Black River Meats: Non-Compliance to Humane Livestock Handling in 2022 (USDA)

313.1

On 9-14-22 at 4:30AM, I conducted an Odd Hour Inspection Task for the current quarter and while performing HATS Category III—Water and Feed Availability, I noticed there were pens with cattle with no available water. The pens are open air pens and have no locks or security lighting and no overnight guards or plant staff on site. The pens are roughly 50 by 50 feet wide. This gives the cows plenty of room to move around and have access to food and water. On 9-13-22 Black River Meats LLC (BRM) held over 12 cows. One bull, one beef cow and the rest were dairy cattle. The bull was housed in his own pen and the other cows were housed in another pen next to the bulls pen. Before leaving BRM on 9-13-22 I saw REDACTED and REDACTED fill up all of the cows water buckets. The water buckets that the plant use are 50 gallon barrels that are cut in half and then filled with water. There are no water lines coming in to refill the buckets or floats to activate a pump to fill water into the buckets once they are low or empty. REDACTED and REDACTED put two buckets in each pen. Each pen would have a total of 50 gallons of water. Upon arriving at BRM on 9-14-22 I found that more cows were dropped off and were housed in a different pen. There was a total of three pens that had cows in them. Roughly about 30 cows were at BRM at the time of the task. Of the three pens only the bull’s pen still had water in his buckets and the third pen that had been most recently dropped off they had no water or any water buckets in their pen. It appeared to me that the pen that had the bulk of cows in it from the night prior had their water buckets upright. But they both were empty. I believe from what I saw that the cows had drank all the water. No available water in the pens is a noncompliance to 9 CFR 313.2(e). Later in the morning plant staff were informed that they would be getting a NR.

313.15(a)(3)

Ineffective Stun Issued 7-11-2022 Black River Meats LLC Est. 47710 IIC REDACTED At approximately 1117 hours while performing HATS VIII Stunning Effectiveness task, I observed the following noncompliance. The first animal to be stunned was a bull.   The bull entered the chute before it was fully ready for an animal to enter.  However, Mr. REDACTED, one of the Establishment Owners, got the situation under control and the bull was properly secured in the chute and head restraint.  Mr.  REDACTED then loaded the hand-held captive bolt (HHCB), device and handed it to an establishment employee to stun the bull.  The employee placed the HHCB on the bull’s head and fired the device.  From where I was standing on the slaughter floor near the inspection table, the firing of the HHCB sounded muffled. The bull dropped and was limp and no sound came from the animal.  After the first stunning attempt Mr. REDACTED thought that a security stun should be performed so he handed the establishment employee who had performed the first stun another shell to place in the HHCB. Instead, the establishment employee started to open the chute.  Once the chute started opening the bull stood up and was fully conscious. The bull then started to buck and move around. The chute was closed immediately, and the bull was re-secured. I saw no blood coming from the bull’s head. The bull did not vocalize. After seeing this, Mr. REDACTED immediately ran and got a .45 caliber pistol from the establishment’s main office. He came back running on to the slaughter floor and yelled for everyone to clear the room. Once the floor was cleared Mr. REDACTED made an effective stun with the firearm on the second attempt. After the bull was stunned and bled out, I took a verbal RCA and after Mr. REDACTED provided corrective actions and preventive measures, slaughter operations resumed.  I told Mr. REDACTED that I would issue an NR for the ineffective stun in violation of 9 CFR 313.15(a)(3). When the bull’s head came to the inspection stand, I observed that there was one wound that dented the skull of the bull but did not penetrate the skull and that there was one hole from the gun shot. ESTABLISHMENT RESPONSE Mr. REDACTED said that he would go back to shooting all bulls and big cows with a gun rather than a captive bolt to insure one shot one kill. Since this incident, the establishment has been observed using firearm on all bulls.

