Jolley: I’m Embarrassed To Say, “Thanks Mr. Pacelle”

A message for Tom of Shawnee. Hey pal, what part of the video from Bushway or Conklin was staged? You must be doing something pretty awful at your place if you're afraid of HSUS undercover video (Puppy mill?). Cows and pigs don't live forever, but before the slaughterhouse they deserve humane treatment and we all know how to provide it.

I agree that the best policy is to have a no-tolerance policy for egregious animal abuse. If you don't want to be exposed as an abuser, don't engage in abuse. Those who pretend that this is all just fancy photo-shopping need to get real - this stuff happens way more than it is reported, and if you are involved in the beef or dairy business you know it as well as I do. The vegans will always be horrified at us meat eaters, but if you don't want them to have an edge over us, treat your animals with a some respect and concern for their well-being. The market judgement on our behavior as producers will not be rendered by vegans or HSUS, it will be the general meat-eating public. Do not give critics the advantage of the moral high ground.

It's the self-flagellation that it going to get us. The ARs are pretty much professional self-flagellaters, hating themselves and humanity over our alleged guilt for being alive and being human. When we take up the rod to beat ourselves we help them drive us down. We terrorize and vandalize ourselves. I realize that pride in being alive and human has become politically incorrect. Some of the people here will even scream at me for taking that attitude. Even so, I am proud to be human, a meat-eater, and a staged video by the HSUS is going to do nothing to change that.

I, too, am one of those consumers who often turns away in the meat section of a grocery store. The industry has gone completely haywire and doesn't consider the welfare of the animals at all. They are hauled extremely long distances in a lot of cases, and many times not stunned properly before being processed. People who raise cattle may not even be aware of what goes on in a slaughterhouse, but they can no longer turn their heads in denial and claim the tapes were "doctored". I am not an animal rights activist, but an animal lover, and no animal deserves this kind of treatment, food or not.

The fact is that the HSUS needs to be stopped or we will not have hunting, meat, or pets. They can and will do anything that it takes to accomplish this. They are part of a very violent sect and will stop at nothing.

Why does hsus need to be a focus here at all? That is what they seek, to aid & abet their fund-raising efforts. Why not simply acknowledge a crime was exposed by an unnamed animal right group and move on to the important issues of punishment and prevention? This story and the comments have only furthered their agenda, which I find most disturbing. Just stop talking about them - please!
As to Wayne & cohort being, right... a broken clock is right twice a day and Hitler did make the trains run on time. While not perfect analogies, I don't find hsus any more admirable in their rectitude than these examples.

Mr. Jolley, let me repeat your own words to you: "Meanwhile, the USDA with its much larger team of inspectors visiting thousands of facilities weekly can’t uncover one case of animal welfare violation? Somebody somewhere in the USDA hierarchy will have to explain why Pacelle’s puny little posse manages to do what the feds can’t do."

Liars can achieve apparently magical results and in the animal rights area, lying is absolutely rampant. You have to deal with the handicap of proving that they lied in a specific case if you do not have rules governing investigations and searches. Those who cannot uncover bad practices while following the rules need not apply. Wayne "I never want to see another dog or cat born" Pacelle and J.P. "I want to see an end to all animal agriculture" Goodwin are not reliable investigators. God knows what they hire.

Even the history of well-earned disbelief of the HSUS and other animal rights groups has almost totally faded into the past. There is a lot of evidence out there to support the contention that the HSUS and PETA have lied about people. Alex Pacheco admitted to staging some of the Silver Springs monkey pictures. Videos of alleged abuse of orangutans by Bobby Berosini were messed with, altered, staged. Do you actually want a rush to judgment that denies a defendant the chance to defend himself, supported by the videos taken by an animal rights group that was trespassing on private property when it made those videos?

It's hard to tell if you are completely sincere in what you wrote here but I definitely have a problem with it. You seem to support the "rush to judgment" which makes it so easy for corrupt organizations like the HSUS and PETA to shut down targeted sites. Yes, someone who might be abusing animals has an absolute right to due process of law and no sarcastic interpretations of that "due process." That rule has no exceptions. And while animal abuse is unacceptable, it may still not be worth shutting down a food production plant for. It is not the worst crime that a human can commit and costing a meat packing plant its existence over a crime that may have been committed by one or two employees is very very wrong. Every general practice that a a meat packer uses has already been approved and vetted, over and over again, by the federal government so if an employee is abusing an animal, that employee is responsible for not only violating the law but for not following the employer's operating procedures.

There is a reason why inspections follow procedures and are conducted by industry professionals. I hope that you were fishing for responses like this. It takes expertise to understand the process well enough to identify and correct problems. You can't just have someone who hates the industry sneak in and out, have the evidence in their hands long enough to play with it, and come out with superior results.

Was about half of what you wrote tongue in cheek or are you sabotaging the industry that you write for? Or do you genuinely not understand the implications of your article? I would like to know.

