BOB GARFIELD:
And I'm Bob Garfield. Earlier this week, nearly every news outlet served up footage secretly recorded by the Humane Society of the United States of the Hallmark/Westland Meat Company.
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[COWS MOOING]
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What you’re hearing is the sound of a cow being dragged by one leg and shoved by a forklift. Essentially it’s a video of an animal being tortured. It was a downer cow, so called because it was too injured or diseased to stand. It’s illegal to use downer cows in the meat supply because they pose higher risks of salmonella and mad cow disease.

The Humane Society has released far more gruesome tape of mistreated animals but this particular one had legs, resulting in the recall of 143 million pounds of beef, the largest in U.S. history, this despite the fact that much of this meat has already been eaten without reported illness.

So what made the press take notice? Wayne Pacelle is the CEO of the Humane Society of the United States. He says the video had just the right amount of violence.
WAYNE PACELLE:
While it was very hard to watch and while it was very moving and emotionally gripping, it wasn't bloody, it wasn't gory and it didn't have that kind of revulsion factor that makes you turn away and say, I just can't bear to see it or hear it. It was in that fine middle ground between being very emotionally compelling but not going too far overboard.
BOB GARFIELD:
Now, you at the Humane Society have some substantial experience with far more gruesome footage that you haven't been able to get on television very easily. A story can actually be too awful to get any play.
WAYNE PACELLE:
I think that’s true. And what we do see with the Canadian seal killing, where 300 - or 350,000 baby seals are killed is you see, you know, bloody ice and you see these beautiful little pups killed. I think for some members of the media, it’s too much. Now, that footage has been aired, but it is closer to the line in terms of acceptable footage.

I will say I think the line is moving a bit. I think during the Michael Vick case we saw some really extensive airing of dog-fighting footage that our investigators had taken as well. It was tough to watch, but if we're going to treat it seriously we have to look at what’s going on in terms of the abuses.
BOB GARFIELD:
The Humane Society of The United States doesn't necessarily have a dog in the food supply protection fight, but nonetheless, that is the other aspect of this story which made it so take off, the threat to not just consumers but to child consumers because of where this meat was headed.
WAYNE PACELLE:
Without question. Hallmark/Westland was the number two supplier to the National School Lunch Program. I think that one of the factors here is the relevance of this story to our daily lives. Most Americans eat meat. They want to know that the product is not adulterated and they want to believe that the animals are not abused during the production, transport or slaughter process.

Here you have something that was driven by the concern for food safety, the health of our children and the feeling that if I'm going to eat meat, I want to know that the animals are not being abused in the process.

BOB GARFIELD:
You had a press conference only after the story first broke in The Washington Post. You fed the story to The Post as an exclusive. Why did you go in that direction?
WAYNE PACELLE:
The idea of exclusives, I think, is a dangerous one. We often don't do exclusives because other outlets then get upset. But we did feel that there was truly a strong Washington angle with Congress and an executive agency headquartered here.

We did have something new to offer, even after The Post broke the story, because it was a print outlet and we had really compelling video footage. And I think once that was made available then it just started to gather steam, and then you just had a subsequent set of actions in response to the investigation that drove the story almost on a daily basis.
BOB GARFIELD:
Well, clearly you hit the media jackpot on this one, and the governmental one. I'm curious, though, if in past episodes where you thought you had a story that was going to capture the imagination of the media and the public, only to discover that you really didn't have the necessary goods.
WAYNE PACELLE:
Well, we're in the press all the time, but the question is does it really achieve a critical mass? And, frankly, most of the stuff that we do does not. You occasionally get the breakout stories, whether it’s Michael Vick, whether it’s Katrina Pet Rescue or now the slaughterhouse investigation in Southern California.

Canadian seals has its moments. Dog-fighting, before Vick, you know, was a compelling story but it never broke out. People were shocked that anyone was even doing dog-fighting.

We have a situation in this country of canned hunting. There are 7,000 canned hunting operations where mammals are shot in fenced enclosures for a fee. We've got some really compelling footage. We've got a tremendously abusive, unfair situation. It, you know, occasionally rises to the level of interest, but it goes on every day and the media pay attention to it episodically.
BOB GARFIELD:
Wayne, thank you.
WAYNE PACELLE:
Thank you.
BOB GARFIELD:
Wayne Pacelle is the CEO of the Humane Society of the United States.