Unfortunately, I don't think veterinarians really have that big of an impact in those areas - even in slaughterhouses, their opinions are usually ignored or overridden by those higher up the chain. Temple Grandin has made some real headway in making meat processing facilities more humane, but she's not even a veterinarian. And she's probably done more than any vet ever has in that area. Here's a quote for you:
“My plant in Pennsylvania processed 1,800 cows a day, 220 per hour,” and veterinarians were pressured “to look the other way” when violations happened Lester Friedlander, DVM, a federal meat inspector told the
Winnipeg Free Press. The reason? Stopping “the line” cost the plant about $5,000 a minute. Dr. Friedlander was a USDA veterinarian for 10 years and trained other federal veterinarians.
When Mad Cow Disease was first a US threat in 1991, Friedlander says a USDA official told him not to say anything if he ever discovered a case and that he knew of cows that had tested positive at private laboratories but were ruled negative by the USDA. Friedlander told
United Press International that the USDA attempted to force him out after he alleged, on national TV, that meat from downer cows supplied the national school lunch program. His charge proved true and led to the
biggest meat recall in US history.
- See more at:
http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/10015#sthash.VzHGkbub.dpuf
Another one:
Another federal meat inspector who spoke out about the broken system was veterinarian Dean Wyatt. The Food Safety and Inspection Service Supervisory Public Health Veterinarian from Williston, VT testified at Congressional hearings in 2010 about federal inspectors’ shocking lack of authority in slaughter plants. Plant managers openly defied the federal inspectors he said and workers followed suit, actually ridiculing them.
Both Wyatt and public health veterinarian, Deena Gregory, reported that they witnessed a Seaboard employee hit an, “animal hard in the face and nose 8–12 times,” but David Ganzel, DVM, the District Veterinary Medical Specialist, deemed the acts was not “egregious,” hence not a violation, said Wyatt in his Congressional testimony. Seaboard employees began to snicker when Wyatt walked past.
Food Safety and Inspection Service officials overtly served plant managers not the government, food consumers, employees or the animals. Dr. Wyatt was instructed
not to file violation reports—not to do his job—and official reports were sanitized and deleted. In one report of an employee abusively throwing an animal, the word “threw” was changed to “dropped” he testified.
- See more at:
http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/10015#sthash.VzHGkbub.svFMh04i.dpuf
