Legal / Regulatory

USDA Deregulates Pig Slaughterhouses Making A Horrific Process More Horrid

Credit: Phil Hearing

The number of government food safety inspectors in pork plants will be reduced by 40 percent, and essentially allow carnist companies to self regulate their production lines, based on a new rule, finalized this week by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The 'New Swine Slaughter Inspection System' removing restrictions and oversight on line speed caps, does not bode well for the factory farm workers on the slaughter line and is even worse for the pigs. The implications are that slaughterhouses will now be allowed to run at any speed they choose, regardless of the consequences to workers and animals.



Despite a long-running pilot project involving five large pig slaughterhouses, finding "plants with fewer inspectors and faster lines had more regulatory violations than others", the USDA has pushed forward this new rule deregulating pig slaughter under the guise of "modernization" despite pushback from Compassion Over Killing and other animal, workers' rights, and consumer advocacy groups.



At a time when people the horrors of animal factory farming is coming to light, this is a significant step backwards for animal rights.



Even before the era of the well concealed factory farming operations of today, over a century ago, Upton Sinclair's "stomach-churning account in his book The Jungle exposed unsafe and unsanitary conditions in U.S. slaughterhouses led Congress to create a new agency in charge of food safety in slaughterhouses. Among the reforms implemented were rules to slow down line speeds, so that government inspectors could ensure that diseased or feces-covered meat and poultry did not end up on consumer's plates."