A recent BBC study found that on Japanese whaling trips, only 30 percent were killed immediately. More than six minutes passed before half the wounded whales were pronounced dead, according to BBC reports. Some whales took more than two hours to die after the initial harpooning. The meat industry ignores the law with virtual impunity because of lax enforcement by the Agriculture Department, according to a petition filed with USDA by the union and several animal rights groups, including the Humane Society of the United States, Progressive Animal Welfare Society and Humane Farming Association. The Humane Slaughter Act requires that livestock must be rendered insensible to pain before being shackled, hoisted, thrown, cast, or cut.
Petitioners contend that many animals are slaughtered fully conscious.
Inspectors should be stationed full-time in areas of the plants where animals are stunned and bled, and plant operations should be stopped any time there are violations, the petition said. It s not a medium priority. It s not a priority at all, Arthur Hughes, spokesman for the National Joint Council for Food Inspection Locals told the Associated Press. Andy Summa is a freelance writer in Sugar Land, Texas. National parks exist primarily to protect the ecological integrity and biological diversity of unique natural regions in Canada, he said.