SLAUGHTERHOUSE NICETIES MAY RIVAL CORRECTNESS

The recent stories about the treatment of animals on their way to be slaughtered would be amusing if they weren't so irritating.

Organizations concerned about the humane treatment of animals about to become hamburger, chicken strips or pork barbecue are pressuring major restaurant chains, especially fast-foot outlets, to buy processed meat only from packing houses that conform to humane standards set by those concerned organizations.

This is reminiscent of the birth of political correctness, when a group of newspaper editors at a convention met in a bar one night and started thinking up terms to replace commonly used labels. As a result, the handicapped are now disabled, and so forth.

It's hard to imagine a nice way to kill a cow. But, left to its own devices, some group is likely to carry this business of humanely correct slaughterhouses to the same extreme as the current wave of political correctness.