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Undercover investigator films alleged livestock abuse
New allegations of livestock abuse surfaced Wednesday, this time targeting the Portales Livestock Auction.
The Humane Society of the United States released video footage of sick or injured dairy cows it contends were mistreated at the auction where they are sold for slaughter.
Such cows pose increased risk for mad cow disease, E. coli and other infections, partly because they typically wallow in feces and their immune systems often are weak, according to the animal advocacy group.
An undercover investigator worked at the Portales facility in May and documented mistreatment of cows and calves, according to a HSUS press release.
The Portales facility is owned by Randy Bouldin and handles about 1,000 head of cattle a week.
“My first reaction is I’m very concerned with what I saw in the video,” Bouldin said. “There (were) some instances that were videotaped where I don’t think that the policies of Portales Livestock Auction were being followed.”
Bouldin said he was certain there was “no way” a downer cow could have gotten into the food supply.
According to the video shot by an undercover investigator for the Humane Society, some cows were prodded or dragged by a chain pulled by a tractor. The investigator, who worked at the auction facility in May, claims to have observed three downed cows sold after being brought into the auction area by force.
“At every turn, we have found appalling abuses of spent dairy cows,” said Wayne Pacelle, the Humane Society’s president and chief executive. “No longer can anyone in government, or in the livestock industry, claim that this is an isolated abuse.”
Pacelle’s group released a video in January that was made inside a California slaughterhouse, also shot during an undercover investigation. This footage led to the nation’s largest beef recall. In May, the society released video of downed cows being abandoned or mistreated at four auction facilities around the country, including the Clovis Livestock Auction and the Livestock Exchange in Hereford, Texas, which Bouldin also owns.
Bouldin said he sees the findings of the investigation as an opportunity to train, retrain and educate his employees and to do a better job.
“I don’t want to represent that I think (the investigation was) unfair because I got caught,” he said.
“(But) I would have rather (undercover investigators) stepped in right at that moment so we could take care of it. Certainly their interest was more in getting a story again, other than the humane treatment of those cows.”
The release also alleges New Mexico Brand Inspectors were present and witnessed several of the incidents.
Myles Culbertson, director of the New Mexico Livestock Board in Albuquerque, said inspectors are usually outside the entrances of these markets, watching cattle as they enter a facility, not observing the auction ring. He said he doubted that a downer cow could be sold at auction, because it would have to walk in and out of the ring.
“A buyer at a sale ring is not going to buy a cow that’s not ambulatory,” he said.
Culbertson said the board plans to investigate the issues raised by the Humane Society video.
Bouldin, who termed the incidents as isolated, said the investigator was employed at the auction over a four- to five-week period. “They got two or three instances ... it’s not like it happened every day, every hour.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Humane Society of the United States cited multiple instances of alleged abuse at the Portales Livestock Auction, including:
• downed cows repeatedly shocked in an attempt to get them to rise
• calves and cows with broken legs and laminitis
• a downed cow being dragged by a chain around one leg, pulled by a Bobcat tractor, with the animals’ leg severely hyper-extended
• a calf being kicked repeatedly in the head
• a blind cow being shocked and struck and other cows with serious and grotesque eye injuries/diseases
• a downed cow forced to crawl on her front knees by workers who repeatedly shocked her
Portales Livestock Auction owner Randy Bouldin said the incidents were handled improperly by his employees, who he said should have known better.
A cow shown being kicked in the head was hung up on a fence and workers were trying to get her to back up, he said.
A cow stuck in a chute should have been euthanized before she was pulled out with a chain around her leg and a downer cow was filmed between the time when she went down and was euthanized, he said.
“We’re not in the business of abusing or mistreating animals and we want to do right,” he said. “Sometimes it’s a process getting all the employees to understand.
Cows sold at Portales Livestock auction are slaughtered at Caviness in Hereford, Texas, and further processed at Caviness’ Palo Duro plant in Amarillo.
Bouldin said Caviness is his pickiest customer and insisted no downer cattle have been sold to Caviness.
“Caviness buys the better animals that we sell. They’re very picky... there is no possible way a downer animal went to Caviness,” he said.
Bouldin said he has worked about 30 years in the livestock business and has embraced changes in the way industry handles animals.
“It is our intent to do the right thing. I don’t consider this a problem, I see it more as an opportunity to do a better job,” he said.
With the closing of Hallmark/Westland plant in Chino, Calif., Palo Duro is the top supplier of ground beef to the National School Lunch Program, the HSUS release reported.
It was the slaughter of downed cows at the Hallmark/Westland plant that prompted the nation’s largest meat recall and put that company out of business, according to the release.
Auction facilities are not subject to federal government inspections.
