White's Wholesale Meats: Non-Compliance to Humane Livestock Handling in 2021 (USDA)

313.16(a)(2)

HATS Category VI: Electric Prodding/Alternative Object Use On 7/26/21 at approximately 1100 hours while performing the Livestock Humane Handling Verification task by the knock box for HATS category VI: Electric Prodding/Alternative Object Use, I observed the following non-compliance. While the establishment was attempting to allow a steer to enter the knock box, a second steer followed the first inside. Attempting to coerce the second steer out of the knock box, an employee retrieved the electric prod and climbed onto the knock box railing to have access to the second steer from the front. The employee proceeded to apply the electric prod multiple times to the front of the animal. As I was standing to the side, I was unable to see the location the prod was being used but heard the second steer vocalizing. When I moved to the front of the knock box to see how the prod was being used, I observed the employee apply the prod to the second steer’s nose. This caused the animal to vocalize and retreat from the knock box. I alerted plant manager Ben White of what I had observed and that a Humane Handling NR would be issued. The employee was reassigned from interacting with the animals for the rest of the day. After reviewing the Humane Handling plan written by the establishment, I found that the employee who used the electric prod did not have their training documented in the establishment’s humane handling training log. The establishment’s humane handling plan states that “We do have electric prods but use them sparingly. We strive to move animals with minimum excitement and stress.” The plan mentions that they have a rattle paddle and that it will be used before resorting to the electric prod. In this case the rattle paddle was not used before the prod, the prod was not used “sparingly”, and minimal excitement/stress was not achieved. No regulatory control action was taken at the time due to the prompt corrective actions provided by the plant manager. There have been no other non-compliances for the same root cause within the past 90 days.