Federal Grand Jury Indicts Top Veal Feeder: Illegal Drug May Have Tainted Meat

(from ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996.)

MILWAUKEE--In the first of an expected series of indictments striking at the brain trust and bankroll of the crate-raised veal and milk-fed spring lamb industries, a federal grand jury empaneled in Milwaukee on December 6 charged the Vitek Supply Corporation, Vitek president Jannes Doppenberg, and Vitek office manager Sherry Steffen with 12 counts of conspiracy, smuggling unapproved drugs into the U.S., and illegally adding the drugs to feed mixtures told to veal and lamb producers throughout the country.

A prepared statement from U.S. Attorney Thomas P. Schneider said, "It is alleged in the indictment that the unapproved drugs were shipped to feed companies and growers in Kansas, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Illinois. Over 1.7 million pounds of Vitek product containing unapproved drugs, valued at over $1.3 million dollars, were sold by Vitek between 1988 and April 1994."

Three drugs were involved, explained Schneider. Clenbuterol, a banned but still popular synthetic steroid growth enhancer, has also been at the center of recent livestock show and horseracing scandals. "Clenbuterol has been associated with the acute poisoning of humans who consumed meat from clenbuterol-fed animals," Schneider said. In Spain, clenbuterol tainting of veal and calf's liver caused 135 people to be hospitalized in 1990, and another 140 people suffered dizziness, heart palpitations, breathing difficulty, shakes, and headaches from a similar incident in February 1994.

The second unapproved drug, Avoparcine, is "an antibiotic, which through uncontrolled use, may result in strains of bacteria resistant to other antibiotics," according to Schneider.

The third drug, actually a drug family, includes Furaltadone, furazolidona, and nitrofurazone, "all members of a class of compounds referred to as nitrofurans," Schneider said. "Though previously approved, since January of 1992, all three drugs have been unapproved due to substantial evidence that they are carcinogenic.

The indictments are a milestone for the San Francisco-based Humane Farming Association and HFA chief investigator Gail Eisnitz, who found out about the illegal use of clenbuterol in the veal industry in early 1994, and has been working to expose it ever since.

Biggest drug case

"This is the livestock industry's largest illegal drug case ever," Eisnitz told ANIMAL PEOPLE. "It only confirms what we've been saying all along: that the illegal use of powerful and potentially deadly drugs is endemic within the veal industry."

Clenbuterol is used to make confined calves and lambs gain muscle mass even though they get no exercise. Strong antibiotics are used to try to curb the chronic inflections and diarrhea that afflict calves and lambs who never go outside and may not even get colostrum from their mothers' milk.

The real significance of the December 6 indictments is that Vitek and Doppenberg are not only important figures within the veal business, they're part of the interlocking chain of companies that forms the central part of the vealing infrastructure.

Search warrants executed in connection with the case in September 1994 establish a direct business relationship between Doppenberg and Aat Groenvelt, the Dutch immigrant who founded the Provimi veal empire in 1962, introduced the use of the veal crate to North America, and created a market for "milk-fed spring lamb," starting slightly later in the 1960s.

Groenveldt today is not only president of Provimi, but also vice president of Pricor Inc., the Dutch-based veterinary pharmaceuticals firm of which Vitek is a subsidiary. The September 1994 search warrants place Groenvelt, Doppenberg, Pricor president Gerard Hoogendijk, and other influential people in the veal industry together during high-level meetings at which the use of clenbuterol was allegedly discussed.

Various federal law enforcement agencies already had a considerable amount of evidence linking clenbuterol to veal and lamb feed when Eisnitz was tipped off that no one seemed to be bringing it together. Kansas lamb grower Stephen Beal was allegedly introduced to the illegal use of clenbuterol through Doppenberg in late 1988, while a partner of Hoogendijk and Groenvelt under the business name Provi-Lean. He reported the matter to the Food and Drug administration in August 1989, but there was apparently little serious investigation before February 1994, when U.S. Customs traced illegal veterinary drug imports to Vitek.

