Place video cameras in slaughterhouses and factory farms to watch for improper procedures and inhumane handling of animals.
Voluntary surveillance would be appropriate, as undercover investigations have found cows being chained, dragged, rolled, kicked and jabbed in an effort to make them stand and be led into a chute for slaughter. Workers prodded the animals with forklifts and shot powerful streams of water into their nostrils to induce them to move. These are just a few of the abuses out of thousands.
Video cameras are an excellent, economical supplement or alternative to hiring, training, and staffing more USDA inspectors. Video cameras would help create more transparency in animal agriculture and would likely result in better accordance with the laws protecting human health and preventing animal cruelty.
Tom Vilsack
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., S.W.
Washington, DC 20250
Information Hotline: (202) 720-2791
E-mail:
http://ds.usda.gov/