CRIMES WITHOUT CONSEQUENCES - gpvec

Executive Summary
Each year, about 10 billion chickens, turkeys, cattle, pigs, sheep and goats are killed
for food in the United States. The common experience shared by all is slaughter. It is a
process that takes place far from public view, and one that vegetarians and meat-eaters
alike prefer to avoid contemplating. In his classic early 20 th century novel, The Jungle,
writer and social activist Upton Sinclair compared the American slaughterhouse to a
dungeon where terrible crimes were committed “unseen and unheeded.”
Despite the relatively limited attention given to the killing of animals for food, slaughter
practices in the United States have come under increased scrutiny in the past decade, due
to the disclosure of multiple incidents of grossly inhumane treatment. These revelations
have resulted in actions by Congress to improve enforcement of the national law created
to protect animals at slaughter—the Federal Humane Methods of Slaughter Act. The
impact of these actions on the final hours of the lives of animals raised for food in the
United States is the subject of this report.
A groundbreaking investigation
Due to a lack of published information regarding humane slaughter laws in the United
States, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) has published a comprehensive review—the
first of its kind to analyze the level of enforcement of humane slaughter standards at
state, federal and foreign slaughterhouses. This report attempted to answer the following
questions:
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To what degree is the federal humane slaughter law enforced at federal-inspected
slaughterhouses, and does enforcement vary by animal species, by size of slaughter
plant or by region of the United States?
Are state and federal humane slaughter laws enforced at state-inspected and custom
slaughterhouses, and do state anti-animal cruelty statutes protect animals against
inhumane treatment at slaughter?
Does the United States require compliance with its humane slaughter law at foreign
slaughterhouses approved to export meat products to the country?
Does the meat industry monitor compliance with its voluntary humane slaughter
standards, and does it take action against slaughterhouses failing to meet the
standards?
In search of answers, Dena Jones reviewed and summarized data obtained from more
than 60 public records requests to federal and state agriculture departments, as well
as other documents, covering a 5-year period from 2002 through 2007. In addition,
descriptions of industry slaughterhouse audits, available to the public on the Internet,
were also reviewed.
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