Stagecoach Meat Company, LLC: Non-Compliance to Humane Livestock Handling in 2023 (USDA)

313.16(a)(1),313.16(b)(1)(iii)

HATS Category VIII: Stunning Effectiveness On Tuesday August 22, 2023, at 11:30am, the SPHV and CSI were observing stunning effectiveness of swine while performing a Livestock Humane Handling task at Stagecoach Meat Company. Two swine are brought into the stun box at the same time. The swine can move around freely inside the stun box and even turn around. One swine is rendered insensible at a time, and completely processed before stunning the second swine waiting in the stun box. At 11:30am from a safe location, I overheard a .22 firearm being discharged by the slaughter floor foreman in an attempt to render the second swine in the stun box insensible. The first attempt did not render the animal insensible, as I observed the swine remain calmly standing while looking around. No vocalization occurred; however, the animal was able to take conscious steps around the inside of the stun box and observed to be visually tracking the backup hand-held captive bolt (HHCB) device when discharged. The slaughter floor foreman had readily retrieved the backup HHCB device and applied a second stun which rendered the animal immediately insensible. The CSI placed US Reject tag B-45324051 on the stun box at 11:32am. The SPHV contacted the District Veterinary Medical Specialist, who notified the Denver District Management, and the stun box was released. The CSI performed an inspection of the skull and observed one penetrating hole just above (approximately 1 inch) the proper placement location of stunning in swine and a second penetrating hole within the target zone. The SPHV verbally notified the establishment owners of the forthcoming noncompliance record (NR). There have been no noncompliance records for same root cause since the establishment began operations earlier this month. The establishment does not operate under a robust systematic approach.