Being Humane - (A Perfect Sunday Read)

WORKING SAFELY BY?STEVE?SAYER

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Currently, Steve Sayer is a workplace safety *consultant #accredited auditor to *OSHA, *EPA, *#GFSI, *USDA, *FDA, *Human Resources, *#and Humane Handling of feed birds and animals and is a technical writer for multiple industries, as well as a part-time maintenance worker for California State Beaches.

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(On Monday we'll return to GFSI)

Being humane

(The views and opinions expressed in this blog are strictly those of the author.)

NOTE: All of the pictures in this short blog are the same calf that was accidentally dropped that resulted with the USDA inspected establishment being closed by USDA. She was fine and had no flight zone within her... she was just born and hadn't yet been exposed to us Homo sapiens long enough to know any better. She came right up to me. Read on.)

Nearly four years ago, I received a tip that a very small vertically integrated livestock harvesting establishment was shut down by the USDA for purported egregious treatment of a calf. They needed regulatory help to get back open and wanted a written robust humane handling program.

I didn’t know what to expect when I drove up California’s Highway 99 into central California. What type of animal abuse led to their closing? Would management just want a written program and help with answering non-compliance records just to get themselves back up and running and not sincerely care about the welfare of animals?

One of those??

My GPS led me out in the middle of nowhere. There was nothing but agricultural farms, in all directions, with a few farms obviously abandoned years ago with crooked for sale signs staked into the ground that bordered with other farms that had acres of perfectly lined agricultural fields that California’s fertile Central Valley is known for worldwide.

Some of these farming homes, from my vantage point from the interstate, were located a half-mile or so inland from the highway that were connected to long gravel roads that started with old mailboxes impaled into the ground next to the interstate.

Upon my arrival, I was greeted by the?Familia de Martinez?(fictional name) and their free-range chickens, roosters, dogs, cats, several fenced in milk cows, and a loose and roaming Billy goat; none of these animals had much flight zones left in them; not even to a gringo.

Mr. Martinez greeted me with several flea-bitten hound dogs as I got out of my car and was invited right into his home for some coffee, after, ... introducing me to grandma rocking in her rocking chair on a screened porch, and then his wife and their three sons and daughter.

After several hours of explanations of what led to their small plant being shut down and touring their silent plant and corrals, I was asked to stay for an early BBQ dinner before I left to my hotel for the night. I accepted and was seated at a long exterior wooden table that easily sat 20 people. The table was full that night as we dined on Carne Asada, beans, rice with homemade red and green salsa, complimented with Christmas lights and music playing in the background.

There were a number of old trailers that were situated on the gravel grounds that most of the farm/plant workers and their extended families lived in that surrounded the?Casa de Martinez?home.

This third-generation family from Mexico owned 4 to 5 acres of farmland, whose fields were lined with rows of vegetables. The grandfather, now passed on, had worked as a general laborer with his two brothers starting in the early 1940s. Collectively, the families saved their money for years and bought the land in the late 1950s.

Mr. Martinez’ harvesting operation was shut down by the USDA because a delivery driver was observed accidently dropping a calf onto the ground from about 4 feet up from the backend of a truck during unloading, which was located on Mr. Martinez’ property.

I answered the plants non-compliance records, interfaced with the plant’s IIC and the big wig USDA folks in Alameda, Calif., and got them up and running within several day’s time. While waiting for the USDA response to ours, I also reviewed and updated their HACCP and SSOP’s programs.

As I walked to my car, some of the Martinez family and their dogs walked with me and gave me a wrapped present. I was instructed to open it after I left.

As I headed towards Highway 99, I stopped and opened my gift.

It was a King James version Bible. Within it, a yellow note that pointed to a specific verse that was meant for not only me, but for all others as well.

“Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and birds in the sky, over the livestock and over all of the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”?– Genesis 1:26.

No.

This very small USDA establishment wasn’t,?“one of those.”

I can only say, and the few that know me - - - know this to be true - - - that the only reason I became a PACCO auditor was to help ensure that all of Zeus' animals and birds are treated and handled humanely prior to being euthanized.

For me, it’s their inherent right.

(Being directly involved in the Westland Hallmark Meat (massive red meat recall that went back two (2) years) in 2008 - and the terrible, disgusting, and horrific treatment of cattle that was filmed sprayed via the mass media world-wide is what triggered me. It has turned out to be well worth it for supporting my family - and for healing of myself. It has had it rewards - and then some :)

3/17/2017 Meatingplace.com