The Pork Company: Non-Compliance to Humane Livestock Handling in 2025 (USDA)

313.1

On 05/12/25 at 10:57 hours, while performing HATS Category IV Ante-Mortem task, I (REDACTED, DVM SVMO) observed the following non-egregious Humane Handling noncompliance. In the barn, holding pens # 00 and #1 are immediately adjacent to each other and are separated by horizontal metal rods and a large metal feeder in the middle. The feeder was detached from the pen on one side and had been pushed at a 45-degree angle into pen 00. Pigs were squeezing past the feeder and walking back and forth in the gap between the two pens. The pen cards listed 15 hogs in pen 00 and 25 hogs in pen 1, 40 hogs total which was verified. The pen is not designed to open in this way and the disrepair in the pen had immediate potential to injure the animals. I did not see any injured hogs. I took regulatory control and tagged both pens, #00 with US Reject tag B-46553386 and #1 with US Reject tag B-46553389 and notified Barn Manager Mr. REDACTED of the non-compliance with 9 CFR 313.1(a) Livestock pens...shall be maintained in good repair. They shall be free from sharp or protruding objects which may, in the opinion of the inspector, cause injury or pain to the animals. The hogs were moved to other empty pens and the divider between pen 00 and pen 1 was repaired. The establishment had tattooed the hogs upon original entry to the establishment and could verify identity via tattoo. The cause of the disrepair of the divider is that the feeder is held to the metal rods portion of the divider with a single cotter key which was missing. A new key, more heavy duty in construction, was placed, and no other damage to the divider was noted and both pens were restored to good repair. As preventative measure, all the cotter keys will be replaced with a heavy-duty one by 5/16/25. I released regulatory control of the pens at 12:50 hours. The cause, CA and preventative were initially provided on company letterhead, but afterward as the maintenance team went to the barn and looked at how the feeders were attached to the horizontal steel bar divider, they decided to instead use two large bolts on each side of the feeder to more strongly attach the feeder to the divider. This will be done with all the feeders. Plant updated the preventative measures at the weekly meeting on 05/13/25.

313.30(a)(4)

On 05/06/2025 at approximately 14:30 I (REDACTED, DVM SVMO) while performing HATS Humane Handling Categories VIII Stunning Effectiveness and IX Consciousness on the Rail, I observed the following egregious humane handling noncompliance. A hog had emerged from the V restrainer following an electrical stun and initially appeared unconscious and therefore a shackle was attached to a hind leg. As the bleed line with the shackled hog advanced and the hog went from a horizontal recumbent position to vertical position, the hog began to move in a conscious manner. The employee assigned to stick and bleed the hog immediately started looking around for an establishment employee to notify, and he did stick the hog to bleed it out. As the hog then progressed to a fully vertical position, the hog raised its head, moved its front legs in a conscious “righting reflex” manner and I observed it tracking with its eyes and rhythmically breathing. An establishment lead employee was quickly in attendance and followed the establishment’s procedures by firing a captive bolt gun in the hog’s forehead. We observed the hog react to the captive bolt, but the hog continued to move in a conscious manner, try to right itself, and when the employee grabbed the hog’s ear to visualize and touch its eye, the hog tried to move its head away and clearly was tracking the movement of the hand approaching its eye. The establishment employee then quickly applied a second captive bolt stun to the hog’s forehead. The hog then rapidly lapsed into and did not regain consciousness. I immediately notified Plant Manager REDACTED of the egregious humane handling noncompliance with 9 CFR 313.30(a)(4) and took regulatory control action by placing U.S. Rejected tag B46553352 to the stunner gate in the barn. Hogs that already had been slaughtered and on the line were allowed to be processed. The hog in question was tagged after evisceration with U.S Retained tag MPD69652420 and presented for examination at the veterinary disposition station. The hog was a male market class hog, in good condition. The head was examined and skinned; two captive bolt holes were present, both had fully entered the skull. One was placed correctly mid-forehead, the other was just to the right of it. I had observed both captive bolts closely when they occurred, and the bolt hole to the right was the first captive bolt stun. The carcass passed inspection and went to the cooler, the viscera and head disposed of by the plant as procedure when these parts are retained and sent to the veterinary disposition stand. The establishment provided the following: Root cause: Stunner Wand sends control signal to the stunner box to start a stun cycle. The wand control switch was found to be defective and does not reliably make and break every time it is cycled. This appears to have resulted in a variable amperage situation, resulting in an incomplete stun. Corrective Action: Stunner handle was removed from the process and replaced with a good, tested and working replacement. Preventative Measure: Current procedure is to change stunner handle, rework and test electromechanically at the end of each shift. This process will be intensified to REDACTED a day, changing the stunner handle at the lunch period to ensure that the handle and its functional components including the switches can be more rigorously inspected and verified for proper operating conditions. This process will be tracked and documented on a modified version of the Production Stunner Check Sheet (AWHPA document). This event and the response from the establishment was reviewed with Dr. REDACTED, District Veterinary Medical Specialist. He advised this initial response was adequate for the time being as the establishment does have a robust humane handling program and the establishment followed their procedures. I removed regulatory control and US reject tag B-46553352 from the stunner gate at approximately 15:57 hrs and slaughter resumed. Dr. REDACTED and Raleigh District Office will follow up tomorrow with further inquiries and letter.

