Cow restrained for stunning just prior to slaughter.

The Humane Slaughter Act, or the Humane Methods of Livestock Slaughter Act, (P.L. 85-765; 7 U.S.C. 1901 et seq.) is a United States federal law designed to protect food animals during the moment of their slaughter. It was passed in 1958. Food Safety and Inspection Service 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 90% of animals killed for food in the United States are chickens, the Humane Slaughter Act specifically excludes birds.^[1]

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 FY2003 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 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.^[2]

[edit] Content of the Humane Slaughter Act

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 C02 stunning for swine and captive bolt stunning 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. Strict interpretation of kashrut generally requires that the animal be fully sensible when its carotid artery is cut.

[edit] History of the Humane Slaughter Act

[edit] 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. Eisenhower stated, "If I went by mail, I’d think no one was interested in anything but humane slaughter." Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, author of the first humane slaughter bill introduced in the US Congress and chief Senate sponsor of the Federal Humane Slaughter Act, passed in 1958.

[edit] 1978

In 1978, the HMSLA was updated and United States Department of Agriculture (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.

[edit] 2002

Improvements were made on May 13, 2002, when President George W. Bush 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:

On April 10, 2001, the Washington Post printed a front page story entitled "They Die Piece by Piece." This graphic article asserted that the United States Department of Agriculture was not appropriately enforcing the Humane Slaughter Act. In response, I am introducing this resolution that encourages the Secretary of Agriculture to fully enforce current law including the Humane Slaughter Act of 1958, as amended by the Federal Meat Inspection Act in 1978.

The Humane Slaughter Act simply requires that animals be rendered insensible to pain before they are harvested. However, apparently this law is not being enforced in some instances. For example, the Washington Post article reported that "enforcement records, interviews, videos and worker affidavits describe repeated violations of the Humane Slaughter Act" and "the government took no action against a Texas beef company that was cited 22 times in 1998 for violations that include chopping hooves off live cattle".

[edit] Criticism of the HMSLA

[edit] Exclusionary policies

The HMSLA is criticized by animal rights advocates and the Humane Society of the United States for only including cattle, pigs, and sheep but not poultry, fish, rabbits or other animals routinely slaughtered for food. After a 2004 PETA undercover investigation which publicized abuse of chickens by employees of a West Virginia Pilgrim's Pride slaughterhouse that supplied chickens to KFC, PETA was joined by the Humane Society in calling for the Humane Slaughter Act to be expanded to include birds.^[3]

[edit] Failure to enforce

Additional criticism exists in the USDA's failure to enforce the HMSLA effectively. Arthur Hughes, president of the National Joint Council of Food Inspection Locals, has stated that, “We are the people who are charged by Congress with enforcing [the HMLSA], but most of our inspectors have little to no access to those areas of the plants where animals are being handled and slaughtered."

[edit] Slaughterhouse workers

Animal and human rights activists are concerned with the treatment of slaughterhouse workers, who are very often abused, overworked, and underqualified for their duties. Generally uneducated and without competent English skills, they are desperate for work. Some employees report that they are threatened with the loss of their jobs should they attempt to complain about the abattoir. They are expected to slaughter one animal every three seconds—and are penalized when they slow down. This translates to frustration and anger on the part of the workers, and further abuse for the animals they slaughter.^[4]

[edit] Inadequacy

The HMSLA is also criticized because, despite being the only U.S. law designed to protect livestock, it only focuses on the last few minutes of animals' lives and has no effect on how they are treated beforehand, even as they are going to slaughter.

An anonymous slaughterhouse worker (as documented by the Humane Farming Association) stated, "[If a cow is unable to walk] they put a big long chain around her neck then drag her all the way up to where we are. Usually she's dead by then. Strangled. Sometimes a steer would get its head stuck in the restrainer. You couldn't stun it at that point so you'd end up cutting its head off while the beef was still alive."

[edit] See also

• Animal law
• Animal rights
• Factory farming
• Islamic ritual slaughter
• Animal slaughter

[edit] External links

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (February 2008)

• 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

[edit] Footnotes