Agriculture departments do not do their job of protecting animals because this is not the job they exist to do
ALBERTON, South Africa; GENEVA, Illinois––Can an arm of government established to promote animal agribusiness ever be trusted to enforce humane laws?
For example, will agriculture departments ever adequately enforce laws governing the shipment of sheep from South Africa to slaughter in the Middle East, or laws requiring veterinary care for animals injured in rodeos?
Even if an agency created to promote animal agribusiness might be obliged and persuaded somehow to protect dogs and cats, to a limited extent anyway, can it ever be expected to prevent cruelty to hoofed animals and poultry, when it exists primarily to facilitate profitably killing hoofed animals and poultry?
(Beth Clifton collage)
Mistake made in 1873
U.S. animal advocates have asked those questions ever since Congress delegated enforcement of the Twenty-Eight Hour Law of 1873, governing livestock transport, to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, created by President Abraham Lincoln in 1862, instead of to the Department of Justice, formed with the adoption of the U.S. Constitution in 1789.
Apart from the obvious conflict of interest, assigning Twenty-Eight Hour Law enforcement to the Department of Agriculture was a major mistake for a second reason: the law originally pertained exclusively to livestock transportation by railroad.
The Department of Agriculture was not otherwise involved in any way with monitoring railroads. It had no personnel trained, qualified, or even stationed in any of the places where railroads carrying cargoes of cattle, sheep, and pigs traveled, before arriving at slaughterhouses which then operated just outside every city.
Department of Justice did not want to take on humane law enforcement before taming the west
If animals traveled for more then 28 hours without food, rest, and water, nobody at the slaughterhouse end of the line ever knew it. Inspectors at the key midway points did not exist until many decades later.
The U.S. Department of Justice had at least a small staff of investigators and prosecutors. The Department of Agriculture did not.
But back in 1873, 150 years ago, the U.S. Department of Justice did not want to take on humane law enforcement, having yet even to establish federal courts in much of the western part of the country.
Other government departments which might have enforced the Twenty-Eight Hour Law did not yet exist. The Department of Commerce was not created until 1913; the Department of Transportation came into being on January 1, 1967.
Conflict of interest reinforced by humane “victories”
The conflict of interest established by handing Twenty-Eight Hour Law enforcement to the Department of Agriculture was reinforced when Congress gave the Department of Agriculture responsibility for enforcing the Humane Slaughter Act of 1958, which has yet to be enforced as written.
Further reinforcement of the conflict of interest came with the passage of the Laboratory Animal Welfare Act of 1966, the Horse Protection Act of 1970, and the Animal Welfare Act of 1971, the primary U.S. animal protection law ever since.
Each new law expanded the authority of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, via the Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service, but kept humane law enforcement under the thumb, budget, and administrative weight of the agency created to promote agribusiness.
The mistake heard around the world
At least as problematic, as more and more humane legislation was passed at all levels of government, around the world, the tradition of delegating humane law enforcement to an existing agency formed to promote animal agriculture was emulated.
To this day, animal-related law enforcement remains under agricultural authorities at the state level in every U.S. state, in every Canadian province, and in much of the rest of the world, including South Africa.
Though both the U.S. and South Africa were formerly under British rule, Britain only became involved in South Africa in 1795, a dozen years after the U.S. won independence in the American Revolution of 1765-1783.
Thus, Alberton, Gauteng, South Africa and Springfield, Illinois, U.S.A. are separated by 240 years of political and cultural history, as well as by more than 8,764 air miles.
South Africa fails to enforce export guidelines
Nonetheless, July 2023 complaints about non-enforcement of humane laws pertaining to hooved animals, voiced by South African National SPCA executive director Marcelle Meredith and Showing Animals Respect & Kindness founder Steve Hindi, have a common theme.
