Blog for Iowa Joins PETA in Demanding Patty Judge Return Slaughterhouse Donation
Secretary of Agriculture Judge Accepted Donation from Owner of Slaughterhouse Under Federal Investigation
Today, Blog for Iowa joins People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
(PETA) in calling on Iowa Secretary of Agriculture and gubernatorial
candidate Patty Judge (D) to return the $10,000 that she recently
received from the Rubashkin family, whose massive slaughterhouse,
AgriProcessors, is currently being sued by the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) for violating the Clean Water Act.
Even
worse, AgriProcessors is also under investigation by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) for violations of the Humane Slaughter
Act — documented at the Postville, Iowa, supposedly-kosher
slaughterhouse in 2004 on videotape by a PETA undercover
investigator. Former USDA kosher slaughterhouse inspector Dr.
Lester Friedlander called the revelation “the most egregious violation
of the USDA Humane Methods of Slaughter Act (HMSA) I have ever
witnessed.” PETA attorneys believe that AgriProcessors violated
multiple Iowa laws against cruelty to animals and inhumane slaughter
consistently over many years and on a daily basis.
This just makes me wretch. If you know anything at all about the Laws of Kashrut,
you know that a kosher slaughterhouse is supposed to have the highest
of possible standards for the humane treatment of animals, even beyond
the law of the land. Why this inhumane slaughter has gone on for
so long since coming to light is unfathomable. And why would
Judge, as a gubernatorial candidate, accept a donation from such an
operation when she herself has known about these violations (and has
actually viewed the videotape, according to the Globe Gazette) since December, 2004?
For
Secretary of Agriculture Patty Judge to accept a donation from the
Rubashkin family, who are appropriately in much legal and ethical hot water,
is clearly a conflict of interest and a moral disgrace. Blog for
Iowa calls on Sec. Judge to return the donation at once.
Add your voice – email Patty Judge here: contact@pattyjudge.com
For more information, visit PETA’s website: GoVeg.com/feat/AgriProcessors.
Blog For Iowa 