Source: Susan Kelly, MEATINGPLACE, 11/15/18



The Animal Welfare Institute has sued USDA for failing to mandate third-party audits of food label claims such as “humane” and “sustainable.”

The animal activist group, in a complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, accuses USDA of an unreasonable delay in responding to the organization’s 2014 petition for rulemaking. The petition asked the agency to require independent certification of animal raising claims including “animal compassionate” and “raised with care.”

The group in August filed a separate lawsuitagainst USDA for failing to respond to its Freedom of Information Act request for department records related to the treatment of animals in U.S. slaughter plants. Earlier in August, the Animal Welfare Institute made allegations that live poultry are routinely mistreated during transportation and processing in a letter to USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service that it also made public.

In 2016, the group sued USDA alleging an unreasonable delay in responding to a 2013 petition asking the agency to amend the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act.

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