“Since July 17, 2023,” Meredith began in an emailed statement, NSPCA staff have “been in the Eastern Cape inspecting a shipment of 49,000 animals destined for export by sea, by the Al Mawashi & Livestock Transport & Trading Company, fully supported by the South African government and the Red Meat Industry Forum.
“They have not adhered to the government’s ‘Guidelines for the Exportation of Live Animals by Sea,’” Meredith charged.
“Significant animal welfare concerns”
“At the feedlot,” where the animals are held pending export, “inspectors found significant animal welfare concerns,” Meredith said.
“The pelleted food for the sheep had run out.”
Ewes “had not been scanned to determine pregnancy,” resulting in the presence of “obviously pregnant ewes, newborn lambs from those sheep who had given birth, as well as aborted young,” all in contravention of South African law.
“Other compromised animals,” Meredith continued, included “lame sheep, sheep with foot rot, pink eye throughout the pens, and emaciated and moribund sheep.
“State Veterinary Department failed”
“The State Veterinary Department failed to uphold their guidelines, the exporter failed to adhere to the guidelines, and still the exporter advised us, that regardless, loading would commence July 20, 2023 onto the Al Messilah vessel.”
A National SPCA appeal to the Grahamstown High Court failed.
“Regardless of enormous challenges and personal sacrifice,” Meredith concluded, “National SPCA inspectors are still at the feedlot and harbor, doing their utmost to prevent suffering of these animals. It has taken enormous physical and mental toll on the 16 inspectors who have been working 12 hours daily, and yet we still have no confirmed departure date.”
What Marcelle Meredith & Steve Hindi have in common
Meredith, executive director of the National SPCA of South Africa since 1991, and Steve Hindi, who incorporated Showing Animals Respect and Kindness the following year, have very little in common, but share their frustration with agricultural authorities whose personnel steadfastly refuse to enforce even the most rudimentary requirements explicitly spelled out in the legislation they are delegated to enforce, and paid to enforce.
Hindi has for many months sent to various levels within the Illinois Department of Agriculture videos taken, weekend after weekend, showing blatant violations of the Illinois Humane Care of Animals Act at charreadas, also known as “Mexican-style rodeos,” held in the greater Chicago suburbs.
These are public events, licensed as such by the boards of Boone, Mcreary and Ogle counties, among others, advertised by Spanish-language media throughout “Chicagoland,” and attended by hundreds of people.
“Worthless cabal of bureaucratic parasites”
Videotaping at least 15 charreadas since August 2022, and sharing the video with ANIMALS 24-7, Showing Animals Respect & Kindness [SHARK] has documented that horses were punched repeatedly at every one of them, steers suffered crippling injuries at every one of them, steers’ tails were degloved at every one of them in 2023, and steers were run through the chutes from ten to 20 times apiece, despite injuries, at every one of them.
Veterinarians have never been present. Even severely injured animals, in one instance suffering from a broken back, have not been promptly euthanized.
“As usual, the Illinois Department of Agriculture is doing nothing, which is nothing new. Please call this worse-than-worthless cabal of bureaucratic parasites and demand action,” Hindi asked supporters on June 28, 2023.
(Showing Animals Respect & Kindness photo)
The perfect storm
The next day Hindi took some of the SHARK videos of charreada to the Illinois Department of Agriculture headquarters in Springfield, Illinois, in person.
Hindi happened to visit shortly after a tornado caused electrical outages in Springfield. Illinois Department of Agriculture personnel other than managers were sent home, but the managers remained, standing around in the lobby and outside the building with nothing to do except wait for the electricity to be restored.
It was a perfect opportunity, one might have imagined, for the managers to pass the time by watching some of the videos of charreada animal abuse, and to discuss the issue with Hindi without interrupting other work.
Kristi Jones
But that is not what happened. Hindi videotaped what did happen. Only one Illinois Department manager even looked at the video. He agreed that what he saw was abusive.
Kristi Jones, deputy director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture, not only refused to look at the video, but alleged that she felt “threatened” by being asked to look at it, surrounded at the time by half a dozen male employees, all of them significantly bigger and younger than Hindi, age 68.
