"Our inhumane treatment of livestock is becoming widespread and more and more barbaric. Six-hundred-pound hogs--they were pigs at one time-- raised in 2-foot-wide metal cages called gestation crates, in which the poor beasts are unable to turn around or lie down in natural positions, and this way they live for months at a time. On profit-driven factory farms, veal calves are confined to dark wooden crates so small that they are prevented from lying down or scratching themselves. These creatures feel; they know pain. They suffer pain just as we humans suffer pain. Egg-laying hens are confined to battery cages. Unable to spread their wings, they are reduced to nothing more than an egg-laying machine.
Last April, the Washington Post detailed the inhumane treatment of livestock in our Nation's slaughterhouses. A 23-year-old Federal law requires that cattle and hogs to be slaughtered must first be stunned, thereby rendered insensitive to pain, but mounting evidence indicates that this is not always being done, that these animals are sometimes cut, skinned, and scalded while still able to feel pain.
A Texas beef company, with 22 citations for cruelty to animals, was found chopping the hooves off live cattle. In another Texas plant with about two dozen violations, Federal officials found nine live cattle dangling from an overhead chain. Secret videos from an Iowa pork plant show hogs squealing and kicking as they are being lowered into the boiling water that will soften their hides, soften the bristles on the hogs and make them easier to skin.
I used to kill hogs. I used to help lower them into the barrels of scalding water, so that the bristles could be removed easily. But those hogs were dead when we lowered them into the barrels.
The law clearly requires that these poor creatures be stunned and rendered insensitive to pain before this process begins. Federal law is being ignored. Animal cruelty abounds. It is sickening. It is infuriating. Barbaric treatment of helpless, defenseless creatures must not be tolerated even if these animals are being raised for food--and even more so, more so. Such insensitivity is insidious and can spread and is dangerous. Life must be respected and dealt with humanely in a civilized society.
So for this reason I have added language in the supplemental appropriations bill that directs the Secretary of Agriculture to report on cases of inhumane animal treatment in regard to livestock production, and to document the response of USDA regulatory agencies.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture agencies have the authority and the capability to take action to reduce the disgusting cruelty about which I have spoken.
Oh, these are animals, yes. But they, too, feel pain. These agencies can do a better job, and with this provision they will know that the U.S. Congress expects them to do better in their inspections, to do better in their enforcement of the law, and in their research for new, humane technologies. Additionally, those who perpetuate such barbaric practices will be put on notice that they are being watched.
I realize that this provision will not stop all the animal life in the United States from being mistreated. It will not even stop all beef, cattle, hogs and other livestock from being tortured. But it was then that my mom got scared
She said 'You're movin' with your auntie and uncle in Bel Air' I begged and pleaded with her day after day but she packed my suite case and send me on my way she gave me a kiss and then she gave me my ticket. I put my walkman on and said, 'I might as well kick it'. first class, yo this is bad drinking orange juice out of a champagne glass. is this what the people of Bel-Air living like? hmmmmm this might be alright.
But wait I hear they're prissy, wine all that, is Bel-Air the type of place they send this cool cat? I don't think so, I'll see when I get there. I hope they're prepared for the prince of Bel-Air. Well, the plane landed and when I came out there was a dude who looked like a cop standing there with my name out. I ain't trying to get arrested, I just got here. I sprang with the quickness like lightning, disappeared
I whistled for a cab and when it came near, the license plate said 'FRESH' and it had dice in the mirror. If anything I can say this cab is rare, but I thought 'Now forget it' - 'Yo homes to Bel Air' I pulled up to the house about 7 or 8 and I yelled to the cabbie 'Yo homes smell ya later.' I looked at my kingdom, I was finally there: To settle my throne as the Prince of Bel Air"
-Senator Byrd
Post edited at 8:30 pm on Oct. 12, 2008 by Pancakes made of six
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Animals are very tasty. 
