by the USDA and numerous other state and Federal agencies.
While Dallas Crown was in operation there was a full time licensed Veterinarian who worked for the USDA on the premises and the company had an excellent record with this agency and others.
This type of business is not only necessary for many practical reasons it is an industry that is capable of supporting many jobs and producing home grown American made products.
The horse processing business supports and regulates the fair and humane treatment of animals more than any so called animal rights organization.
When the horse processing industry was forced to close in the United States the country suffered economically, but tragically, the horse population has suffered even more.”

~ Statement from Mark Calabria, posted by Slaughterhouse Sue as the `Truth about Kaufman’

~

 

If you have involved yourself in either side of the slaughter issue, you have heard about Kaufman, Texas.  Both sides of the issue frequently mention this hapless town in support of their stances.  Kaufman was home to Dallas Crown Inc., one of the last slaughter plants to be closed in the US.  I’ve heard stories of blood in the streets, overwhelming stench, backed up sewage, and increased crime rate from the anti side.  The PSA side will mostly tell you Kaufman never happened at all and that the plant was shut down by an `Animal Rights’ mayor.  So, I decided to dig around and see what I could find out as far as what really happened in Kaufman.

Dallas Crown Inc. was a horse processing plant owned by the Belgian company Chevideco that began operating in Kaufman, TX in the late 70’s.  This would be the same company that Slaughterhouse Sue wants to go into business with in her quest to bring back horse slaughter.  One of the things The UH will tell people is that these proposed slaughter-houses will bring in all sorts of revenue to the horse industry and communities that host them.  While it is true that slaughter houses exported an estimated 42 million dollars worth of meat a year, that money mostly went into the pockets of their foreign owners.  In Dallas Crown’s case, it went to Belgium. Dallas Crown only paid a whopping $5  in federal taxes on a gross income of well over 12 million dollars (scans of tax returns linked below).  Then factor in the cost of having federally funded USDA Inspectors in each and every facility. The average yearly salary for a slaughter-house worker according to simplyhired.com is $14000 and Dallas Crown Inc employed 46 non-unionized employees.  Not sure about you, but a wage that low wouldn’t leave me with much of a disposable income to spend in the hosting community.  In fact, it would seem to me that most of the money went straight over seas and only the bare minimum spent in the US.  In cases like Kaufman, it ended up costing the town money through litigation fees, unpaid fines and upgrades to the city’s waste-water treatment. Dallas Crown paid property taxes that amounted to less than half of what they directly cost Kaufman in legal fees over their numerous violations.

 

Blood in the streets.  Did it happen or not?  It would seem the answer is yes and no.  There was never a constant river of blood flowing through the streets of Kaufman, but over the years there as been numerous environmental issues with the waste from that facility and sometimes the blood did run .  The most talked about incident from the PSA side was when a tanker carrying blood bi-products suffered a valve break and leaked its load throughout the town to the tune of 600 gallons.  They will tell you it was cleaned up right away and although `unfortunate’ was hardly an environmental crisis.  However, in the mid 80’s Dallas Crown had a year-long shut down after several months worth of incidents of blood waste backing up into citizen’s bathtubs and through drains on the street. This was due to Dallas Crown putting in a pump that forced the blood and waste through the city’s sewer systems that eventually burst the pipes.  With promises of changes they restarted operations in  early 1986, but shortly afterwards the fertilizer companies, that they told council they would be selling the blood to, rejected it as too toxic for commercial use, so once again, it was back in Kaufman’s sewage system.  In one six-week period alone,29 waste-water violations were issued each with a potential fine of $2000.  In a 19 month period between 2004 -2005 there were 481 violations until Dallas Crown refused to allow city engineers to enter the plant to do environmental tests for a period of 9 months.  This appears to be more than one little `unfortunate’ incident.