“We will juxtapose her feeling of being threatened with the images of the animals she ignores,” Hindi pledged, posting his video of the confrontation to the Showing Animals Respect & Kindness web site.
The issue is bigger, though, than just that Kristi Jones appears to be a silly twit who does not want to enforce Illinois humane law.
Mission & vision do not include “Be kind to animals”
Like the State Veterinary Department in South Africa, and like the U.S. Department of Agriculture, including the Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service, the Illinois Department of Agriculture exists to facilitate trade in animals for slaughter.
The Illinois Department of Agriculture mission statement reads, “The Illinois Department of Agriculture will be an advocate for Illinois’ agricultural industry and provide the necessary regulatory functions to benefit consumers, agricultural industry, and our natural resources.
“The agency will strive to promote agri-business in Illinois and throughout the world.”
Adds an accompanying vision statement, “The Illinois Department of Agriculture’s vision is to promote and regulate agriculture in a manner which encourages farming and agribusiness while protecting Illinois’ consumers and our natural resources.”
There is not a word in either statement about preventing cruelty to animals, even if the Illinois Humane Care of Animals Act does say this is a departmental duty.
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Why would anyone expect an agency (e.g., the USDA), with the dual and conflicting mission of promoting and regulating agriculture, to protect the animals whose exploitation it facilitates?
Don’t trust government or industry to do the right thing. It’s up to the public to protect animals: be vegan and actively oppose animal exploitation!
Far too many people, far too much money involved, and laws are only as good as the paper they’re printed on and the (hardened) hearts of those (rarely) enforcing them. Mary Finelli posting before me is correct: ultimately, compassion and integrity are personal values and individual choices.
Sharing with gratitude.
Thank you, Jamaka, and for all of the good comments you post here, Thank you for caring so about animals.
Hindi has never owned or worked with livestock. Yet he feels he has the right to tell people that have worked with livestock all their lives, what to do. Charreada is a celebration of traditional methods of animal husbandry. It is no more dangerous to animals than high school football is to students. Hindi has found that repeatedly showing the same videos, is a good way to make a living. Do be duped by his misrepresentation of Charreada.
Randolph M. Janssen failed to disclose that he was registered agent for Federacion Mexicana Charreria USA, a Texas domestic non-profit corporation registered on December 22, 2017, now listed as “voluntarily dissolved.” His daughter is, or was, a charreada performer, though not in steer-tailing and horse-tripping, which are the focus of humane opposition to charreada.
Both Beth & I here at ANIMALS 24-7 bring to our work extensive experience with cattle and horses. Neither of us has ever seen anything remotely resembling charreada, or for that matter American-style rodeo, at a working cattle or horse facility.
As ANIMALS 24-7 has previously pointed out, neither steer-tailing nor horse-tripping have any demonstrable history as “traditional methods of animal husbandry,” especially in cattle ranching, which has been often described and well-documented for almost as long as cattle have been domesticated. ANIMALS 24-7 has checked historical accounts of California hacienda procedures back to 1840 and has found no reference to steer-tailing. Visitors during mission times, including Richard Henry Dana, were impressed by the skill of vaqueros with plaited leather lariats, but made no mention of anything resembling steer-tailing, done either as a ranch procedure or as a stunt.
High school football has a concussion rate of 10.4 per 10,000 athlete exposures, and an overall injury rate of about 38 per 10,000 exposures. The steer-tailing events alone at the 15 charreadas Steve Hindi and the Showing Animals Respect & Kindness team have videotaped in entirety in 2022 and 2023 have had injury rates running at 30% or more of the animals used, in part because steers are used over and over, 10 to 20 times in a day, after suffering injuries that would end a high school football player’s career.
