CRIMES WITHOUT CONSEQUENCES - gpvec

11. Conclusion
Fifty years ago, the U.S. Congress declared that the slaughtering of livestock and the
handling of livestock in connection with slaughter must be carried out only by humane
methods. The issue of the treatment of animals at slaughter has received renewed
attention during the past decade as a result of the disclosure that a significant number of
animals are not being humanely handled in U.S. slaughter establishments. In response,
Congress, food service retailers and the slaughter industry itself have taken several
actions to improve the humaneness of slaughter.
To what degree these initiatives have succeeded is difficult to determine. Access to
slaughter plants and to the handling of animals in the plants, is severely limited. With few
exceptions, no humane officials monitor the slaughter process. Audits conducted by the
meat industry and food retailers demonstrate significant improvement, particularly during
the 5-year period from the mid-1990s to 2000. However, whistleblower accounts and
videotape documentation captured by animal advocates suggest that these audit findings
may not be representative of standard practice. In fact, in at least two cases incidents
of blatant cruelty were documented around the same time that the slaughterhouse in
question received a passing grade on a third-party animal welfare audit. Only a small
percentage of U.S. slaughterhouses have ever undergone a third-party audit, and in those
that have, management and workers are typically aware of the review and may alter their
performance in response.
While the meat industry’s compliance with humane handling and slaughter practices is
difficult to assess, the level of enforcement of humane slaughter laws by federal and state
agencies is not. This report summarizes enforcement information gathered from more
than 60 public records requests to federal and state departments of agriculture. It appears
from these records that the level of humane enforcement has increased only slightly in the
past decade. The analysis suggests that humane slaughter generally remains a low priority
for U.S. agricultural enforcement agencies.
The history of humane slaughter enforcement offers little hope that government oversight
of the treatment of animals at slaughter will improve significantly in the future. The
U.S. and state departments of agriculture are faced with an inherent conflict of interest
in meeting their dual mission of safeguarding animals and the public while promoting
animal agriculture. Humane slaughter is likely to remain a low priority in the United
States until the enforcement of humane laws is administered by separate federal and state
government agencies dedicated to animal protection.
Until this is accomplished, a number of actions can be taken to make food animal
slaughter more humane. Following are the specific findings of this report and associated
recommendations.
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