 

Slaughterhouse Sue and her Belgian buddies want people to believe that having a slaughter plant is going to revitalize the hosting community.  The good citizens of Kaufman may have some different feelings on this.  Many people living in `Boggy Bottom’, the neighborhood bordering Dallas Crown, complained of stench of decay, increased vermin, and finding animal bones in their yards.  It has been documented that Dallas Crown often left their offal tanks uncovered allowing vultures and rats to congregate.  Their property values decreased and the crime rate increased.  So much so that despite the economic crisis, since the closure of Dallas Crown,  property prices have increased and the city is now in a development and expansion phase.  Crime rates have dropped by more than half since the closing of Dallas Crown with drastic decreases in rape, murder, assault and robberies (http://www.city-data.com/crime/crime-Kaufman-Texas.html)

 

So, last week one of the PSAs asked about Kaufman on the United Horsemen page.  While several chimed in, very few had any actual facts to back up their opinions.  Finally, Old Suey popped up and posted the TRUTH  ABOUT KAUFMAN, TEXAS AND THE DALLAS CROWN HORSE PROCESSING PLANT. Yes, she busted out the cap-lock on everybody so we know she’s really serious and stuff.  Suey’s `proof’ was the `facts’ according to Kaufman resident and attorney, Mark Calabria that I posted at the top of this entry.  What she failed to mention is Mark Calabria was the lead attorney for Dallas Crown.  She further went on to say this:

“…we talked to the city engineer in Kaufman and it was literally, physically, impossible for blood to wind up in the city water treatment system, let alone the sewer system that connects people’s houses. There is no pipe from the kill floor blood collection which fed into a tank truck to be sold. So, the only blood that would wind up in the treatment plant whatsoever is the diluted blood in the wash down water, and that went through a DAF system (DAF stands for “dissolved air floatation”) before being discharged which removed all particulate and fat. The discharged wash down water from the plant was so clean, and in such volume compared to what was coming from the residential sewers that it was actually creating a problem for the water treatment operators because there wasn’t enough microbial action left to clean up the water. Also, all of the render including bones was hauled away daily. And the single incident where there was blood in the barrow pit was a broken valve on one of those blood trucks that was, as was noted here, contained and cleaned up within two hours.”

So, what about what happened in the 80’s when they got shut down for a YEAR due to them forcing blood into the sewage system?  Also, they didn’t even kill every day and it was documented that the `render’ was maybe hauled away weekly and only once the bins were full.  In the meantime, they were often left uncovered.  It would stand to reason these`facts’  that Sue posts up may be more than a bit slanted. Given the actual facts compiled in this entry as well as the links below, you can decide for yourself what the truth about Kaufman really is.

 

 

http://www.animallawcoalition.com/horse-slaughter/article/686

http://habitatforhorses.org/problem-horse-slaughtering/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/vickeryeckhoff/2012/01/10/texas-mayor-paula-bacon-kicks-some-tail/

http://galleries.forbes.com/gallery/Life_in_a_Slaughter_Town%3A_Kaufman%2C_Texas#image=07pJ1zWfXtfRk&view=filmstrip

http://www.kaufmanzoning.net/

http://www.kaufmanzoning.net/documentsdallascrowncaveterrelltribune04062012.pdf

 

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Death, Dying and The Hand That Delivers

One of the most contentious issues for many animal welfare advocates is what happens after a horse is hit with a penetrating captive bolt or bullet.  The PSAs will tell you that the horse is basically brain-dead as soon as the bolt or bullet hits them, while anti-slaughter people have some real concerns.  It is a major issue because it speaks to the whole pain and suffering issue.  If we are to believe Slaughterhouse Sue and her tribe of the uninformed, horses sent to slaughter spend their days relaxing in bucolic surroundings with ample food and care.  When their time comes to end their days on this earthly plane, they are gently ushered into a pristine room and are rendered senseless before they know what is going on. They are handled all the way through by caring and compassionate people and they likely have harp music playing softly in the background throughout the process.  There is no dispute that they are bled out aka exsanguinated while they are still technically alive, but the PSAs will say the horses will not be `aware’.  Other than the blood and gore aspect, it almost sounds like a fairy tale.  It reminds me of  the parent that tells their child that the family dog went to live on a distant relative’s farm when they actually had it put to sleep.  They will tell you what they think you need to hear so you’ll be ok with it.  Unfortunately for Suey, animal welfare advocates are not children and are well aware that the picture she paints is anything but the truth.

