|
|
Print | Close |
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
We visited the Oklahoma National Stockyards (reportedly the nation's largest livestock auction), filmed cattle awaiting auction, and spoke to auction yard staff and livestock producers about the nature of the auction, destinations, and origins of the cattle. We were informed that cattle are frequently transported to from the Stockyards to Nebraska, South Dakota, and Iowa for finishing and/or slaughter.
We spotted a possum-belly truck with Nebraska plates filled with cattle leaving the Oklahoma National Stockyards at approx. 11:30 AM. We followed the truck north on Interstate 35 into Kansas. The driver then continued on the Hwy 35 through Wichita, Kansas and onto Interstate 135 and straight on through and onto Hwy. 81 into Nebraska. The truck arrived at a feedlot at approx. 8:30 PM (approx. 9 hours of travel).
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
We visited the Joplin Regional Stockyard in Carthage, Missouri (near Joplin off Interstate 44, exit 22, reportedly the nation's second largest cattle action). We were again informed that the cattle are transported all over the states to and from this auction.
Investigator conversation with a driver revealed that one truck was leaving the Joplin Stockyard for slaughter in San Angelo, Texas. Video footage was taken of animals loading the truck destined for Texas, including a lame bull with a bloody leg.
The truck left the auction with the load of cattle at 2:00 PM and headed west on Interstate 44 straight through to Wichita Falls, Texas, then turned onto Hwy. 82. Hwy. 82 becomes Hwy. 277. Driver continued on Hwy. 277 south toward Abilene, Texas. We lost sight of the truck between Abilene and San Angelo. Assuming an additional 2 hours was needed to reach San Angelo, the total journey time was at least 12-13 hours.
The driver made 3 confirmed stops during the journey. The first two stops at gas stations were for approx. 15 minutes each. The last stop was at a roadside turn-off near the town of Munday, Texas at 12:00 PM for approx. 1 hour. Cattle were not unloaded and no food or water was seen offered to the animals during these stops.
Saturday, August 28, 2005
A truck full of pigs was followed from a rest stop on Interstate 44 in Oklahoma to the Oklahoma National Stockyards. During the unloading of the pigs, two investigators spoke to driver. According to him, the pigs had been transported from Coffeeville, Kansas (approx. 3 hours north of Oklahoma City) and most were said to be destined for Mexico City, while a few were destined for Alabama. The driver said that the trip to Mexico City would take approx. 17 hours. (Note: in a follow-up investigation, it was found that the journey takes much longer — see below.)
The driver used an electric prod to move the pigs about. At least one pig was noticeably lame and reluctant to move. The pigs were visibly stressed and overheated. Many were panting and foaming at the mouth. They competed desperately for the water trough and the damp, cooler areas of the pens; some pigs lay down inside the water troughs while others lay on top of other pigs in attempts to access the damp soil areas.
Monday morning, November 28, 2005
We filmed pigs being unloaded at the Oklahoma City Stockyards. The handler unloading the pigs said that they were "cull sows" coming out of "confinement" (i.e., gestation and furrowing crates). Information gathered from other stockyard workers suggested that the pigs may have come from factory farms in Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, and Texas.
The pigs showed signs of stress and some injuries — including scratched and bloody skin, possibly as a result of fighting with other pigs on the truck. Several of the sows had circular open sores on their shoulders. We were unsure if the shoulder injuries were a result of transport or previous confinement in farrowing and gestation crates. Many pigs also had difficulty walking or appeared tender-footed; the handler explained this was because the sows had "not been doing much walking" on account of being in confinement.
The temperature outside was extremely cold, about 30 degrees Fahrenheit. The pigs later lay down together to stay warm in the holding pens. We wondered how many of them had spent months or even years crated without physical contact with another pig.
A sign behind the pig unloading ramp stated that dead hogs must be unloaded at the rendering plant directly north of the Stockyards.
We spoke to the operator of the pig "auction" — it's not a real auction but more of a bidding market; buyers call in to purchase pigs that come into the facility after they are weighed and sorted into pens. The operator said that the reason for transporting long distances was due to the consolidation of packing plants, adding that the nearest packing plant was in Guymon, Oklahoma (in the Oklahoma panhandle) because of the proximity to the feedlots.
He also said that pigs used to go from the Oklahoma Stockyards to all the way to California but now Mexico is a more likely long-distance destination. When asked why it is economically advantageous for Mexico to buy live hogs rather than post-slaughter pork considering the cost of gas and inevitable hog deaths during transport, he said it probably had to do with the low labor costs in Mexican slaughterhouses.
Monday 2:08 PM, November 28, 2005
We followed a truck leaving Oklahoma Stockyards heading west on Interstate 40 full of cattle. The truck stopped for gas and resumed travel at 2:56 PM on Westbound 40.
Turned on to Hwy. 281 North toward Watonga, Oklahoma; 281 becomes 270/3 West. The truck stopped at 4:35 PM on Hwy. 3 West at a gas station and resumed travel at 4:51 PM back on 3 West toward Guymon, Oklahoma. The truck turned north on Hwy. 83 past Liberal, Kansas. We lost track of the truck at 8:00 PM when we had to stop for gas near Garden City, Kansas. We had followed the truck for 6 hours (290 miles). We assume truck was at or very near its final destination because Interstate 70 was approaching and it would otherwise had been a much quicker route out of Oklahoma to have traveled north on Interstate 35 rather than west on 40 if the truck was to be going significantly farther north.