313.15(a)(1)

At approximately 1330 I, Dr. REDACTED, was in the establishment’s electrical stunning area verifying part of the humane handling task. The last pig to enter the alley way to the electrical stunner was standing near the door from the barn and was trembling slightly. It then slowly laid down in the alleyway. It did not respond to the shaker paddle or the hot stick. The plant elected to stun with a captive bolt. The location in the alleyway was not near a side access door so the employee approached the animal by putting his arm with the captive bolt through the metal bars over the top of the alleyway. The captive bolt was triggered, and the bolt entered the skull deep enough that an effort was made to remove the captive bolt from the skull. After the bolt was removed, the animal got up by its own volition and walked up the alleyway approximately 5 feet. It then laid down again. The animal was now near an access side door and a second bolting was made with the animal successfully stunned. I applied US Reject tag to the alleyway and spoke with Barn Supervisor REDACTED and described what I had observed. A short time later I went over the noncompliance with Plant Manager REDACTED. After receiving a preventative, regulatory control was removed at 1455.

313.2

At approximately 1013 I, Dr. REDACTED was in the Live Receiving Barn to verify humane handling of hogs. In the first pen used to temporarily hold animals immediately after unloading from the trailers, I checked the drinking water supply which is provided to the animals through a vertical pipe that has a metal ‘nipple’ at the end to release water when the animal presses on it with their mouth. The water that came out was a dark grey in color with a slight odor. The pressure was low and dribbled out slowly. I then checked other nipples in other pens, including those with animals and found varying degrees of discoloration from grey or tan to dark black. The black was dense enough that the color of my gloves could not be seen through the water ‘cupped’ in my hands, and when dry it left a black residue on the gloves. I notified Second shift Barn Supervisor REDACTED and we examined the pen water supply throughout the barn. Water at one end, near the point where the water enters the barn appeared clean. As we checked further into the building it rapidly became discolored and turned darker. After some investigation by plant personnel, it was determined that at the opposite end of the barn from where the water enters (the side where the water appeared black), there is a hose attached to the outside of the building. This hose is connected to a nearby pump house which is connected to a large 1.8-million-gallon tank used to irrigate fields. Water from the barn was used to ‘prime’ the pump in the pump house. The check valve preventing water backflow had failed allowing the tank water into the barn plumbing. I was given as a preventative by Mr. REDACTED the establishment’s wastewater manager, that the hose connecting the barn to the pump house would be removed permanently. A small water container would be used in the pump house in the future for priming the pump. After the hose was removed, water to the pens was purged until it ran clear, and several metal nipples were replaced. The water pressure also improved. This was completed at 1115 and operations in the barn returned to normal.

313.1

At approximately 0830 I, Dr. REDACTED, was observing a trailer of hogs being unloaded at the live receiving barn. While the upper level of the trailer was unloading, I noted many of the hog’s legs splaying outward as they stepped onto the bridge/flipper. The bridge/flipper are thick metal plates that rotate around a metal rod or shaft from the unloading ramp to the trailer floor to allow the animals to cross from the trailer to the ramp. I examined the surface of the bridge’s metal plates and found them to be smooth. With the angle of the bridge and manure the metal surface did not provide good traction for the pigs to walk on causing the splayed legs I was observing. Regulation 9CFR 313.1(b) requires “Floors of livestock pens, ramps, and driveways shall be constructed and maintained so as to provide good footing for livestock.” I showed Barn Supervisor REDACTED the bridge and he had wood chips spread over the bridge/ramp to provide better footing and notified maintenance. After the truck was unloaded, maintenance personnel welded pieces of metal across the surface of the bridge. To accommodate the width of the door of next trailer to be unloaded, the metal plates of the bridge needed to be spread out laterally. The left plate was unable to move to the full extent leaving a gap between the upper level of the trailer and the ramp. Attempts were made to move the metal plate laterally, but I was informed that the central rod around which the metal plates moved was bent. Adjusting the trailer’s position did not resolve the problem. This gap was approximately 2 1⁄2 -3 inches. There was also a gap vertically between the sides of the ramp and the sides of trailer making the overall opening larger. Previously there had been a large piece of flexible material attached to the side of the ramp to provide additional coverage for gaps, but this was missing on the left side and bent back double on the right side. The opening was eventually covered using a sorting board wedged between the trailer and the top of the ramp sides. I was informed by Mr. REDACTED that the bridge would be repaired tonight after production.