PETA Requests Investigation of Tyson Slaughterhouse in Holcomb

Garden City, KS(westernkansasnews.com) PETA is calling for the Finney County Attorney to investigate the Tyson Foods Slaughterhouse in Holcomb.

The request stems from USDA records that say a worker or workers 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.” 

Tyson Foods has issued a statement on the incident.

“We never want to see any animal in our care suffer, and believe proper animal handling is an important moral and ethical obligation.  Everyone who works with live animals in our facilities is trained regularly in proper animal handling, and the team members involved in this incident are receiving additional training and ongoing performance evaluations. As indicated in the USDA report, this incident occurred as a result of equipment error. We have worked with USDA to resolve the matter and are working with the manufacturer to improve equipment practices.”