Humane Slaughter Act
Encyclopedia
Food Safety and Inspection Service
The Food Safety and Inspection Service , an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture , is the public health agency responsible for ensuring that the nation's commercial supply of meat, poultry, and egg products is safe, wholesome, and correctly labeled and packaged...
inspectors at slaughtering plants are responsible for overseeing compliance, and have the authority to stop slaughter lines and order plant employees to take corrective actions. Although more than 168 million chickens (excluding broilers) and around 9 billion broiler chickens are killed for food in the United States yearly, the Humane Slaughter Act specifically mentions only cattle, calves, horses, mules, sheep and swine.
Following news reports in early 2002 alleging significant non-compliance, FSIS assigned additional veterinarians to its district offices specifically to monitor humane slaughter and handling procedures and to report to headquarters on compliance. The 2002 farm bill requests an annual compliance report to Congress, and in the FYß2003 agricultural appropriations act, Congress designated $5 million of FSIS funding for hiring 50 additional compliance inspectors. Language in the FY2004 consolidated appropriations act directs FSIS to continue fulfilling that mandate, and the FY2005 budget request calls for another $5 million to be allocated for enforcement activities. A January 2004 GAO
Gao
Gao is a town in eastern Mali on the River Niger lying ESE of Timbuktu. Situated on the left bank of the river at the junction with the Tilemsi valley, it is the capital of the Gao Region and had a population of 86,663 in 2009....
report states that compliance problems persist (GAO-04-247). Earlier concerns about humane treatment of non-ambulatory (downer) cattle at slaughter houses became irrelevant when FSIS issued regulations in January 2004 (69 FR 1892) prohibiting them from being slaughtered and inspected for use as human food.
Content of the Humane Slaughter Act
7 U.S.C.A. § 1902. Humane methodsNo method of slaughtering or handling in connection with slaughtering shall be deemed to comply with the public policy of the United States unless it is humane. Either of the following two methods of slaughtering and handling are hereby found to be humane:
(a) in the case of cattle, calves, horses, mules, sheep, swine, and other livestock, all animals are rendered insensible to pain by a single blow or gunshot or an electrical, chemical or other means that is rapid and effective, before being shackled, hoisted, thrown, cast, or cut; or
(b) by slaughtering in accordance with the ritual requirements of the Jewish faith or any other religious faith that prescribes a method of slaughter whereby the animal suffers loss of consciousness by anemia of the brain caused by the simultaneous and instantaneous severance of the carotid arteries with a sharp instrument and handling in connection with such slaughtering.
According to the law, animals should be stunned into unconsciousness prior to their slaughter to ensure a quick, relatively painless death. The most common methods are electrocution and CO2 stunning for swine and captive bolt stunning
Captive bolt pistol
A captive bolt pistol is a device used for stunning animals prior to slaughter....
for cattle, sheep, and goats. Frequent on-site monitoring is necessary, as is the employment of skilled and well-trained personnel. An animal is considered properly stunned when there is no "righting reflex"; that is, the animal must not try to stand up and right itself. Only then can it be considered fully unconscious. It can then proceed down the line, where slaughterhouse workers commence in cutting up its body.
The act contains a broad exemption for all animals slaughtered in accordance with religious law. This generally applies to animals killed for the kosher and Halal meat market. Jewish law (halakha
Halakha
Halakha — also transliterated Halocho , or Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions.Judaism classically draws no distinction in its laws between religious and ostensibly non-religious life; Jewish...
) prescribes that the animal be fully sensible before slaughter. Proponents of these slaughter methods claim that the severing of the animal's carotid arteries, jugular veins and vagus nerve provides a stun more effective than many other methods otherwise permitted.
1958
The first version of the HMSLA was passed in 1958. Public demand for the act was so great that when asked at a press conference whether he would sign it, President Dwight D. EisenhowerDwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
stated, "If I went by mail, I’d think no one was interested in anything but humane slaughter."
Senator Hubert H. Humphrey was the author of the first humane slaughter bill introduced in the US Congress and chief Senate sponsor of the Federal Humane Slaughter Act,which passed in 1958.
1978
In 1978, the HMSLA was updated and United States Department of AgricultureUnited States Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture is the United States federal executive department responsible for developing and executing U.S. federal government policy on farming, agriculture, and food...
(USDA) inspectors were given the authority to stop the slaughtering line when cruelty was observed. Officially, slaughtering was not to continue until said cruelty, whether as a result of equipment or of abuses by personnel, was corrected. However, the USDA eventually stopped authorizing USDA inspectors to stop the line, since doing so incurs considerable cost of time for the industry.
2002
Improvements were made on May 13, 2002, when President George W. BushGeorge W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
signed the Farm Bill (Public Law 107-171) into law. It includes a Resolution confirming that the HMSLA should be fully enforced.
When introducing the Resolution on the Senate floor, Senator Peter Fitzgerald said:
Exclusionary policies
The HMSLA is criticized by animal rightsAnimal rights
Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...
advocates and the Humane Society of the United States
Humane Society of the United States
The Humane Society of the United States , based in Washington, D.C., is the largest animal advocacy organization in the world. In 2009, HSUS reported assets of over US$160 million....
for only including cattle, pigs, and sheep but not poultry
Poultry
Poultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for the purpose of producing eggs, meat, and/or feathers. These most typically are members of the superorder Galloanserae , especially the order Galliformes and the family Anatidae , commonly known as "waterfowl"...
, fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
, rabbit
Rabbit
Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world...
s or other animals routinely slaughtered for food. After a 2004 PETA
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is an American animal rights organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, and led by Ingrid Newkirk, its international president. A non-profit corporation with 300 employees and two million members and supporters, it claims to be the largest animal rights...
undercover investigation which publicized abuse of chickens by employees of a West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
Pilgrim's Pride
Pilgrim's Pride
Pilgrim's Corp., previously Pilgrim's Pride , is a former U.S.-owned company with its U.S. headquarters relocated to Greeley, Colorado. As a subsidiary of the Brazilian food giant, JBS, it is the largest chicken producer in the United States and Puerto Rico and the second-largest chicken producer...
slaughterhouse that supplied chickens to KFC
KFC
KFC, founded and also known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, is a chain of fast food restaurants based in Louisville, Kentucky, in the United States. KFC has been a brand and operating segment, termed a concept of Yum! Brands since 1997 when that company was spun off from PepsiCo as Tricon Global...
, PETA was joined by the Humane Society in calling for the Humane Slaughter Act to be expanded to include birds.
See also
- Animal lawAnimal lawAnimal law is a combination of statutory and case law in which the nature—legal, social or biological—of nonhuman animals is an important factor. Animal law encompasses companion animals, wildlife, animals used in entertainment and animals raised for food and research...
- Animal rightsAnimal rightsAnimal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...
- Factory farmingFactory farmingFactory farming is a term referring to the process of raising livestock in confinement at high stocking density, where a farm operates as a factory — a practice typical in industrial farming by agribusinesses. The main products of this industry are meat, milk and eggs for human consumption...
- Islamic ritual slaughter
- Animal slaughterAnimal slaughterSlaughter is the term used to describe the killing and butchering of animals, usually for food. Commonly it refers to killing and butchering of domestic livestock ....
External links
- 2003 Report from the USDA
- Statute in Full at Animallaw.info
- Criticism of the HMSLA from an animal rights perspective
- Criticism of the HMSLA from the HSUS
- Blog of Former Slaughterhouse Worker, Virgil Butler
- Humane Farm Association USDA Petition, with Quotes from USDA Inspectors and Slaughterhouse Workers