Quality Pork Processors, Inc.: Non-Compliance to Humane Livestock Handling in 2024 (USDA)

313.2

On December 19, 2023 around 20:48 while doing HAT category IV Ante mortem inspection, I, Dr. REDACTED found the following HAT category III water and feed availability noncompliance. After doing ante mortem inspection on pen 101 by walking through the walkway next to it, when we got to the dock end of the pen I noticed a hog in the back-alley way with an ear tag, number 129, indicating that it was a slow hog sorted when it came off the truck. It was in an area that was about 3 pens wide with the barn wall on one side and a gate that although was unlatched was perpendicular to the walkway which visually separated it from the rest of the back-alley that the hog would need to push open. There is no water access in the back-alley and there was no black rubber bowl that the company uses on the ground in the area. Beyond the unlatched gate was a longer section of the back-alley before it was blocked off by another gate next to a truck that was unloading. In this section there was a hog that had been euthanized by captive bolt and a second sorted slow hog with ear tag number 132. In this section there was a hose hanging over the gate to the back-alley with some water coming out and falling on the floor. There was a black rubber bowl on the ground down at the other end of this section near where the truck was unloading, but there was no water in it. At this time Livestock Supervisor REDACTED filled two black rubber bowls with water and set one in the area that each hog was in. At the time of this observation all the 100 pens were full of hogs, so it would be difficult for a skid loader to get these two animals. In checking the pen cards for pens 101-104 (the area for the 129 tagged hog) the most recent pen was unloaded at 19:54. Since it appeared that the hog tagged with number 129 was there at least 1 hour I told Mr. REDACTED that I would be writing a NR for failing to provide water to the hogs. Water coming out of a hose and onto the floor is not sufficient to meet regulation 9 CFR 313.2(e) which states that all animals shall have access to water in all holding pens. The next day I found that tag number 129 corresponded to tattoo number 684 which arrived at 19:02 and tag number 132 corresponded to tattoo number 693 which got unloaded at 20:20; meaning the animals had no access to water for 1 hour 46 minutes and 28 minutes respectfully.