Source:  Rita Jane Gabbett, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 4/12/11

In comments filed with USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service the American Meat Institute urged the agency to reject two petitions filed by the Humane Society of the United States and Farm Sanctuary calling for livestock that cannot walk when they arrive at plants to be euthanized.  

The HSUS petition seeks to prohibit the common practice of warming veal calves to permit them time to rest and become ambulatory. The Farm Sanctuary petition seeks for any livestock that are non-ambulatory for any reason when they arrive at plants to be immediately euthanized. FSIS indicated that it is inclined to grant the HSUS petition, according to AMI.

In both petitions, the petitioners argued that when livestock are unable to walk, an incentive exists for plant personnel to abuse the animals and force them to walk.  AMI’s comments deconstructed that argument by showing the strong incentives that exist to ensure an animal’s welfare, both in terms of the quality benefits and in terms of the costs attendant to lost production time when regulatory actions are taken in response to inhumane treatment of livestock.

AMI also noted that granting the Farm Sanctuary petition, in particular, would  impede disease surveillance and could cause confusion if a non-ambulatory hog that is simply tired and refusing to rise becomes ambulatory before a veterinarian arrives to check it.  

“Granting the petitions would result in unnecessary waste with no identifiable benefit,” AMI stated.  

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