313.2

On Friday, 03-04-2022, while performing an Odd Hour Inspection Task and a HATS Category III, Water and Feed Availability, I observed the following noncompliance. At 6:08AM on 03-04-2022 I found while conducting my odd hour inspection task at est. 47710 that the water for the one dairy cow that was held over from 03-03-2022 was frozen solid. Prior to leaving the plant on 03-03-2022 I made sure that the cow had access to unfrozen water. The water tanks that the establishment uses are uninsulated cut in half 50 gallon plastic drums/barrels. The water tanks have no heater or pump to heat or move water to prevent the water from freezing. At the time of the odd hour inspection task the air Temperature was 4 degrees F. As soon as plant owners REDACTED and REDACTED arrived at the plant at 6:30 AM I notified them that the cow’s water was frozen and that a NR would be issued. REDACTED and REDACTED also made sure to get some unfrozen water to the cow right away. This NR is related to a NR that I documented on 02-18-2022. The NR number is CZX4707022821N. In this NR the plant held 12 cows overnight. Some of the cows were housed in the small on-site barn that is just off the kill floor of the plant and the rest of the cows were held in the outside holding pen that is just off the barn and kill floor of the plant. In NR CZX4707022821N I found that the water for the cows was frozen solid when I came in the morning to do part of my human handling task. The water tanks where the same ones that were used in the NR that I documented on 03-04-2022. Uninsulated and also have no water heater or water pump to prevent water from freezing up. The air temperature was similar in both NR as well.

313.15(a)(1)

On Friday, 2-18-2022, while performing HATS Category III, Water and Feed Availability. I observed the following noncompliance with HATS Category VIII, Stunning Effectiveness. At 10:34AM on 2-18-2022 the first bovine, a bull, was brought into the kill floor for slaughter. Once the bull was secured in the restrainer, Owner, Mr. REDACTED, reached into the restrainer to stun the bull. Mr. REDACTED had placed the hand-held captive bolt against the bull’s head, but just as he pulled the trigger on the hand-held captive bolt, the bull flinched causing the first stun attempt to fail. The bull was conscious. After the first stun attempt the bull remained standing and jumped with its head still in the head restrainer and then settled down and was very still and quiet. From my position on the kill floor, I could see that once the bull flinched the hand-held captive bolt had only slightly entered the skull of the bull and angled out and did not fully penetrate the skull. I could see that the hand-held captive bolt had penetrated the skin of the bull and I saw a small stream of blood running from the first stun attempt hole. Mr. REDACTED immediately reloaded the hand-held captive bolt and stunned the bull again. The second shot rendered the bull insensible. When the bull’s head was brought to the inspection stand, I took note of the stun holes in the skull. One hole was at a sharp angle with superficial penetration of the frontal bone and the other hole was a clean straight in and out to the brain. The two wound holes were in same location. One was slightly higher and to the right of second knock. This was caused due to the slight flinch from the bulls head. The second knock hole was dead center of the skull right where it should be. Right between the eyes which caused the bull to drop and be insensible. I informed Mr. REDACTED that I would be issuing a noncompliance report for not rendering the bull insensible with one stun. Mr. REDACTED gave me verbal preventative measures and stunning was allowed to resume.

313.2

On Friday, 2-18-2022, while performing HATS Category III, Water and Feed Availability, I observed the following noncompliance. The establishment held twelve cows overnight from their slaughter day on 2-17-2022. The cows were held in two outside holding pens and five cows were housed in a small barn just off the slaughter floor. Prior to leaving the establishment on 2-17-2022, I made sure that all cows had unfrozen and non-restricted water access. At 6:39 AM on 2-18-2022 I was checking on the twelve cows that were held overnight. I noticed that the cows housed in the barn had no access to water. The water dishes that were there the night before were gone or moved out of the way and frozen solid. I then went outside to check on the two outside holding pens where the rest of the cows were housed overnight. The water in their water buckets, which are 50 gallon barrels cut in half, was frozen solid. At 6:55 AM I found co plant owner Mr. REDACTED and told him that the cows outside water buckets were frozen solid and that the cows in the barn had their water buckets moved out of reach and they were frozen solid. I told Mr. REDACTED that because the cows in the barn had no access to water and the waters outside were frozen solid a noncompliance record (NR) would be issued. I notified floor lead REDACTED that the cows needed water and REDACTED said he would do it personally right away. He did and I verified unfrozen water was available throughout the day.