the slaughterhouse

a halloween horror story of gruesome proportions or what is in your dog's kibble?

PREFACE: the story you are about to hear was witnessed by me, personally, with my own five senses. It happened back in 1996, and I am certain the situation has only become worse. It is a story I have shared with clients over the years so they can understand the origin of pet food ingredients, in particular, “meat meal”.

I have always been the type of person who prefers observing things firsthand before forming an opinion on them, perhaps it is my scientific background, or perhaps it is being lied to one too many times over the years. So when the opportunity arose, in my third year of veterinary school, to go on an elective field trip to a Downer-cow slaughterhouse, I jumped on it. Any chance to get out of the veterinary school building for a few hours was welcomed with open arms. Plus, I was going to be able to witness, first-hand, the source of “beef meal”.

I attended the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine in Madison, Wisconsin, in the heart of dairy country, the land of black and white Holsteins, cheeseheads, and the Green Bay Packers.

There are a few things about dairy farming that the reader should know. At that time, in the mid-1990’s the dairy industry, aka industrial agriculture, was slowly taking over the small family dairy farms that made up most of northern Wisconsin. Multi-generational family farms of 40-80 head of cows were being bought out and turned into huge operations with several hundred head of cows in large free-stall barns, where they were milked three times a day instead of the traditional two.

Monsanto had recently introduced its recombinant bovine growth hormone, rBGH, making it possible to milk a cow three times a day. The farmers who were trying to hold onto the family farm were being strong-armed and threatened by Monsanto goons who drove onto their farms and told them that if they did not start injecting their herd with this product, Monsanto would own their farm within two years time. I heard this straight from a group of dairy farmers who had banned together to put up the good fight against a major corporation. As president of the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association student chapter, I invited their spokesman to the veterinary school to educate my fellow veterinary students about rBGH and its inherent problems.

The same year I also invited the internationally known veterinarian and animal advocate, Dr. Michael W. Fox to give a public lecture at the vet school when he was in town for a conference. It was a big deal, as everyone knew who he was and had read at least one of his books over the years. The lecture hall was packed, standing room only, with the Dean, Associate Deans, and the majority of faculty in attendance, including a team of world-renown dairy specialists.

I stepped up to the podium to introduce Dr. Fox, read his bio, and sat back down in the front row. He stepped up and began his lecture with a picture of the familiar black and white Holstein cow, which produced some chuckles from the crowd, after all, it was the mascot of the state. Then the first words spilled out of his mouth, in his proper English accent, words that are indelibly recorded into my memory:

“The milk produced by these cows is nothing but antibiotic-laden pus.”

The room suddenly became silent. Not even a breath was heard. And I slid down into my seat, fearful that my veterinary career had just ended.

Pushing milk production to such extremes with rBGH created a new set of problems. First, there were concerns initially, about human health risks from using the genetically modified hormone. The European Union banned its use early on after a study came out proving rBGH dramatically increases the incidence of insulin resistance and the beginnings of Type II diabetes in humans who drank the milk. Remember, this was the mid-90s, before the “pandemic” of Type II diabetes in the United States.

Second were concerns about the health and well-being of the cows. Whereas a good dairy cow’s lifespan might be 10 years or more, a cow on one of these agri-business farms was lucky if they made it 5 years. Their udders were so laden with milk they would drag on the ground, developing mastitis, some giving out completely, due to the weight of their overfilled udder. Some cows were pushed so hard to produce, they simple collapsed and “went down”.

On dairy farms, if a cow “goes down”, that is, it cannot stand on its four legs and/or cannot get back up on its feet by itself, it’s a big deal. The average Holstein dairy cow weighs 1300 pounds. If it is a valuable cow in terms of genetics and milk production or the cause is a short-term problem that can be treated easily and quickly, like milk fever, the farmer will choose to treat the cow. If it is an older cow and not as valuable to the farmer, she will most likely be shipped off to slaughter. And if this is an agri-business farm, the treatment has to cost less than the value of the cow, or its off to slaughter.

On our field trip, we were going to the slaughterhouse that received all of the Downer cows. I had a particular interest in visiting this type of slaughterhouse, which stemmed from the fact that the meat from this type of slaughterhouse was what was making its way into processed dog and cat food. It was the same dog and cat food that was being handed out to veterinary students for free from day one of school. It was the same dog and cat food filling grocery store shelves and the waiting rooms of almost every veterinary clinic across the country.

The industry had the term, “4D animals” = dead, dying, diseased, and debilitated. These animals were the source of the meat meal and by-product meal listed on the bags of dog and cat food. And now I had the golden opportunity to witness the whole process, from the time they unloaded the stock truck, all the way to the barrels waiting to go to the rendering plant.

