We Call This Civilized Society?

I am absolutely sickened and outraged, and I haven't even watched the video from the slaughter house, I've only read the reports.  What in the world is going on and why is there no call for reason?  I've read comments made by vegetarians, I've read comments written by animal activists, and I've read and written a few of the comments by dissidents.
From the report, the indication is, this practice has been going on for some time, since it dates back to meat dated February of 2006.  I, for one, just don't believe it was an isolated incident.  I also would offer the perspective that it may have been a situation of "following orders" or at least having seen it done, before.  When I awoke this morning to the description of how the cattle were treated, I thought, it was reprehensible, then when I heard the reference to the practice of simulated drowning, my mind went another direction.  The powers that be are shutting down this slaughter house for investigation, people are getting fired, and arrested, but our government doesn't consider the simulation of drowning to be torture, when practiced on humans, only an interrogation technique . . . What's up with that?  So, if an animal is about to be killed, simulated drowning is abuse, but if a human being is being detained and questioned, simulated drowning is waterboarding.  What kind of a society have we become?
Now we have the next question in this cattle recall.   Most of the meat has already been consumed, and without noted ills, at least 
of which we are aware.  So, other than a flexing of the strong arm of power, what good is a recall 
at this point?  And just how does that figure into the equation?  The meat can't be returned and the profit has already been figured, so is this recall only figurative bureaucracy?  A recall at this point is simply a grandiose gesture of governmental authority.
Now to the next question.  If this has been going on for two years, at least two years, what kind of human beings are now working in slaughter houses?  How many of these people will do things like this to animals without batting an eye, and will they stop at animals?  Meat packing and processing used to be a very respectable career that required training.  Now, the reports sound like these workers were a group of predators that simply acted without conscience, or looked the other way.  
And what's with the civilized organization called the USDA?  Why was this allowed for two years, without consequences?  Is this suddenly a new law?  
Of course, knowing the food supply is the ultimate goal of the powers that be, I realize the manufactured solutions for all these manufactured problems in the meat industry, will only serve to bring more rules, regulations, and requirements on what's left of the few independent ranchers and dairy farmers.  Now is a great time for a packing house to suddenly close.  It's just close enough to spring to be about out of hay, but not close enough to have pasture.  Just how much this shut down will cost the independent operator remains to be seen, but this will certainly curtail world trade in the beef industry, again.  Just one step closer to marking all the beasts, so we can ask the powers that be, for our daily sustenance.  More laws cannot legislate kindness or prohibit cruelty, that is a matter of the heart.  More laws will only fall upon the already overburdened shoulders of the producers, not the processors, and certainly not the powers of politics.
The way a society treats something in captivity reveals alot about that society.  The way a society
exercises authority reveals alot about that society.  The way a society treats people is the definition 
of that society?  And the way people treat animals tells us what has defined that society. 
An upright man has thought for the life of his beast, but the hearts of evil-doers are cruel.  a Proverb of Holy Scripture