Genuine Meats LLC: Non-Compliance to Humane Livestock Handling in 2022 (USDA)

313.16(a)(1)

Genuine Meats Est# 47251 HATS Category VIII: Stunning Effectiveness At approximately 11:20 am on October 12th, 2021 while observing establishment personnel render an animal unconscious by firearm, I observed the following noncompliance. The stun operator applied a round from a 12-gauge shot gun to the head of a heifer. The heifer vocalized immediately after and the stun operator called me to the stun box to observe the location of the stun placement with the animal still standing. The stun operator did not immediately produce a follow up stun attempt and I had to instruct him to immediately render the animal unconscious. The stun operator switched to a 40-caliber pistol and applied a second stun attempt to the animal. The animal vocalized again, and the operator applied a third stun attempt to the animal. After hearing no vocalization following the third stun attempt, I looked into the stun box and found the animal was still standing, moving its head back and forth, blinking its eyes and looking at myself and the stun operator, showing that the animal was still conscious. The stun operator attempted a fourth stun attempt with the 40-caliber pistol, but the pistol jammed. The animal continued to remain conscious but was not vocalizing while the stun operator attempted to unjam the pistol. After about 20 seconds the stun operator switched back to the 12-gauge shot gun and applied a fifth stun to the animal. Unconsciousness was achieved with the fifth stun to the animal, and the animal was shackled, hoisted, and bled. I took regulatory control of the stunning area with USDA reject tag B19314285 and informed REDACTED, the kill floor Forman, that slaughter was to halt and that the plant was non-compliant for humane handling regulations 313.16(a)(1) for failure to produce immediate unconsciousness with a firearm. This noncompliance is being associated with NR #QMO1909102011 issued on 10/11/2021 for the same root cause.

313.16(a)(1)

Genuine Meats Est# 47251 HATS Category VIII: Stunning Effectiveness At approximately 08:00 am on October 11th, 2021 while observing establishment personnel render an animal unconscious by firearm, I observed the following noncompliance. The stun operator applied a round from a 40-caliber semi-auto pistol into the forehead of a ram which failed to cause immediate unconsciousness. The animal remained standing and made no sound. Another establishment employee offered a larger caliber revolver which was readily available at the stun box to the stun operator, who chose instead to immediately apply a second stun attempt from the 40-caliber semi-auto pistol. The second stun attempt rendered the animal unconscious. Inspection of the skull showed that both stun attempts had fully penetrated the skull in different locations. I took regulatory control of the stun box with USDA Reject tag B41151292 and alerted plant manager, REDACTED, that he would be issued a humane handling noncompliance for 9CFR 313.16(a) for failure to cause immediate unconsciousness with a firearm. After contacting the Denver District Management Team and determining that the event did not qualify as egregious, I removed the USDA reject tag and allowed slaughter operations to continue. The plant chose to remove the remaining seven sheep from FSIS inspection. There have been no noncompliance records issued for the same root cause since the establishment began slaughter operations under USDA FSIS Inspection on 10-04-2021.