Aspen Hollow Sheep Station Mobile Harvest Unit: Non-Compliance to Humane Livestock Handling in 2023 (USDA)

313.15(a)(1)

Hats Category VIII: Stunning Effectiveness On Wednesday February 22, 2023 at approximately 12:50 pm at Aspen Hallow Sheep Station the sixth Ram of the day was ineffectively stunned. I, the CSI had performed antemortem on seven rams for the day at approximately 10:30 am. The Stun operator provides manual restraint by straddling each animal. The first five animals presented for slaughter were stunned effectively on the first stun application with the hand-held captive bolt device (HHCB) utilizing the recently purchased higher caliber cartridges. On the sixth animal, a 7-year-old ram, the stun operator’s first attempted to stun the Ram in the poll position was ineffective at rendering the animal insensible. I observed the animal to not respond or vocalize and remain standing with eyes tracking. The stun operator readily retrieved the backup HHCB device, with the even larger caliber cartridge. The second stun applied at the poll was also ineffective at rendering the animal insensible. The animal still did not respond or vocalize but remained standing with eyes tracking. The stun operator reloaded the first HHCB device with the largest caliber cartridge readily available to him and applied a third stun in the poll position. I observed the animal to remain standing, bleeding at the poll, eyes tracking but not vocalizing or trying to move away from the stun operator. The stun operator reloaded the backup HHCB device with the largest caliber cartridge readily available to him and applied the fourth stun to the temple, which was successful at rendering the animal insensible. US Reject Tag B22079331 was placed on the trailer, where the last animal was housed, so no more animals could be slaughtered. The establishment owner was verbally notified of the noncompliance. Upon inspection of the dressed head, I observed three non-penetrating holes at the poll and one penetrating hole at the temple. The Denver District Management Team was contacted through supervisory channels. This establishment has not implemented a robust systematic approach to humane handling. This noncompliance record is being associated with NR#PPR1715020515N/1 issued on 2/15/2023 for same root cause.

313.15(a)(1)

HATS Category VIII: Stunning Effectiveness On Wednesday February 15, 2023 at approximately 10:45 am at Aspen Hallow Sheep Station the second Ram of the day was ineffectively stunned. I, the CSI had performed antemortem on eight Rams for the day at approximately 10:20 am. The first Ram presented for slaughter was stunned effectively with the hand-held captive bolt (HHCB) device on the first stun application. The stun operator straddles each animal to provide manual restraint. The second Ram was the biggest animal of the lot and I observed a large calcified spot on the top of its head between the horns. The first stun was with the primary HHCB stunning device applied to the poll. The ram didn’t react but remained standing with eyes tracking and blinking. The stun operator readily retrieved the backup HHCB device and applied a second stun to the poll. The Ram again did not react but remained standing with eyes tracking and blinking. The stun operator then asked a more experienced worker where to apply the stun and it was suggested to the stun operator to apply the stun to the temple. The stun operator reloaded the backup HHCB device and stunned the ram in the temple and that successfully rendered the animal insensible. U.S. Reject Tag B22079331 was applied to the trailer where the animals are housed, so no more could be slaughtered, thereby leaving 6 Rams in the trailer. The establishment owner was verbally notified of the forthcoming noncompliance record. Upon inspection of the dressed head, I observed two non-penetrating holes at the pole and one penetrating hole at the temple. The Denver District Management Team was contacted through supervisory channels. This establishment has not implemented a robust systematic approach to humane handling. There have been no noncompliance records issued for the same root cause in the past 90 days.