U.S. Government Admits to Inadequate Slaughterhouse Regulation
One whistleblower’s powerful testimony about the abuse of pigs and calves in slaughterhouses throughout the country may bring about a serious overhaul in the U.S. government’s monitoring of slaughterhouses.
Dean Wyatt is a veterinarian and supervisor of the Food Safety and Inspection Services (FSIS), which is a part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Last week, Wyatt told the members of a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee that time after time, his warnings about unsafe slaughterhouse practices went ignored. Two of the slaughterhouses he worked with—one in Oklahoma that allegedly mishandled pigs and one in Vermont that he ordered to shut down three times for mistreating calves—ignored his directives to stop abusing animals. And a Government Accountability Office report released Thursday supports Wyatt’s claims, admitting that the FSIS has a history of unsuccessfully regulating slaughterhouses and that it is lax in its enforcement of humane slaughtering standards:
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Now governmental officials are saying that they will take steps to improve the agency’s enforcement standards. So does this mean that we’ll see more stringent enforcement anytime soon? We hope so. But in the meantime, there’s no reason to support the massacre of animals or to jeopardize your health: Go vegan!
Written by Logan Scherer