Right now the animal rights activists are intent on destroying every animal-related business that they can, from without or from within. They will fake videos. They will torture and kill animals. You should be researching what they do. Look at www.bluedogstate.com , www.bluedogstate.com , and www.petakillsanimals.com just to start

Mr. Jolley,
While your comments are well intended, I agree with the writer, "I wouldn't thank Pacelle for anything." Classic divide and conquer strategy. We will NEVER be good enoungh. Once you weed out todays bad actors they will up the ante. He's messing with you...cogniitive dissonance at work... The theory suggests that conflicts between behavior and beliefs create a sense of discomfort, or cognitive dissonance, that the individual subconsciously attempts to eliminate by modifying his or her beliefs.

I wouldn't thank him for anything

Tom and Elizabeth,

I've worked in TV and radio and I do tape editing frequently. I know the tricks and I'm always suspicious. Bottom line of HSUS tapes, though, is that the courts have accepted them as valid and the bad guys haven't been able to mount much of a defense. Would a fringe element manufacture a tape? Oh, yeah.
Is the Bushway tape manufactured? We can only wish. It's carefuly edited for maximum impact, of course.
Regardless, the basic point of my editorial stands. We cannot allow animal abuse of any kind in our industry. Anyone caught, either by an organization like HSUS, the USDA or an average citizen, must be dealt with immediately and harshly.

Tom, BTW, I live in the same town. We should get together and talk about the meay business.

Please note that the German High Court has found PeTA guilty of manufacturing videos and actually paying the person taped to skin an animal alive. They have been asked to turn over to the German HIgh court all videos with the names of all participants and signed statements regarding when, where, and how the videos were done. To date PeTA has ignored the court mandate. HSUS works hand and hand with PeTA even using some of the same people. Don't believe them.

"Nuclear option"? Are you kidding me? The setup that you admire has the HSUS not only able to point fingers at the people who they choose, they are also able to manufacture incidents. I wouldn't even look at evidence that they brought in. I would simply assume that the HSUS deliberately had people go into the plant and either abuse animals or pretend to abuse animals.

Those "practices" are a lot easier to live with than letting the HSUS have any power.

Mr. Jolley,
Please don't be naive enough to fall for the H$U$ tapes. As a former employee of numerous TV stations, I can tell you that with the right equipment I could create a tape featuring me as Marilyn Monroe dancing with Fred Astaire. I never believe any photo or video tape in this day and age unless I saw the event with my own eyes. An eighth grader with a decent computer could have created a tape like the ones the H$U$ sends out. I can sit and count the "jumpcuts" indicating bad edits on their tapes. For the truth about H$U$ check out www.exposeanimalrights.com and remember one thing about the animal rights philosophy - they are trained in the "Big Lie" - tell a lie, tell it again, ignore questions and tell it again until it becomes the "truth". It's all about the MONEY not the animals.

While I agree 100% that abusers should be dealt with harshly, regardless of whether they are the owner, hired help, or an inspector not doing his job, I also believe that anyone doing undercover video should be dealt with just as harshly if they are participating in the abuse or if they don't turn it in to the authorities immediately upon taping it. I also believe the videos should be examined by experts to assure they have not been tampered with before being released publicly by ANYONE and then only AFTER charges are filed and the case has been decided in a court of law. To publicly release damning evidence before it's proven valid, I see as evidence tampering of the worst kind. If the accused are acquitted of charges, the damage has already been done to both individuals and an entire industry.

Ladies and gentlemen of the meat industry. I am a consumer who now walks past the meat section of the supermarket more than I buy there. I cannot eat meat more than a couple of times a week because I know in my heart when I buy it I am supporting the industry of factory and corporate farms. We used to raise pigs - we fed them, took care of them, names them and when it was time to eat them we loaded them onto a truck to a packer who returned them to us to take care of us like we took care of them. Noe when I see pork I see illegals who do not care about sanitization because they do not have to the tools to and wont be here in four weeks anyway. I see animals unreasonably treated. I see hormones, antibiotics and e-coli.

My buying pattern is your choice - what you tolerate is what what I will buy based on. I bought from Hebrew national because I thought kosher meant cleaner - I have not bought from them since the raid there.

here we go again....hang this plant out to dry for all to see.

I agree with Jolley...as the saying goes: we are only as strong as the weakest link.

I've worked in yards, farms and packing plants and this couldn't be worse for our industry. It even turned my stomach and made me "emotional" for these calves. The workers, Inspector (especially!!) and plant need to have their heads examined that they would think they wouldn't be on the list to target by HSUS and clean up their act. Despicable practices. At least HSUS didn't wait a year this time to turn this company in.

The answer to your question is in the release. The video shows FSIS personnel looking on while the (alleged?) abuses take place. The attitude has long been that everybody goes along to get along; I'm sure the packer can make things difficult for the inspector if he or she chooses to be picky about what practices are and aren't allowed. I do have one question--does the Humane Society ever send an undercover operative to a packer and come away empty handed? Or is it the case that, if you hang around long enough, you'll get footage of a worker abusing animals?