Agency increases efforts to assure humane treatment, official says

By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press

A veterinarian claims his supervisors at the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service subverted his attempts to stop animal abuse at slaughterhouses in Oklahoma and Vermont.

Officials at FSIS ignored serious violations and reversed decisions intended to remedy problems at the facilities, said Dean Wyatt, a supervisory public health veterinarian for the agency.

Attempts to enforce humane slaughter laws occasionally resulted in retaliatory actions against Wyatt and other inspectors, he said during a House subcommittee hearing on March 4.

"I must admit that I feel somewhat like Don Quixote here because I have been in the trenches, I have fought the battles, I have the dents in my armor -- only the dents in my armor have not come from plant management, they have come from upper-level FSIS management," Wyatt said in submitted testimony.

In 2007, Wyatt said he ordered operations at the Seaboard Farms hog slaughter plant in Guymon, Okla., to be suspended after conscious pigs where killed in violation of the Humane Slaughter Act.

The law requires animals to be rendered unconscious before slaughter.

Workers at the facility continued slaughtering hogs despite Wyatt's order, he said.

Without speaking to Wyatt, officials at the FSIS later overturned the non-compliance report and ignored the company's violation of the suspension order, he said.

In 2008, Wyatt said he ordered another suspension after workers allowed hogs to trample each other. The order was ignored by the company, and FSIS officials chastised inspectors for the incident, he said.

After reporting other incidents the following month, Wyatt was demoted and told to "cut back on the amount of time that I was spending on humane handling enforcement," he said.

Wyatt said these episodes undermined the authority of all FSIS inspectors at the plant and ultimately led to his transfer to another facility, Bushway Packing in Grand Isle, Vt.

Inspectors at that plant were instructed by an FSIS official not to enforce a regulation aimed at preventing conscious veal calves from being slaughtered, he said.

Downed calves were dragged and thrown by workers in violation of humane handling rules, while other calves died of starvation and dehydration, Wyatt said.

Wyatt said he continued to be subject to retaliation for reporting abuses until the Humane Society of the United States released a video of mistreated calves at the Bushway plant last year.

At that point, officials at USDA began listening to his concerns, Wyatt said.

"Food-integrity and humane-handling whistleblowers should not have to rely on an undercover video investigation in order for USDA supervisors to take their disclosures seriously," he said.

Stan Painter, chairman of a food inspectors' labor union, complained during the hearing that FSIS did not make humane handling a priority.

During a recent 13-day training session for food inspectors, Painter said he only received a few minutes of instruction about humane handling.

After a major controversy over downer cattle abuses in 2008, inspectors were only given an online refresher course, Painter said in submitted testimony. "There was no follow-up by the agency management to emphasize the importance of enforcing the provisions of the (Humane Slaughter) Act."

The agency's inspection division is understaffed, and prior efforts to increase accountability by hiring additional supervisors haven't generated on-the-ground changes, he said.

"We are also hamstrung by our supervisors who are either not qualified to do their jobs, unwilling to let us do our jobs, or who are not committed to making animal welfare a priority," Painter said.

A report by the Government Accountability Office, which investigates federal matters for Congress, found that FSIS inspectors had inconsistent responses to humane handling violations.

"In addition, our review of noncompliance reports identified incidents in which inspectors did not suspend plant operations or take regulatory actions when they appeared warranted," the GAO report said.

Jerold Mande, deputy undersecretary for food safety at USDA, defended FSIS and outlined the agency's plans to strengthen oversight.

The agency has rigorous training programs for inspectors and maintains a database of humane handling inspections and regulatory actions, he said.

The FSIS recently created 23 new inspector positions specifically for higher-risk facilities and is trying to fill the "newly created position of Humane Handling Enforcement Coordinator," whose primary responsibility will be oversight of animal handling, Mande said.

The agency also plans to develop guidelines for using electronic monitoring equipment at inspected facilities and will encourage companies to use such technology to ensure compliance with humane handling rules, he said.

"We must always seek improved performance and we value the opportunity to discuss development that could enhance our enforcement" of humane slaughter rules, Mande said.