Peter Eisler, USA Today
October 2015
[Ed. Note: Also read FSIS Vet Blows Whistle On Agency For Ignoring Cruelty Reports.]
The charges by Dean Wyatt, a supervisory veterinarian at the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, detail instances in which he and other inspectors were overruled when citing slaughterhouses for violations such as shocking and butchering days-old calves that were too weak or sick to stand.
Department of Agriculture officials failed to act on reports of illegal
and unsafe slaughterhouse practices, letting suspect operations continue
despite public health risks, a USDA veterinarian alleges in testimony to be
aired today at a congressional hearing.
The charges by Dean Wyatt, a supervisory veterinarian at the USDA's Food
Safety and Inspection Service, detail instances in which he and other
inspectors were overruled when citing slaughterhouses for violations such as
shocking and butchering days-old calves that were too weak or sick to stand.
He also describes being threatened with transfer or demotion after citing a
plant for butchering conscious pigs, despite rules that they first be
stunned and unconscious.
In USA: Food-borne illnesses cost $152B a year. "When upper-level FSIS
management looks the other way as food safety or humane slaughter laws are
broken … then management is just as guilty for breaking those laws," Wyatt
says in testimony sent to the House Oversight and Government Reform
Committee. USA TODAY obtained a copy of the testimony in advance of today's
hearing.
Wyatt's testimony follows several outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 and other
potentially deadly illnesses linked to contaminated meat. It also raises
issues linked to the 2008 recall of 143 million pounds of beef from the
Westland/Hallmark processing plant in Chino, Calif., which was caught
slaughtering "downer" cows that were too sick or weak to walk on their own.
Such animals are considered risks for carrying mad cow disease and other
illnesses.
USDA spokesman Caleb Weaver says inaction on Wyatt's reports occurred before
the tenure of current Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who is "fully
committed" to enforcing safe and humane slaughtering rules.
In 2008 and early 2009, Wyatt ordered suspensions in operations three times
at Bushway Packing Inc., in Grand Isle, VT. Among other things, he found
downed calves being dragged through pens to slaughter — a violation because
contact with excrement can contaminate animals. In each case, he says,
managers overruled him and allowed the plant to keep running.
Bushway subsequently made headlines last fall when the Humane Society of the
United States filmed undercover video of workers hitting and using electric
prods to move calves. The plant was shut down. Vilsack ordered a criminal
investigation.
Bushway has "made changes to comply fully with the Humane Slaughtering Act
and we hope to … reopen in the near future," says Peter Langrock, a lawyer
for the company.
Wyatt also says superiors dismissed violations he reported in 2007 and 2008
at a Seaboard Foods pork plant in Guymon, Okla. He cited the plant for
slaughtering conscious pigs, beating pigs and trampling of pigs.
In some cases, Seaboard successfully appealed Wyatt's citations, says
company marketing director David Eaheart. And Seaboard always "took steps to
ensure that if there were any deficiencies, they were addressed."
But Wyatt says his reports and those of other inspectors were shelved by
regional supervisors without consulting on-site personnel. Instead, he says,
writers of citations were chastised and threatened with transfer.
Wyatt's experiences "illustrate a pattern that FSIS is broken and must be
fixed," says Amanda Hitt of the Government Accountability Project, a
whistle-blower organization representing Wyatt.
"The new administration must recognize past wrongs and … ensure the proper
treatment of animals and the safety of our food supply," says Rep. Dennis
Kucinich, D-Ohio, who will chair today's hearing.
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