Remember the downer cow scandal? It seemed like every major media outlet had horrific pictures of downer cows on their front pages, and the undercover video taken by the Humane Society of the United States was everywhere. A lot of people seemed to think that it would spark some major reforms in the American meat industry, including tighter agricultural inspections, and a more aggressive attitude about keeping downer cows out of the food supply.

Well, apparently not everyone got the “major reforms” memo, because the HSUS has come out with another damning investigation, complete with video, which shows that downer cows are still being abused, and they are still reaching the American food supply. If you can stomach it, watch the video which accompanies the article, because it’s pretty awful, and I think it cuts to the heart of the problem.

Why should we care about downer cows?

It might help to know what a downer cow is, if you somehow missed the media brouhaha over the issue. Downer cows, simply put, are cows which cannot get up. This can be due to injuries, disease, depression, or a host of other factors. In the United States, as in many other nations, downer cows are not supposed to enter the food supply, out of concern that they might carry diseases, especially mad cow disease. So, slaughterhouses will go to great lengths to ensure that cows “walk” to slaughter, so that their meat can be legally sold.

I would hope that the issue appeals to your basic humanity. Cows are living organisms with emotions and the capacity to feel pain. Dairy cows undergo years of abuse before finally being sold for slaughter when they can no longer produce, and the fact that they are shocked, kicked, beaten, and dragged to get them to move at livestock auctions and slaughterhouses is pretty disgusting. Happy cows, my friends, do not come from California.

It should also be ringing food safety alarms. Downer cows are kept out of the food supply for a reason; the fact that they are clearly in the food supply now should be a cause for concern. Eating meat at all is debateable for a lot of reasons; eating tainted meat is definitely not a good thing. Given the limited resources available to the USDA for testing and monitoring the food supply, you really have no idea what’s on your plate when you eat meat.

What can you do about it? Write the USDA to lobby for tougher routine inspections, and to ask for stronger laws against abuse of slaughter animals. Write your representatives in Congress and the Senate to ask them to support tighter regulations at the USDA, and make it clear that you want to see reforms in the American meat industry, and consider writing major slaughterhouses in your area to express your concerns about animal abuse and downer cows.