Kosher Plant Is Accused of Inhumane Slaughter

[Guest guest]

An animal rights organization secretly recorded a video last month in

the slaughterhouse of a kosher meatpacking plant in Iowa and presented

it to the Department of Agriculture, claiming it showed inhumane

practices in the killing of cattle.

The brief video, about four minutes long, was recorded on Aug. 13

without the knowledge of managers in the Postville, Iowa, plant of

Agriprocessors, the nation's largest kosher meatpacker, by a

representative of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals,

according to Hannah Schein, investigations specialist for the group,

known as PETA.

She said the video showed three instances in which Agriprocessors

workers made unauthorized hacking cuts in the necks of still-conscious

animals.

Department of Agriculture officials confirmed Thursday that they had

examined the PETA video and said inspectors from the department's Food

Safety Inspection Service based at the plant had subsequently

witnessed at least one similar violation.

But the inspectors determined the violations were "not egregious,"

said the inspection service spokeswoman, Amanda Eamich. She said the

plant was currently in full compliance with humane slaughter

regulations.

The new video reprises a confrontation between PETA and Agriprocessors

in 2004, when a representative of the animal rights group worked

undercover in the plant for seven weeks. A video that PETA released

then prompted a six-month investigation by the Department of

Agriculture, which reported many violations of animal cruelty laws at

the plant.

-- full story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/05/us/05immig.html?ref=us