Source: Lisa M. Keefe, MEATINGPLACE, 12/14/16

The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) has filed a lawsuit against USDA for its “unreasonable delay in responding to an AWI petition — filed in May 2013 — to amend the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act (HMSA),” the group said in a news release.

AWI is asking the court to order USDA to answer its petition, which requests that the agency require that all slaughter establishments follow clear procedures to address animal welfare to prevent inhumane handling and slaughter. The animal welfare organization is suing USDA under the Administrative Procedure Act, which requires agencies to respond to citizen petitions for rulemaking within a reasonable time.

“The USDA is shirking its duty as a regulatory agency by refusing to initiate rulemaking to amend the HMSA, particularly when many of the causes of inhumane slaughter are well known and easily addressed,” Dena Jones, farm animal program director at AWI, said in the release.

AWI said its petition is based on its review of more than 1,000 humane slaughter violations at state and federally inspected plants from 2007 through 2012, records that it obtained through more than 100 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to USDA and state departments of agriculture.

The group contends that only 35 percent of federally inspected plants — and very few state inspected plants — have developed comprehensive animal handling plans recommended by USDA eight years ago. It notes that USDA currently considers such plans to be at the discretion of individual plants; typically they are not required until after one or more egregious incidents has occurred. 

AWI’s petition requests that USDA amend the HMSA regulations to address the lack of backup stunning devices, as well as the other identified causes of inhumane slaughter. AWI estimates that up to half of all inhumane handling violations could be avoided by improvements to the HMSA regulations.

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