USDA Inspector General Audit on Slaughter Enforcement Shows Ongoing Problems and Need for Significant Reforms

WASHINGTON – In a report released yesterday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Office of Inspector General called further attention to serious, ongoing problems that were exposed at the beginning of the year by The Humane Society of the United States' undercover investigation of the Hallmark-Westland slaughter plant in Chino, Calif. 

"The Inspector General's audit clearly shows that lax agency enforcement of humane slaughter rules continues to allow unacceptable abuse of animals and food safety risks," said Michael Markarian, executive vice president of The HSUS. "We urgently need stronger oversight and reform to prevent inhumane treatment of animals, reduce the risks of foodborne illness and boost consumer confidence in the food supply."

The audit looked at 10 "cull cattle" facilities. The facilities represent a subset of the 103 locations that specialize in slaughtering "spent" dairy cows culled from the herd as no longer productive, and of the 632 federally-inspected establishments that slaughter cattle. "Spent" dairy cows are generally in weaker physical condition than other cows.

Even while these facilities were presumably on "best behavior," given that USDA announced its plans to have OIG investigators conduct an intensive audit in the field and that this audit took place during the height of industry scrutiny following the Hallmark scandal and subsequent massive beef recall, the audit still revealed many problems.

The report states that "an inherent vulnerability exists that such violations can occur and not be detected because FSIS [Food Safety and Inspection Service] does not have sufficient staffing levels to provide continuous surveillance of all operating areas within and around a slaughter establishment at all times." The HSUS notes that unless there is continuous oversight by inspectors observing live animals from the time they arrive by truck, through their offloading and handling in pens, chutes and kill boxes, these problems are bound to continue.

The report also flags numerous specific problems, such as the potential use of "downer doors" to bypass inspection and "pre-signed blank pen cards" to indicate an inspection occurred when it actually might not have, as well as the particular risks at cull cattle establishments that warrant heightened oversight.

Despite a belief that "the risks are greater at cull cow establishments—both in terms of potential animal abuse and food safety issues," the OIG noted that four of the cull slaughter plants they visited supplied meat to processors providing nearly 60 percent of processed beef to the National School Lunch Program.

In concluding that the problems aren't systemic, the report adopts a somewhat inexplicable degree of confidence that its auditors were able to witness all relevant concerns. The report acknowledges the myriad opportunities for slaughter plant workers to "game the system," fooling and distracting inspectors and bypassing inspection altogether, as well as the recurrent failures of inspection personnel to carry out their duties as required.
 
One central problem identified in congressional testimony by an inspector earlier this year, as well as in press reports and whistleblower accounts, is undue pressure by upper management to cover up violations and deter inspectors from reporting them accurately. The HSUS urges USDA managers to take seriously the responsibility for humane slaughter enforcement and to support their inspectors in ensuring compliance, rather than discouraging and even punishing them for doing so. 

Inspectors should be required again—as they were until USDA set new protocols following the Hallmark case—to file "Noncompliance Reports" for egregious humane handling violations, rather than just filing "Memoranda of Interview" documents that bypass the computerized tracking system. It's troubling that the agency doesn't want the most serious humane handling violations to be entered into the system that can be readily analyzed by inspectors, the public, media, USDA Office of Food Safety and others.

The HSUS also once again urged the USDA to immediately close the loophole in its regulations that allows downer cattle to be slaughtered for food. Agriculture Secretary Schafer announced intentions to close this loophole in May 2008, but the agency has taken months to propose a rule and review comments on it.

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The Humane Society of the United States is the nation's largest animal protection organization — backed by 10.5 million Americans, or one of every 30. For more than a half-century, The HSUS has been fighting for the protection of all animals through advocacy, education and hands-on programs. Celebrating animals and confronting cruelty — On the web at humanesociety.org.