Wednesday, an animal advocacy group made public a video which showed sick or injured cows being mistreated at a facility where cattle were being sold for slaughter. According to The Associated Press, the Humane Society of the United States said that three cows too weak or sick to stand were sold at the Portales Livestock Auction in Portales, N.M. If cows in this condition are being sold, there is a high risk for mad cow disease or E. coli because their immune system is weak.

The Humane Society also released in January a video from a California slaughterhouse, leading to the largest beef recall in U.S. history. In May, another video showing abused downed cows at some auctions around the country was made public.

Wayne Pacelle, the Humane Society's president and chief executive said that the abuse from the video was not an isolated incident. In the Wednesday video, cows could be seen being forced to arrive at the auction area.

“At every turn, we have found appalling abuses of spent dairy cows. No longer can anyone in government, or in the livestock industry, claim that this is an isolated abuse,” said Pacelle, reported The Associated Press.

Randy Bouldin, the Portales facility owner, said that the policies were very strict and it was forbidden to handle downer cows.

Although Ed Schafer, Agriculture Secretary agreed with Bouldin, John McBride, spokesman for industry trade group the Livestock Marketing Association, said that these kind of practices happened in many areas.

“You have to put this in context of the number of cattle handled in markets annually,” said McBride.

The Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association reported in a release that 1,200 livestock marketing businesses handled 35.6 million head of cattle and calves in 2006.