CRIMES WITHOUT CONSEQUENCES - gpvec

1. Introduction
The purpose of this report is to analyze U.S. humane slaughter laws and the enforcement
of those laws by government agencies. Material is included related to the slaughter of
animals in U.S. custom, state-inspected and federal-inspected slaughterhouses, as well as
the slaughter of animals in foreign plants certified to export meat to the United States.
The foundation of the report is the analysis of more than 1,000 documents gathered from
approximately 60 public records requests submitted to state and federal agricultural
departments over a three-year period, from early 2004 through 2006. Following is a list
of the documents obtained and reviewed in the preparation of this report:
State Enforcement
1 All enforcement records (30 states ): January 1, 2003 to December 31, 2004
Federal Enforcement of U.S. Plants
2 NRs (all plants) : October 1, 2002 to March 31, 2004
Notices of Intended Enforcement (NOIEs) (all plants): January 1, 1998 to
September 30, 2007
Suspension of Inspection (all plants): January 1, 1998 to September 30, 2007
Withdrawal of Inspection (all plants): January 1, 1998 to September 30, 2007
Federal Enforcement of Foreign Plants
3 Annual country audits (31 countries ): January 1, 2004 to December 31, 2007
In addition to analyzing government documents related to humane slaughter enforcement,
this report presents information regarding voluntary industry guidelines and humane
food program standards related to humane slaughter. The report concludes with
recommendations for improving the humaneness of animal slaughter in the United States.
1 Represents all states with meat inspection programs (28) or meat custom inspection programs (2) at the time
research was initiated. As of August 13, 2007, 27 states operated meat inspection programs, with New Mexico
meat inspection duties being taken over on that date by the USDA due to reported flaws in the state’s inspection
services. See USDA-FSIS, Designation of the state of New Mexico under the Federal Meat Inspection Act and
Poultry Products Inspection Act; final rule, Federal Register, Vol. 72, No. 134, July 13, 2007, pp. 38467-38468.
See also Johnston G, Feds relieve New Mexico of meat-inspection duties, http://www.Meatingplace.com,
July 10, 2007.
2 While the information from state-inspected and federal-inspected foreign plants was easily obtained, the
USDA-FSIS, which supplies documents related to federal inspection of U.S. slaughter plants, typically requires
up to six months to produce a single document and two or more years to produce a large volume of documents
requested under the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Preparation and release of this report were
delayed as a result. The delay also affected the relevance of the documents received to the current status of
federal humane law enforcement. The handling of FOIA requests by the USDA makes producing an accurate
assessment of federal oversight of the nation’s food safety laws extremely difficult, if not impossible.
3 Represents all countries approved to certify slaughter plants for export of meat and/or meat products to the
United States, as of February 2008.
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