Ignored slaughterhouse violations under congressional scrutiny

Peter Eisler reports for USA Today online that Dean Wyatt, a supervisory veterinarian for the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), will testify today before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee about how he and other inspectors were "overruled when citing slaughterhouses for violations," and how he was "threatened with transfer or demotion" after citing a plant for violating rules that require pigs be stunned and unconscious before being butchered.

Eisler quotes Wyatt as stating in his written testimony for the committee that "When upper-level FSIS management looks the other way as food safety or humane slaughter laws are broken . . . then management is just as guilty for breaking those laws [.]" The violations Wyatt refers to include "shocking and butchering days-old calves that were too weak or sick to stand[,]" and butchering pigs that were still conscious.

This testimony is not good publicity for the USDA following the past year's numerous product recalls due to food-borne illness outbreaks, and the USA Today investigation that revealed the quality of meat served in public schools as part of the federal free and reduced-price school lunch program was so poor that fast food restaurants would not serve it.

For their part, the current USDA officials point out that the "inaction on Wyatt's reports occured before the tenure of current" USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack. Secretary Vilsack maintains the department will enforce the laws on animal treatment.

As USA Today reports, perhaps the most egregious of the violations Wyatt reported that were ignored by his managers involves Bushway Packing Inc., in Grand Isle, VT. Three times Wyatt ordered that Bushway operations be suspended for violations. Eisler reports that one violation included dragging downed calves through pens, where they could come into contact with fecal material that can carry bacterias and pathogens that cause food-borne illnesses, to where they were going to be slaughtered. Each time he operations suspended he was overruled by his managers and Bushway kept operating.

Fast-forward to this past fall when Bushway violations were caught on undercover video by the Humane Society of the United States. The video showed workers "hitting and using electric prods to move calves." As Eisler reports, the plant was shut down and Secretary Vilsack ordered a criminal investigation.

If today's hearing is any indication, the USDA will step up enforcement of slaughterhouse and animal treatment laws, or the department will continue to face congressional scrutiny.

To read Eisler's USA Today article click here.

Posted: 03/04/10