USDA Report Finds That AgriProcessors Violated Humane, Kosher Laws

PETA is calling on government inspectors to be fired after a federal probe revealed that they accepted gifts and kept quiet about illegal mutilations of live animals. After reviewing video footage taken by an undercover PETA investigator, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has concluded that Postville, Iowa-based AgriProcessors—the largest glatt kosher slaughterhouse in the world—repeatedly violated provisions of the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act (HMSA) while federal inspectors looked on and did nothing.

Workers were caught on videotape shocking cows in the face with electric prods, ripping out their windpipes while they were still conscious, and dumping the animals onto the floor as they struggled in terror while blood gushed from their throats. The report belies AgriProcessors’ earlier claims that the cruel methods it used to kill cows complied with federal and kosher regulations.

The USDA report also states that some inspectors accepted gifts of meat from AgriProcessors, failed to report violations, and committed “other acts of misconduct.” Despite the USDA’s findings, the assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Iowa has declined to press charges against AgriProcessors. PETA is requesting reports on what actions are being taken against the delinquent inspectors and calling for their immediate dismissal.

The HMSA stipulates that animals cannot be dismembered until they are rendered insensible to pain, including during ritual slaughter. This was not the case at AgriProcessors. The investigations by both PETA and the USDA found that more than 10 percent of the animals whose tracheas were ripped out tried to stand up and writhed on the floor in pools of their own blood. In more than four hours of videotape shot by PETA’s investigator, more than 20 percent of the 278 animals shown being killed were clearly conscious after having their throats cut and their tracheas ripped out by workers. Read more about the factory-farming and slaughterhouse industry.

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