Why the Humane Slaughter Act and the USDA Fail to Prevent Cruelty to Animals

If we can’t get protection to prevent kids from dying after they eat tainted meat, to prevent slaughterhouse workers from being injured at rates up to 35 times higher than their counterparts in other factory jobs, and to stop the meat industry from poisoning rural communities and the environment, then it’s not a surprise that the government has done next to nothing to prevent cruelty to animals in factory farms and slaughterhouses. In fact, no federal legislation designed to protect farmed animals has hit the House or Senate floor in almost 30 years, and no federal law protects animals in factory farms, where they spend their entire lives, from even the most egregious cruelty.

"Meet Your Meat"

The one federal law that protects farmed animals at all, the Humane Methods of Livestock Slaughter Act (HMLSA), affects only the final moments of life for cows and pigs in the slaughterhouse—it excludes chickens, turkeys, and fish entirely despite the fact that they constitute 99 percent of the animals who are killed for food in the U.S. As if that weren’t bad enough, the act doesn’t even protect pigs and cows as it is supposed to do, because the new food-safety system has taken inspectors off the killing floor and put them in offices where they spend all day filling out paperwork. Arthur Hughes, president of the National Joint Council of Food Inspection Locals, describes the situation: “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.”

A report in The Washington Post titled “‘They Die Piece by Piece’” states: “[M]any inspectors describe humane slaughter as a blind spot …. The meat inspectors’ union … contended that federal agents are ‘often prevented from carrying out’ the mandate against animal cruelty. Among the obstacles inspectors face are ... ‘new inspection policies which significantly reduce [their] enforcement authority and little to no access to the areas of the plants where animals are killed.’”

Because there is no one on the killing floor to see that the Humane Methods of Livestock Slaughter Act is enforced, the pigs and cows whom the act is supposed to protect are routinely kicked, beaten, and electrocuted at slaughter, and they are often still alive when their throats are cut and their bodies hacked apart. Learn more about what happens to animals in factory farms and slaughterhouses.

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