ANIMALS 24-7 has personally reviewed many of these videos. While they show many of the same animals being abused over and over, they are being abused by different men wearing different shirts on different horses. But many of the same men are shown punching their horses in the head over and over, in different positions and locations, so that it is very clear this is a repeated pattern of behavior, not the same actions shown more than once.
Finally, it is a matter of public record, easily verifiable from the Showing Animals Respect & Kindness filings of IRS Form 990,
which ANIMALS 24-7 has reviewed every year for 30 years, that Steve Hindi has never been paid for his animal advocacy work. Hindi until recently owned and directed a very successful manufacturing company, Allied Tubular Rivet, and has funded his animal advocacy work much more from his own pocket than from donations.
Agree with you. When I was living in Mexico with my parents back in the 1950’s, I saw a live Mexican charreada and was horrified. Indeed, I saw a horse chased by charros on horseback, and the horse was literally shitting while running away to escape.
“Livestock” animals are the MOST abused of all animals, and viewed with contempt as being “stupid.” Recall the lethal “removal” of feral cattle from the Gila Wilderness of southwest New Mexico. Environmental group, Center for Biological Diversity, supported the U.S. Forest Service’s “removal” via cruel aereal shooting of cows and calves. The Forest Service sought to shoot by helicopter an estimated 150 cows and calves, who were merely trying to survive free from the burden of human control.
According to Center for Biological Diversity, these cows don’t belong to anyone–thus, they are fair game. They are blamed for spoiling the landscapes and fouling streams that draw people from everywhere to hike, hunt, fish, backpack, and camp. They are the enemy–not the “livestock” farmers, not the ranchers, and certainly not the meat-eating public.
Let the species (humanity) that is without sin (responsible for global warming, zoonotic pandemics, biodiversity loss, factory farming) cast the first stones at a small family of feral cattle, trying to survive in a human-infested, human-dominated troubled planet.
Randolph, if you believe the nonsense you spew, then let’s sit down together and debate it in front of a camera. When it’s done, each side can get a copy of the recording to do with as they please.
I’ve done this many times over the years about various issues – American-style rodeos, pigeon shoots, cockfighting, etc. They’ve been easy wins not because I am a great debater, but because the evidence is so clear, as it is with this issue.
So, how about it? Accept, right here, and we can work out the details to make it happen. Accept, or everyone on both sides will know you’re just hot air.
C’mon, Randy. Just say yes.
Randolph, I was hoping you’d have responded by now. Are you there? Please don’t wimp out now, because I’ll really dog you then. Stand up and be a man.
Whatever you do, don’t be one of the hit-and-run creeps who mouth off and then run for the hills. Not very macho. Not very macho at all.
Perhaps it’s my fault, because I didn’t include an email address. It’s shindi@sharkonline.org.
There – problem solved Randy. I’m waiting.
Here’s why animal exploitation is NOT aggressively challenged, at least on this point:
According to the Pope in a tweet, “It is contrary to human dignity to cause animals to suffer and die needlessly.” Yet, he does absolutely nothing to back up this statement, sending the message instead that “human dignity” is an oxymoron and a fraud like “reality TV” and “humane slaughter.”
The above is the topic sentence from a 509-word critique of Catholic teachings about animals, which while footnoted and accurate, had little or nothing to do with the structure of law and government in either the U.S. or South Africa. Catholics constituted about 1.6% of the U.S. population when the U.S. constitution was adopted in 1789, 5% in Abraham Lincoln’s time, and not more than 25% when the Humane Slaughter Act of 1958, Laboratory Animal Welfare Act of 1966, and Animal Welfare Act of 1971 were adopted. While the policies and practices of state agriculture departments have parallels in Catholic teachings, both are derived from much older sources including English common law and the Old Testament teachings of Moses.
Catholic political influence in South Africa, only 6% Catholic today and historically much less, is even smaller. The South African theologian and human rights leader Desmond Tutu was Anglican.
I didn’t know that. But than you for enlightening me. I was raised Catholic, but quit when I reached the age of reason.