It would seem our PSAs are, once again, confused.  This is hardly surprising as they normally eschew any facts, research or data that does not support their misguided mission.  While there can be some movement of a body after brain death occurs, PSAs have been quite unable to distinguish that from purposeful movement.  One of the main ways you can tell if actual death has occurred is eye response.  Even when a horse is euthanized under ideal circumstances any competent vet will check the eye for response before considering his job complete.  Simply, if a horse can still blink when you move your finger towards its eye, it is not yet dead and still aware.  A dead horse will not be able to look around, get to its feet nor will it be able to aim a kick at somebody.  While there may be a few flickering breaths, a dead or senseless horse will not display rhythmic breathing.  All of these things have been recorded and documented in the very Canadian slaughter-houses that Wallis plans to model her empire on.  Not a single horse was checked for insensibility.  I have linked it before, but if you need a reminder you can check out this link:

http://defendhorsescanada.org/investigations/chambers-of-carnage 

If the footage is too disturbing, I suggest you read the indexes which will give you a listing of horses that were not cleanly stunned and what occurred after.  It should be noted that in these instances a .22 rifle was used to knock the animals down. Many of the animals listed were very aware and able to feel pain and fear. If you recall, Temple Grandin has outlined that 100% of animals at slaughter must be rendered insensible prior to hoisting. For the mathletically challenged among the PSA crowd, that means even one horse is too many.

Since Slaughterhouse Sue and her band of buffoons keep telling us that administering a kill shot with either a captive bolt or rifle is so easy, I’m wondering why it goes so wrong in these slaughter plants.  It mainly doesn’t go right due to placement issues.  Horses are typically brought into the kill box unrestrained.  They move their heads around a lot which makes it nearly impossible to place the bullet or bolt correctly.  There is a relatively small area on a horse’s head that must be hit accurately and at the proper angle in order to effectively render the horse unconscious.  For bigger horses that enter the kill box it becomes even more difficult to be at the proper angle to knock them down in one shot. In cases where a captive bolt is used, it is recommended that the horse’s head be restrained and the strength of the cartridge must be appropriate for the size of the horse.  As we know, they do not use head restraints for horses in slaughter houses as they are considered inhumane and, at the present time, the animals are not haltered and held for killing as Temple Grandin has suggested.  That would not be cost-effective as far as labor or time when they have a target of processing one horse every two minutes.

After I wrote one of my initial blog entries about Rockville,  there was a lot of whining and finger-pointing when I mentioned they types of workers that a slaughter plant usually employs and the effects on a community.  While most ranchers, hunters, sportsmen are quite capable of killing an animal and dressing it out a few times a year, have you ever thought about what kind of person could stand there and kill animals, all day, every day?  Thankfully I’m not the only person that wonders that.  University of Windsor Criminology professor Dr. Amy Fitzgerald wondered the same thing and completed a study linking slaughterhouses to violent crime using the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report database, census data, and arrest and offence reports from 581 U.S. counties from the years 1994 to 2002.  Her findings showed support for the `Sinclair Hypothesis’, which suggests the propensity for violent crime is increased by work that involves the routine slaughter of other animals.  I will link the full report with all the research data as well as a summary article for those that don’t want to read it all.  It was a very involved study.  In short, Fitzgerald found that with an average sized facility (175 employees) the number of arrests will increase 2.24 and reports 4.69.  The larger the facility, the worse the problem.  Those may not sound like big numbers, but add that to an extremely small community like Rockville, Missouri. Remember, this was a study on VIOLENT crime.

