Death of Approximately 150 Pigs in Texas Highlights USDA's Refusal to Implement Federal Humane Animal Transport Law

WASHINGTON — Today, The Humane Society of the United States decried the deaths of approximately 150 pigs left to languish inside transport trucks for up to three days in Brownsville, Texas, in sweltering heat and high humidity. In a letter sent to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, the organization demanded that the agency take long-overdue action to implement a century-old federal law designed to ensure the humane treatment of farm animals transported long distances.

Last week, 2,644 pigs bound for Mexico arrived at a Brownsville, Texas livestock export facility after a journey of at least 28 hours from Ohio. The Twenty-Eight Hour Law, the nation's first federal humane law, requires that animals be offloaded after 28 hours in transit on a "vehicle" so that they may eat, drink and rest for at least 5 hours. However, USDA does not apply the Act to truck transport—apparently under the theory that a "truck" is not a "vehicle" under the Twenty-Eight Hour Law.

As a result of USDA's unreasonable decision not to apply the Twenty-Eight Hour Law to trucks, none of the pigs were offloaded after their cross-country truck journey. Instead, the animals, who arrived in Texas on June 26 and 27, were left in cramped confinement inside trucks until June 29, up to an additional 48 to 72 hours, suffering temperatures in excess of 95 degrees. As a result, approximately 150 animals perished.

"It's long past time for USDA to apply the nation's only federal humane farm animal transport law to modern-day forms of transportation," says Jonathan Lovvorn, Esq., vice president of Animal Protection Litigation for The HSUS. "This is a not some abstract debate—the failure to apply this law to trucks is causing distress and death, and it's shameful."

In October 2005, The HSUS, along with other animal protection groups, filed a legal petition calling on USDA to limit truck transport of animals to no more than 28 uninterrupted hours, as required by the federal Twenty-Eight Hour Law. Although the agency initially indicated it would respond within one month, it still has not acted, more than eight months later.

In today's letter to USDA, The HSUS faults the agency for the recent deaths of approximately 150 animals in Texas because USDA has repeatedly and incorrectly informed the livestock industry that trucks are exempt from the Twenty-Eight Hour Law.

In the letter, HSUS attorney Peter Brandt writes that "[t]hrough decades of inaction, USDA has cultivated among livestock transporters a climate of total disregard for the Twenty-Eight Hour Law. Because USDA is doing nothing to ensure that transporters comply with the Twenty-Eight Hour Law, the transport of animals in 2006 is not nearly as well policed for inhumanity and public health protection as it was in the year 1906."

-30-

The Humane Society of the United States is the nation's largest animal protection organization with more than 9.5 million members and constituents. The HSUS is a mainstream voice for animals, with active programs in companion animals and equine protection, disaster preparedness and response, wildlife and habitat protection, animals in research and farm animal welfare. The HSUS protects all animals through education, investigation, litigation, legislation, advocacy, and field work. The non-profit organization is based in Washington and has field representatives and offices across the country. On the web at www.hsus.org.