Tuesday, November 28, 2005
At the Oklahoma stockyards, we filmed cattle awaiting auction — mostly old dairy cows and breeding cows, some with calves. We filmed a young dead cow in a pen and a downed calf in the cattle runway between the holding pens. We also saw several old, rather worn-out looking dairy cows — one with a huge udder that appeared painfully full. We were eventually asked by a stockyards worker not to film outside, but were invited to film inside at the live auction.
Inside, pregnant cows and cows with calves at their sides were ushered through the auction ring. Then a bull with a broken leg hobbled through the ring. The auctioneer noted his broken leg, and continued the bidding process. The bull was sold, and ushered back to the holding pens. We wondered how far he would have to travel before reaching the slaughterhouse.
Saturday, November 26, 2005
Today we intercepted full cattle trucks with Mexican and U.S. license plates heading north on Route 57. The trucks turned onto Route 2 heading for Laredo, turning off some twenty minutes later at the regional cattle lairage "Union Ganadera Regional de Coahuila." We assumed that these cattle head north to the U.S.
Monday, November 28, 2005
At 7:30 PM, we discovered a pig truck waiting in quarantine just over the U.S./Mexico border at Eagle Pass. Soon after 8 PM, the pig truck went past and turned into the first gas station on the right, on the bypass from the crossing to the airport, just a couple of minutes up the road.
Observing from afar, we were surprised to see the cab unhook the pig truck and another attach up to it. To our amazement, a second, third, fourth, and then a fifth pig truck all arrived one after another and repeated the relaying procedure. With a break of only 40 minutes, the trucks left, heading south on Route 57 at a remarkable speed, rarely dipping lower than 75 miles/hr (120km/hr).
From 8 in the evening through to 8 in the morning, then through to lunchtime and the afternoon, the trucks took us on a remarkable journey, through hours and hours of baking desert heat, surrounded by little else than cactuses and unbroken sun.
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
By mid-afternoon, we decided to attempt to get footage of the pigs inside the trucks. As two trucks pulled over by the side of the road, we filmed the pigs and spoke to the drivers.
We found out that the pigs had come from Oklahoma the day before and that on the truck we were filming there were 177 pigs. In addition to the stench, which lingered half a mile down the road from the truck, the conditions inside the trucks were abominable.
Pigs were crammed together, tightly packed and panting, drooling heavily, some appearing unconscious. All looked highly stressed and very dehydrated. Agitated as well, some attempted to bite one another in fierce struggles to get space in the hot truck, as we stood filming in the fierce Mexican mid-day heat. It was a terrible scene.
According to the drivers, one truck was heading southwest from Queretaro on Hwy 57 West, then on Hwy 45 past Irapuato and southwest on Hwy 90 a little farther on from Penjamo. The other four trucks were continuing south to Mexico City and then, incredibly, onwards still, heading southwest on Route 150, turning off at Ixtapaluca south to Amecameca via Chalco.
As we neared Mexico City — one of the largest cities in the world and one of the most dangerous to drive through — we lost the trucks in traffic, engorged in the massive arteries of this thick smog-engulfed metropolis. After more than twenty hours, the trucks had gotten the better of us.
Still, we knew where they were heading, and navigating through this city as best we could at a rush hour's snail pace, we eventually crept up to Amecameca at dusk. As night fell, we located a slaughterhouse and observed several trucks parked up outside it.
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Early the next day, we discovered another slaughterhouse a few miles outside of town in Ayapango that dealt with large numbers of pigs.
As soon as we arrived, we were certain that this was the place where the pigs we trailed had been driven. The security was incredibly tight; barbed wire fences meant that we couldn't even step foot on the premises. We finally tracked down the owner in Mexico City, and set to work persuading him to let us in.
At 5 AM the next morning, we found ourselves waiting outside the gates of the slaughterhouse in the dark, while the painful squeals of pigs being dragged to their death, mingled with the hot smells of freshly-spilled guts, were carried to us on the icy mountain wind.
Dressed in overalls with plastic bags over our shoes and firmly told that any filming was strictly forbidden, we ventured into the horrible place; a stinking, steamy, hot, and repulsive hell-hole echoing with pig screams, the bubbling of scalding tanks, and the barbecued, scorching smells of flame-scalded, disemboweled bodies — in other words, no different to any other slaughterhouse in the world. They wouldn't let us into the killing area on grounds of "hygiene."
We asked to be shown the live pig storage area, where the slaughterhouse worker guiding us confirmed that the animals were mostly from the U.S., and that slaughterhouse killed in excess of 400 pigs every day. The pens containing the pigs were full, concrete holdings crammed with pigs in dreadful states — blood running down many of the legs, lame hobbling pigs and even one with guts hanging out of the rectum. All of the animals looked exhausted but still painfully alert to the cries of their companions, as they were systematically beaten in turn up the ramp to the slaughter room, screaming as they went.
Friday, December 2, 2005
The processing plant, by the tracks of the Penjamo train station, far out of town, felt more like a penitentiary than a pig processing plant — huge walls and barbed wire with sophisticated turnstiles.
Here, as the manager put it, the "raw product" — live pigs — is imported from the U.S., slaughtered and processed in Mexico (presumably because of cheaper workforce requirements), and then re-exported to the U.S. and also put on the Mexican market.
| Print | Close |