Investigation of Slaughterhouse Sought After Steer Repeatedly Shot in Head

PETA Cites Federal Reports Showing That a Tyson Foods Worker Took at Least Five Tries to Kill Ailing Animal Left Lying on Ground for 30 Minutes

For Immediate Release:
August 9, 2017

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Armed with damning U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) records, PETA sent a letter this morning calling on the Finney County attorney to investigate the Tyson Foods slaughterhouse in Holcomb and, as appropriate, file criminal charges against the worker or workers who left an ailing steer downed for at least 30 minutes and then failed to kill him on the first attempt—causing him to endure at least five captive-bolt blasts to the head.

According to USDA documents, operations were suspended at the slaughterhouse on July 19 after a worker ineffectively shot the steer in the head with a knocking gun three times. The animal managed to rise to his feet, before being shot at least twice more and finally killed. PETA notes that this incident may violate Kansas’ cruelty-to-animals statute, which prohibits “having physical custody of any animal and knowingly failing to provide … care as is needed for the health or well-being of such kind of animal.”

“PETA is calling for a criminal investigation of the incident at this Tyson Foods slaughterhouse, at which a worker shot a downed steer in the head multiple times in botched attempts at killing him,” says PETA Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations Daphna Nachminovitch. “There’s no difference between the terror and pain that this steer felt and how dogs or cats would feel if shots were fired into their skulls.”

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

For more information, please visit PETA.org.