Insider Images Show Victims of Botched Stun Attempts at JBS Beef

PETA Obtains Grisly Photos of Mis-Shot Cattle, Video Footage of Conscious Cow Hanging on Rail at Grand Island Slaughterhouse

For Immediate Release:
December 6, 2017

Contact:
Audrey Shircliff 202-483-7382

PETA has obtained disturbing photographs and video footage captured by a whistleblower inside JBS Beef’s Grand Island slaughterhouse revealing improper slaughter procedures, including incidents in which cows were mis-shot with a captive-bolt gun, as well as one in which a cow who was fully conscious and bleeding from a hole in her head was hung upside down before her throat was slit. PETA sent the images to livestock expert Dr. Temple Grandin, who verified that some cows were mis-shot, and a veterinarian, who agreed that the bleeding cow was conscious and able to feel pain and fear.

“These gruesome images put faces to the countless animals who endure terror and pain before they end up on someone’s dinner plate,” says PETA Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations Daphna Nachminovitch. “If you find the images upsetting, please go vegan. It’s the only way to spare gentle cows and other animals miserable lives and violent deaths at slaughterhouses like this one.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—notes that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has suspended operations at JBS’ Grand Island facility four times since April 2016 for incidents in which cows and steers were shot multiple times during inept stunning attempts. In January, workers fired three captive-bolt blasts at a cow who bled from the nose as five minutes passed between the first and final shots. On August 16, workers shackled a “bright, alert and responsive” cow by the leg and hoisted the flailing animal upside down, with his or her head dangling about 3 feet above the floor, before shooting the cow twice with a bolt gun.

More photos are available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA.org.