Last week, the United States Supreme Court struck down a California law requiring slaughterhouses in the state to immediately euthanize “downers” — animals that can no longer walk or stand.
The judicial decision was based on the relatively boring grounds of federal pre-emption doctrine. Essentially, states can’t make laws in areas that the federal government already has covered. But the case also raised the more lively public issue of “humane slaughter” — how animals should be treated when (and in the moments, hours or days before) they are killed for their meat.
Activists in the U.S. are complaining that current federal regulations are inadequate to protect sick or injured animals from egregious abuse (not to mention protecting consumers from tainted meat). The California law in question was passed after the Humane Society of the United States released a disturbing undercover video showing downer cattle being kicked, prodded with a forklift and having water shot into their nostrils from a high-powered hose. Animal protection groups such as Farm Sanctuary point out that meat packers have an obvious financial incentive for keeping downers alive as long as possible so that they might be processed. More
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