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Here is where it can get kind of gruesome, so if you want to stop reading, here is the place to do so…

However, I highly recommend you continue reading if you are still feeding your beloved animals processed kibble or canned food. There is nothing like a big dose of reality to help change habits.

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The trucks loaded up with Downer cows were pulled up to the back of the facility. Cows that could walk were led down a ramp. Cows who could not stand were dragged off with chains wrapped around their legs. They were stunned by a captive bolt shot into their forehead, shackled, hung upside down and sent onto the production line.

The first station the unconscious animals reached were the “neck cutters”. Here a man would severe the jugular veins on both sides of the neck with one swift swipe of a very sharp knife. The blood poured out like a water spigot into a 55-gallon drum. Remember, this is a 1300-pound animal, with gallons of blood. From there the carcass would move to various butchers who would cut up the parts.

I opted to go and stand with one of them as they were slicing up the carcass. They trimmed off all of the “not-fit-for-human-consumption” parts off and threw them into another 55-gallon

drum. This included any diseased or damaged tissue: any tissue that had been traumatized, infected tissue, abscesses filled with pus - cows get really large abscesses sometimes containing a gallon or more of pus, bruised muscle, injection sites in the muscle where drugs had been administered, parasites, organs - diseased and healthy, and cancerous tumors and masses. As the barrel filled up, every foot or so, he would pour in a scoop of activated charcoal. When the barrel was full he called someone over to get it and wheel it off.

I asked him what happened to the barrel from there. After asking me if I wanted him to slice me off a couple of steaks to take home, which I politely declined, he said it was wheeled into the back room to wait for the rendering truck. The back room was a warehouse space, unrefrigerated. The barrels were sealed up and stacked three high to the ceiling. When the room became full, sometime towards the end of the week, the rendering truck loaded them up, and off they went to the rendering plant.

What is a rendering plant, you may ask?

The following is an excerpt from an EPA government document:

EPA definition of Rendering plant

“9.5.3 Meat Rendering Plants 9.5.3.1 General1 Meat rendering plants process animal by-product materials for the production of tallow, grease, and high-protein meat and bone meal. Plants that operate in conjunction with animal slaughterhouses or poultry processing plants are called integrated rendering plants. Plants that collect their raw materials from a variety of offsite sources are called independent rendering plants. Independent plants obtain animal by-product materials, including grease, blood, feathers, offal, and entire animal carcasses, from the following sources: butcher shops, supermarkets, restaurants, fast-food chains, poultry processors, slaughterhouses, farms, ranches, feedlots, and animal shelters. The two types of animal rendering processes are edible and inedible rendering. Edible rendering plants process fatty animal tissue into edible fats and proteins. The plants are normally operated in conjunction with meat packing plants under U. S. Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Services (USDA/FSIS) inspection and processing standards. Inedible rendering plants are operated by independent renderers or are part of integrated rendering operations. These plants produce inedible tallow and grease, which are used in livestock and poultry feed, soap, and production of fatty-acids.”

The larger question for pet owners is, how do rendered products show up in pet food? They appear on the label of your dog or cat food as “meal”; chicken meal, beef meal, lamb meal. “Any animal protein pet food ingredient that includes the word “meal” behind it is a rendered ingredient” per the definitions used by the pet food industry.

What are meat meal ingredients? Susan Thixton

Obviously, the slaughterhouse I visited was an independent vs integrated slaughter facility, but there is very little doubt that material ended up in pet food down the line. The contents of those 55 gallon drums was waste material that needed to be disposed of in some manner. It is sold to the pet food industry for a very low price just to get it off their hands.

How nutritious is diseased, traumatized, infected tissue? Can it be good to feed cancerous tumors? What effect does that have on the being ingesting it, especially after it has sat there rotting for a week or more before it hits the ovens of the rendering plant? What happened to the good old adage that was drilled into me in elementary school, YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT.

And what if you are eating agricultural industrial waste products? What are you then?

What can you do as a consumer? READ THE LABELS, no matter who you buy the food from or who recommends it, DO NOT purchase pet food with “meal” ingredients. AAFCO and the FDA are getting really tricky with their labeling as well, so keep up to date with labeling changes.

Purchase food from transparent manufacturers that will gladly tell you their sources and who know their supply chain. Feed fresh food with whole ingredients instead of heavily processed kibble. The internet is full of free balanced recipes, courses, coaches, and books. There are many resources available now that will fit any budget. There is a plethora of commercial choices available as well.

The best thing you can do is educate yourself, be discerning, ask the pet food companies questions and if they do not want to give you a clear direct answer, you have your answer.

Unfortunately, many veterinarians are fearful of feeding fresh food diets with whole food ingredients, even from commercial sources. The major pet food companies do a very good job of indoctrination using fear of bacterial contamination. But there are more recalls annually for bacterial contamination of kibble than all of the fresh and raw food diets combined.

Happy Halloween and thank you for making it all the way through this post!