1) INEFFECTIVE STUNNING

The following describes the sequence in which cattle at IBP-Wallula are stunned, bled, and butchered. First, the animal is prodded from the holding pen through a series of "driveways" into a "knocking box." A stun operator or "knocker" shoots the animal in the center of its forehead with a cartridge-operated device that drives a steel bolt into the animal's skull. If properly powered, maintained, and used, the knocking gun will render the cow unconscious and the animal will collapse.

Next, a "shackler" wraps a chain around one of the stunned cow's hind legs. The animal is then lifted onto a moving overhead rail. Hanging upside down by a leg, the cow is sent to a worker (called the "sticker") who cuts the cow's throat. The cow continues along the "bleed rail" and eventually reaches workers who open and remove the skin, cut off the animal's feet and insert meat hooks into the leg joints to rehang the animal on the moving rail. Mechanical devices are fastened to the hide to peel large portions of the hide from the animal's sides and back. Once the animal's torso is fully stripped of all skin, the head is skinned and removed and the body cavity is opened for evisceration.

Compliance with regulations governing the driving of livestock is key to effective stunning:

"The driving of the animals to the stunning area shall be done with a minimum of excitement and discomfort to the animals. Delivery of calm animals to the stunning areas is essential since accurate placement of stunning equipment is difficult on nervous or injured animals. Among other things, this requires that, in driving animals to the stunning areas, electrical equipment be used as little as possible...."

"...Livestock shall not be forced to move any faster than a normal walking speed." "Electric prods...shall be used as little as possible in order to minimize excitement and injury. Any use of such implements which...is excessive is prohibited."

At IBP-Wallula, however, as evidenced by the following quotations from the attached affidavits, animals presented for stunning are often jumping wildly:

Affidavit #2:

"The cows are hit too much with the hotshots [electric prods], because sometimes they don't want to walk and the workers have to be giving them shots a lot to keep the line going....The workers do that a lot. They're trying to move all the cows and do it fast. That's why the cows are all crazy when they get to the knockers; they're all jumping around and everything...."

Affidavit #3:

"Sometimes the cows don't want to walk into the knocking area....So the workers prod the cows to get them to go. As a result, the cows are jumping a lot when they come into the knocking box. A lot."

Affidavit #17:

"Sometimes cows that are driven up to the knocking box go down. They make them run too much and they are tired. They prod them with an electric prod. The cow falls down. And then sometimes the other cows run over them."

Affidavit #6:

"Sometimes the cattle don't come in [to the knocking box] the workers need to put too much pressure on them. They use hotshots outside when the cows aren't coming in inside. As a result, when they come inside, they are jumping too much...."

The attached videotape further demonstrates the excessive use of unlawful prodding devices and the cruel manner in which animals are driven up into the stunning area, putting the animals into a panicked state by the time they reach the stun operator.

The affidavits also demonstrate that regardless of whether the animals arrive at the stun operator in the proper condition, they are often ineffectively stunned because there is insufficient time for proper placement of the stunning device. There is only a very small area of the forehead which, when struck with a "captive bolt" stunning device, will produce unconsciousness. Accordingly, federal and state regulations are very specific with regard to the execution of the stunning procedure:

• Stunning requires "...the operator to locate the stunning blow with a high degree of accuracy."

• "The stunning procedure is an exacting procedure and requires a well-trained and experienced operator. He must be able to accurately place the stunning instrument to produce immediate unconsciousness."

• "...The animals shall be stunned in such a manner that they will be rendered unconscious with a minimum of excitement and discomfort."

At IBP-Wallula, stun operators are often unable to render cattle unconscious, as evidenced by the following affidavits:

Affidavit #6:

"There's a problem for me with knocking the cows. The chain goes too fast, more than 300 cows an hour....If I can't get the animal knocked right, it keeps going....The chain doesn't stop. It keeps running. It never stops. The cows are getting hung alive or not alive. They keep coming in. They just keep coming, coming, coming."

"Sometimes...I need 30, 40 seconds or even a minute to [stun] one animal. They're jumping and moving...because they've been prodded so much. The supervisors say, 'Keep knocking, knocking!' You end up knocking the cow in the ear not very good. The supervisors say, 'It's okay. Go, go, go, go!' "

Affidavit #3:

"The problem in the knocking box is that you have to work real fast because the chain is too fast and the animals that come into the box are jumping everywhere. And sometimes...you don't shoot the cow really right. And you let him go like that. And the shacklers, they get them like that, and so they shackle them alive...."

