Chinese slaughterhouse staff force-feed cattle with water for 12 hours to artificially increase their weight
- Worker tells TV crew pumping water through animals’ nostrils added only ‘five to 10 kilos’ (11 to 22 pounds) to the animals’ weight
- The method increased the risk of contamination and yet the meat was mostly sold to school canteens
Staff at two slaughterhouses in east China have been accused of animal cruelty after a broadcaster revealed that cattle there were pumped with water for up to 12 hours to artificially increase their weight.
Police arrested 29 people at the two sites in Anhui province on Friday, Jiangsu TV reported on Tuesday. Video showed cattle at the slaughterhouses in Quanjiao and Laian counties, outside Nanjing, with plastic tubes in their nostrils. Some of the animals had toppled over, water streaming from their bodies.
A worker at Quanjiao said pumping the cattle with water only added “five to 10 kilograms” to their weight at most. The method also increased the risk of contamination. Most of the meat was sold for use in schools.
The manager of the Quanjiao slaughterhouse told police that the cattle were to be slaughtered anyway, so pumping them with water did not matter.
Early in November, undercover journalists found that the meat was sold in wholesale markets in Nanjing for as little as 30 yuan (US$4.33) per kilogram, with much of it going to school canteens.