Probe of Slaughterhouse Sought After Cow Shot Multiple Times

PETA Cites Federal Report Showing That Springfield Meat Co. Worker Failed to Stun Animal Properly Before Slitting His or Her Throat

For Immediate Release:
September 7, 2017

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Armed with a damning U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) record, PETA sent a letter this morning calling on the Bucks County district attorney to investigate and, as appropriate, file criminal charges against Springfield Meat Co. and the slaughterhouse worker who failed to stun a cow twice then slashed the animal’s neck, causing the conscious cow to writhe around on the floor.

According to the USDA document, on August 21, a Springfield Meat Co. employee shot a cow twice in the head with a captive-bolt gun, causing the animal to collapse repeatedly. The worker then slashed the cow’s neck, and the still-conscious animal struggled on the floor, looking around, until a worker fired a third captive-bolt shot into the cow’s head. PETA notes that this incident may violate Pennsylvania’s cruelty-to-animals statute, which makes it a crime to “recklessly illtreat[] … or abuse[] an animal.”

“PETA is calling for a criminal investigation of this slaughterhouse and the worker who caused a cow to thrash about after his or her throat was slit,” PETA Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations Daphna Nachminovitch says. “There’s no difference between the pain and terror that this cow felt and how dogs or cats would feel if multiple shots were fired into their skulls and their throats slashed by a knife.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—notes that the meat industry kills more than 29 million gentle cows every year, that animals have the same central nervous system and sense of self-preservation as humans, and that the only way to prevent cows, pigs, chickens, and other animals from suffering in slaughterhouses is to go vegan.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.