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Meat Industry Attacks California's Downed Animal Protection Law

It has been a year since an undercover exposé of downed dairy cows at a California slaughterhouse shocked the public and sparked the passage of a new state law increasing protections for downed cattle. Now, the National Meat Association and the American Meat Institute – two trade groups representing major packing and slaughter plant companies – are trying to overturn that law, which went into effect on January 1, 2009.

Downed animals (those too sick, diseased or injured to stand and walk on their own) are found in virtually every type of animal agribusiness enterprise, yet dairy cows are at the greatest risk of becoming downed because of the intense physical demands the dairy industry places on them, from forced impregnation to accelerated milk production.

The trade groups’ lawsuit, which claims that the state does not have the authority to ban the slaughter of certain animals, is similar to the industry’s previous unsuccessful attempts to undermine such animal protection laws. Farm Sanctuary has joined a coalition —  including, The Humane Society of the United States, the Humane Farming Association and the Animal Legal Defense Fund —  that will  fight the meat industry's claims in court. For more information, read the press release about our legal challenge to the meat industry.

Learn what you can do to help advance Farm Sanctuary's No Downers Campaign.