HFA shines spotlight

The probe gained priority after Eisnitz was alerted by a friend who works for the USDA that it would take exposure and public pressure to insure that the government followed up the implications of the evidence. Over the next year, Eisnitz criss-crossed the nation, picking up, copying, and distributing affidavits and search warrants.

"First we uncovered and documented the federal investigation and exposed this international scandal in the media," she said. "Then we gathered our own concrete evidence of widespread clenbuterol use, which we turned over to federal authorities in Milwaukee. Then we mobilized support, generating thousands and thousands of letters to Attorney General Janet Reno's office, demanding that Clenbuterol smugglers and distributors be prosecuted like the drug king pins they are."

Transactions recorded in the indictment issued December 6 indicate the scale of the Vitek operations involving illegal drugs. Eight times between August 5, 1988, and February 16, 1989, or slightly more often than once a month, Vitek imported anywhere from 75 to 600 kilograms of substances containing clenbuterol. Outgoing product covered by the indictment includes 454 tons of feed containing clenbuterol, worth $434,784. The total volume of unapproved and/or misbranded animal drugs identified as having been sold by Vitek comes to 866 tons, worth $1.3 million.

"If convicted," said Schneider, "Vitek faces fines up to $500,000 on each of six counts, and fines up to $10,000 on each of five counts. Both Doppenberg and Steffen face up to five years incarceration, a $25,000 fine, or both, if convicted of the conspiracy alleged in count one of the indictment. The smuggling-related offenses charged in counts two through six each carry up to five years incarceration, a $250,000 fine, or both."

Additional counts could add as much as three years incarceration and a fine of $10,000 per conviction.

Collapse of industry?

"What we are witnessing," predicted HFA national director Bradley Miller, "is the collapse of the veal industry, an industry that as far as we are concerned, more closely resembles a criminal enterprise than it does an agricultural commodity group. The veal industry's disregard for animal suffering is only surpassed by its disregard for the health and safety of consumers."

"The December indictments mark the beginning of the end for the anemic veal industry," Eisnitz agreed, anticipating that the ripple of public attention to the case thus far will build into a wave of concern among consumers as more indictments are issued and high-profile convictions are secured.

"While the recent indictments represent a significant development," Eisnitz predicted, "they are just the tip of the iceberg in regard to the veal industry's use of clenbuterol and other toxic drugs."

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Vealers under scrutiny in Europe, too

BRUSSELS--Concerned about the use of illegal growth hormones in livestock generally, and increasingly aware, as well, of animal welfare issues, the European Union moved recently to address both issues.

EU Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler on November 29 convened a three-day conference to review the EU rules on the use of illegal meat growth hormones.

On the one hand, there is strong sentiment for maintaining stiff standards and cracking down on a "hormone Mafia" whose activity last year included the assassination on the job of Belgian animal health inspector Karrel Van Knoppen.

On the other hand, the U.S. government, which permits the use of certain steroids to enhance livestock growth, has threatened to make a formal complaint to the World Trade Organization in Geneva if the longstanding EU ban on imports of all hormone-treated meat is not amended to give U.S. farmers access to European markets.

Even EU representatives who favor freer rules on imports of hormone-treated meat are concerned that any move to allow hormone-treated meat to move freely could permit the "hormone Mafia" to operate with greater latitude, under the cover of the legal trade.

European Consumers Organization food officer Kees de Winter urged the EU to stand firm. "Consumers do not want artificial substances to be used in agricultural production if they are not necessary or if they do not offer any benefits to consumers," he said. "The fact is that the use of hormones in meat provides no benefit for consumers."

Phase out veal crates

On December 15, meanwhile, the European Commission, the executive body for the EU, adopted a report calling for the phase-out of individual veal crates by no later than 2008, and arguing that calves should be given a balanced diet.

The report wasn't actually due for another two years, but was issued early as result of pressure from Britain, Germany, Denmark, Austria, and Sweden. The major veal-producing nations, notably France, the Netherlands, and Italy, are expected to resist any move to actually ban veal crating.

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