Walt's Wholesale Meats, Inc.: Non-Compliance to Humane Livestock Handling in 2023 (USDA)

313.2

HATS Category V: Suspect and Disabled On January 17th, 2023 I, the Supervisory Consumer Safety Inspector, observed the following noncompliance at establishment M6423. At approximately 1300 hours while verifying HATS category V - Suspect and Disabled I observed a recumbent jersey cow laying on its side in the alley next to a holding pen door. Two establishment employees were using rattle paddles to encourage the cow to rise and ambulate, but the cow was unable to rise or ambulate. One employee grabbed the cow's tail and started to try and lift the cow up. I immediately tried to get the employees attention to stop this action. The employee continued to try and pick the cow up by its tail. I gained the attention of the other employee to stop this action. The employee had lifted the cow to a sternal sitting position when stopped. No regulatory control action was taken as the activity ceased. The other employee retrieved the firearm to euthanize the animal in the holding pens. I verbally informed the Establishment Manager and Food Safety Manager that I would be documenting my observations in a noncompliance report. This establishment has a robust systematic approach to humane handling that covers the process of non-ambulatory cattle. The establishment did not follow their procedures during this event. A review of the establishment's noncompliance history for the past 90 days revealed a non-compliance report with a similar root cause, MFO1113114117N-1 documented on 11/17/2022. The Denver District Veterinary Medical Specialist was notified of the event.

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At approximately 0836 hours, On November 17, 2022. The CSI in charge of antemortem inspection returned to the AM holding pens area to check and see if anymore cattle needed to have ante-mortem inspection performed. As the CSI approached the outer gate, she observed two plant employees profusely prodding four cattle in the staging area of the holding pen with two separate hand-held battery-operated electric prods. One employee was jabbing in a forward motion from himself at the front of the animals while the other employee was jabbing from the right side of the animals in a forward motion from himself. The cattle were turning around in circles overly excited while being jabbed in their head and ears. The employees after noticing the CSI, immediately dropped both hand-held battery-operated electric prods on the ground; therefore, no regulatory control action was taken. The CSI instructed the Pen Manager to remove the Electric prods from the pens. The CSI immediately notified her Supervisor, The SCSI. The plant manager was verbally notified that an NR would be issued. This is a violation of the above listed 9CFR regulation. The plant manager stated the establishment would implement their corrective action and retrain the employees. A review of the company's NR history shows no associated noncompliance with the same root cause within the last 90 days. The Denver DVM’s were provided a record of this event Continued failure to meet these Regulatory requirements could result in additional Regulatory or Administrative action.