In doing her study, Dr. Fitzgerald controlled such factors as new residents moving into a community once the facilities open, high numbers of young men and immigrant workers.  Yup, there is that dreaded `I’ word the PSAs got their panties in a wad over.  Immigrant.  “Some residents started to recognize that crime rates were going up and started complaining, and the SLAUGHTERHOUSE COMPANIES were quick to blame the immigrant labor pool they were relying on” is what Fitzgerald said. She compared slaughterhouse communities to those communities that hosted comparable industries aka dangerous, repetitive work not involving the killing of animals.  There was no rise in crime in those communities and in some cases, the crime rates dropped. More studies will be needed to figure out if the workers are committing the crimes and why it is going up.  The questions that researchers have is whether working in a slaughter-house desensitizes workers to killing or is that type of work attracting less sensitive people to begin with.  I don’t think it’s a huge leap to surmise that anybody that loves horses is not going to end up working in a slaughter-house.  I’m sure the PSAs will puff their chests out and tell us all that they could and they love horses too which is complete and utter bullshit.  They may have their fragile egos tied up in their horses, but you don’t love them if you could stand and kill hundreds of them a day or even watch.  Don’t forget, we aren’t talking about old, sick or infirm animals that you would be putting out of their misery.  You would be killing young, healthy animals that struggle to survive in the kill box. If you still think you could do that, I don’t want you living anywhere near me or my loved ones.

So, that’s the scientific explanation.  What about hearing from the actual work themselves? I feel that their own words are more powerful, so here are some quotes from workers that worked on the kill floor processing hogs. I don’t see how it would be the least bit different for horses, if not worse.  The source is linked at the bottom of this blog. I strongly suggest people take the time to read it.  These are the words of the people who couldn’t continue killing animals.  What does it take to be able to do this as your career?

“When you’re standing there night after night, digging that knife into these hogs, and they’re fighting you, kicking at you, trying to bite you – doing whatever they can to try and get away from you – after a while you don’t give a shit. You’re just putting in your time. And then it gets to the point where you’re at a daydream stage. When you can think about everything else and still do your job. You become emotionally dead.”

“So I go to their supervisor, a USDA veterinarian, and tell him workers are being hurt by live hogs…He’d be like, “Hey, I’m coming down.” And he’d tell everyone in advance. The main foreman would tell me the vet was coming down, then he’d crank up the stunners, walk around picking up pipes, and warning everybody, “Whatever you do, don’t use no pipes, the government man is coming down.” The vet would look around and say, “I don’t see no live hogs.” After that, he’d tell anyone who complained, “Hey, I’ve been down there, I’ve seen it. There’s nothing wrong with them hogs.”

“[The managers would] say, “That’s just muscle reaction, nerves. It’s not alive.” I’d say, “Then why’s the damn hog trying to bite me? Just how stupid do you think I am?”

“My wife…couldn’t take the bitching any more. I’d blow up at the drop of a hat, come home every night and find something to complain about, take my frustrations from work out on my family.”

“Today, if somebody gave me a choice of going without a job or working for [the slaughterhouse], I’d go without a job. I’d mow lawns, fix cars. I’d do anything before I’d do that again.”

I don’t know about everybody else, but I think the sources of this information are all pretty credible.  Slaughterhouse Sue and the consortium of ignorance will discredit and minimize every single fact that does not further their agenda.  People need to realize that Suzy lives in  sparsely populated constituency whose numbers are rumored to be mostly made up by her inbred clan.  The only thing this creature has been successful at is pumping out kids at an alarming rate.  As an animal welfare advocate I want these issues addressed.  If I lived in one of the communities that she wants to host a slaughter plant I would DEMAND it.  So far the only thing I’ve seen from her is lies and chicanery.

http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/14571870/1006507525/name/Fitzerald+et+al.+2009.+Slaughterhouses+and+Spillover+Effect.pdf

http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/article/809521–probing-the-link-between-slaughterhouses-and-violent-crime

http://www.animalwritings.com/2008/06/interviews-with-slaughterhouse-workers.asp

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