I AM PRO LIFE! BUT THIS? I DON'T THINK SO!

I grew up in Augusta and this slaughter house has always been there. When the poor souls are being "processed" the air nearby smelled like peanut butter as most kids my age would attest as we passed by the "processing plant" next to a major highway leading downtown. What could be better than peanut butter? A DELICIOUS RUTHS CHRIS FILET!

Protesters act to show compassion to cattle

By Nefeteria Brewster Staff Writer

MICHAEL HOLAHAN/STAFF Animal rights protesters gather outside the FPL Food plant in Augusta on Tuesday to bring awareness to the Save Movement.

For much of the past year, Dee Spencer has stood outside FPL Food LLC on New Savannah Road carrying signs supporting an international movement that “bears witness” to farm animals before they are slaughtered, packaged and processed for food.

The Save Movement is composed of groups that document the transportation of pigs, cows, chickens and other farm animals being sent to slaughter.

Spencer, an Augusta resident, was joined Tuesday at the intersection of Skyview Drive and New Savannah Road by several activists from the Carolinas and Florida to support the cause and bring public awareness to the movement.

NEFETERIA BREWSTER/STAFF Dee Spencer, the founder of the Save Movement in Augusta, holds up signs on New Savannah Road. The movement documents the transportation of farm animals that are being sent to slaughter.

One by one, the activists placed their signs alongside the road and walked up to the trailer of each truck, snapped a photo or two of the cows inside while telling them they were loved and offering them water.

The goal, according to Yvonne Newman, who protested alongside her friend Bill Steinbuechler, is to make people think about the processing of farm animals, consider alternative diet options and to show the animals compassion.

“This love and compassion is the only compassion they will ever see in their life before death,” Newman said as a cattle truck pulled from the intersection onto New Savannah Road.

As the protesters approached cattle trucks at a stop sign on the intersecting roads, they were often greeted with prolonged honks and swerves om of the vehicles as the workers drove the livestock into the processing plant.

Most of the drivers did not stop. Those who did gave the protesters a couple of minutes to take photos of the cattle, give them water and share words of comfort before they were driven away, said Spencer, who founded the local chapter of the movement and became interested after participating in a similar protest in North Carolina last year.

The photos were then posted to Facebook and other social media platforms as a way for the group to document the animals before they die.

“We try to get as close as possible to them, make eye-to-eye contact with them, and if they’re thirsty, we’ll give them water before they go there,” Spencer said.

“If we bear witness and show people what it is really like, we can help a lot of people make that connection of their food on the plate. That’s where it came from, and we’re hoping that we can change that.”

Carla King and her sister Linda King Jackson traveled from North Carolina to participate in Tuesday’s protest. King, a participant of the movement in her hometown, said she did not mind driving five hours to support Spencer’s protest.

“We go to slaughterhouses in our county for pigs,” she said. “We decided actually last minute to come down and bear witness to the cows because we’ve never done that and just to show Dee support because she came all the way to Clinton to support ours.”

FPL Food LLC released a statement Tuesday afternoon saying that the family-owned operation is committed to humane treatment of all cattle in its care and meets regulations for animal handling practices. 

Animal rights protesters stand outside the FPL Food plant in Augusta. The company said in a statement Tuesday that it is committed to the humane treatment of all the cattle in its care.MICHAEL HOLAHAN/STAFF

“From the producers we work with to our facility in Augusta, we are dedicated to providing the utmost care and treatment of livestock throughout the supply chain,” the statement says. “We assure animal welfare through standard operating procedures and compliance with USDA regulation. We also were the first beef processor in the U.S. to install third-party video monitoring to verify animal handling practices.”