Affidavit #2:

"The knocker really only can hit the cows once....And sometimes the cow is moving and they don't do it in the right spot. Sometimes even if they miss, they just hang them and send them out like that because they don't have time."

Affidavit #4:

"The majority of the time, the knockers are in such a hurry that they can't knock the cows good enough. Some of the cows get up and run around chasing. When cows are hung alive on the chain, they look like they are trying to get unhooked to run."

Affidavit #16:

"Sometimes the knocker knocks the cows and when he opens the door the cows stand up and start running. Because there's no time. When you're knocking, you do it and you open the door and that's it. The knocker doesn't have any time to make sure that the animal is stunned...."

After cattle are knocked, shackled, and hoisted, they are bled. While cattle require several minutes to fully bleed out, the cattle at IBP-Wallula are apparently not provided this time. Thus, inadequately stunned animals are often still alive and conscious as they proceed down the production line.

When workers are unable to perform their duties because of the dangers posed by live, thrashing cattle, IBP supervisors assist to assure that the task is done regardless of the animal's state of consciousness.

The following excerpts from workers' affidavits demonstrate violations of the central provision of federal and state regulations: "Immediately after the stunning blow is delivered the animals shall be in a state of complete unconsciousness and remain in this condition throughout shackling, sticking, and bleeding."

Affidavit #17:

"It takes about four minutes for the cow to go from the knocker to the second legger...I think the cows are still alive because they move the head and the eyes and the legs like the cow wants to walk. And the cow makes noises. Also, if you put a knife into the cow, it's going to make noise. It says, 'Moo!'...."

Affidavit #3:

"I estimate that 30 percent of the cows are not properly knocked and get to the first legger alive....To still be alive at the second legger the cows have gone alive from the knocker to the sticker to the belly ripper (he cuts the hide down the center of the cow's abdomen) to the tail ripper (he opens the [rectum]) to the first legger (he skins a back leg and then cuts off the foot) to the first butter (he skins from the breast to the belly and a little bit on the back) to the worker who cuts off both front feet. Those cows then go to a worker who sticks a hook into the joint where the first legger took off the foot and the cows are hung from the trolley hook. I can tell that these cows are alive because they're holding their heads up and a lot of times they make noise."

Affidavit #6:

"...All the workers can open the legs, the stomach, the neck, cut off the feet while the cow is breathing. It makes noise...And the cattle go down the line for many minutes and they're still alive. They cut the legs and everything. The cattle move their eyes and their nose. They're looking around.

"Sometimes the supervisor comes and works on the live cows. They don't want workers to stop the chain, so when the live cows are really active, workers are supposed to honk the horn and the supervisor will come to help them skin the live cow...

I would estimate that one out of ten cows is still alive when it's bled and skinned.

"I have seen thousands and thousands of cows go through the slaughter process alive since I have been at the plant."

"The cows can get ten minutes down the line and still be alive. I've been up to the side-puller where they are alive. All the hide is stripped out down to the neck there."

"...If I see a live animal, I cannot stop the line. Because the supervisor has told us that you can work on a cow that's alive...."

Affidavit #7:

"There are 12 or 13 stations between the knocker and me...The cows are still alive when they get to me....It takes them about ten minutes to get from the sticker to me...Out of 100, I would estimate that about 15 or 20 are still alive when they get to me."

Affidavit #8:

"About thirty percent of the cows are still alive down the line. Sometimes more. I would see that they would be hanging there, trying to pick up their heads, they would move back and forth on the shackle, they would be blinking their eyes and looking around. You know they're alive because they are breathing real hard, they make noise, they kick the other cows, and it moves the whole chain."

Affidavit #12:

"The problem of live cows has been a problem for many years. The reason I think the cows are alive is because they are moving and they open their mouths and their eyes. Their eyes look like they are popping out. And I feel sorry for them. I feel bad that I have to do my job on them.

"Sometimes when the cows are alive and they go down the line the workers will hit them with a knife in the back of the neck in the spinal chord to paralyze them from the neck down. I don't think that is legal. When they do that, it makes them unable to move, but they're brains are still working...."

This alleged practice is, in fact, illegal. Federal and state regulations provide for three methods of humanely rendering animals insensitive to pain chemical, i.e., carbon dioxide gas, mechanical, i.e., captive bolt or gunshot, or electric charge. Knives may be only used on animals after they are in a state of complete unconsciousness.