An attention-grabbing story has seen the light of day in Poland and draws the threads to the rest of Europe.
A Polish media worked in the end of last year under the guise of a slaughterhouse, collector sick cows to slaughter because it is cheaper. The programme of studies shows that it is a practice, which takes place in several places in Poland.
– I was ordered by my leader to mark the flesh as healthy and to make it prettier. It was terrible, believe me. The smell of rotting meat makes you throw up. I had to make it nicer by polishing it with my knife, ” says the Polish journalist Patryk Szczepaniak, who worked under cover at the slaughterhouse for the application ‘Superwizjer’ on TVN24.
In the hidden footage, which was published in the program, you can see the sick cows being dragged out of the back of a truck with a machine, which pulls them with a rope. The cows are so sick that they cannot go. In several cases, had the cows also pressure sores or other ailments, which the employees were asked to remove with a knife.
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The sick cows arrived, according to the programme ‘Superwizjer’ daily to the slaughterhouse in the late evening. Photo: Screenshot v. Superwizjer TVN
The sick cows were mainly slaughtered in the late aftenvagter, where the vet was not present, and in the course of the three weeks, where the reporter Patryk Szczepaniak worked on the ground, he reached to have three aftenvagter. Here he spoke the whole of the 28 cows, which were brought in for slaughter, even though they were so sick that they could not stand up even.
Subsequently lay the tv the team behind the application on the nap in a nearby field to get footage of sick cows, which were brought in with trucks in the late hours of the night. Here as the five days of the week in a row the lorries unload the sick cows.
Poland is one of the largest exporters of beef in Europe, and it is estimated that approximately 80 percent of the production in Poland is intended for export.
Therefore to be expected the meat to be sold in several places in Europe, but it needs to be examined remains, how many countries that have received meat from the sick cows.
the Fda informs in an email to Ekstra Bladet, that you have not tracked some of the meat to Denmark, but that they monitor the situation.
They tell that they can take extra samples if they suspect that something is wrong, but the basics are the importer’s responsibility to ensure that the meat complies with EU legislation.
’the Fda monitors right now the situation in Poland through the european ’Rapid Alert system’. From here there are currently no reports that Denmark has received meat from the companies covered by the case,’ they write in the email.
In Sweden, writes the media Expressen, that is sold 2700 pounds of meat from the sick cows around Europe, and one in Sweden has received about 250 of them.
A restaurant in Uppsala received a consignment of meat at 14 pounds, and it’s all been eaten by the restaurant’s guests and staff. Restaurantchefen tells, however, that it is not tasted strange, although he is saddened by the situation.
Must be examined by the veterinarian
It is according to TVN24 is required by law in Poland to get the cows examined by a veterinarian both before, during and after slaughter, but it has not happened in that slaughterhouse.
Here approved just the cows as healthy, even if they were not, and then came the vet over the following morning to sign the papers without even to inspect the cattle. No make subsequent any studies of whether the information is true.
He did not, when they slaughtered the sick cows in the evening. On paper, everything was perfectly fine, but in reality it was a disaster, says Patryk Szczepaniak.
It has not been determined what the cows have failed, but the president of the English AWSELVA, which is a dyrevelfærdsorganisation, tells The Guardian that it can be anything.
– It is totally unacceptable to kill animals in the state and sell them as food. You can in no way know what is wrong with the animals. You can guess but it is the only thing you can make without a full autopsy, he says to the English The Guardian.
After the program with the hidden footage from the slaughterhouse were shown on Polish TVN24 on Saturday 26. January, the president of the vets in as mazovia-the region stated that the veterinarian responsible for the slaughterhouse and his local boss has been suspended.
at the same time informs he that the police have started an investigation in the case.
according to The Guardian, not the first time that a slaughterhouse in Poland has been discovered in the to trade with sick cows. In december last year ended a similar case, that an owner of a slaughterhouse in Łódź was sentenced to a prison sentence. The owner subsequently appealed the judgment.
There is also a survey at a slaughterhouse in eastern Poland in order to use the same procedure.
In Poland it costs a sick cow typically five to six times less than that of a healthy cow, and therefore can slaughterhouses earn cool money to buy the sick cows to the slaughter rather than the healthy.
Polish sellers advertises exactly that they are selling sick cows. In the ads, they call them ‘damaged’ or ’traumatized’, which refers to cows that are too sick to even stand on their legs.
According to the programme, ‘Superwizjer’s studies, there are supposedly around 300 Polish sellers who are knowingly selling sick cattle.
– We are afraid that the same thing is happening that always happens.
– That the authorities are trying to say that it is an isolated case, and that it is not their fault. That things go back to normal, as they always do, ” says Tomasz Patora from ‘Superwizjer’.
Here is a video from the program ‘Superwizjer’. The pictures can be unpleasant.
