Legal / Regulatory

Animal Rights Groups Sue USDA Over New Slaughterhouse Rules

Pig at slaughterhouseCredit: Compassion Over Killing

Seven organizations dedicated to protecting the animals, people, and environments that suffer due to industrial animal agriculture filed a suit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The purpose is to challenge its decision to reduce oversight at pig slaughterhouses and eliminate limits on the slaughter speeds, exposing pigs to greater suffering.

The case is the first filed by Lewis & Clark Law School's new Animal Law Litigation Clinic (ALLC) at the Center for Animal Law Studies, the only law school clinic in the world dedicated to farmed animal advocacy.

ALLC filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York on behalf of Farm Sanctuary, Animal Equality, the Animal Legal Defense Fund, the Center for Biological Diversity, Compassion Over Killing, Mercy For Animals, and North Carolina Farmed Animal Save.



It is a big day for the students and clients and most importantly for the animals.



When asked why pigs as your first case, Delcianna Winders, Assistant Clinical Professor and Clinic Director of the ALLC said "These sensitive, intelligent animals are already largely overlooked by the law, and now the USDA has effectively written out the little protections Congress extended to them."



The lack of legal protection for all farmed animals, the majority of which are on factory farms, means they suffer tremendously.



While pigs are just one of numerous species exploited by the billions in the US, the Trump Administration started its assault on pig slaughterhouses which are now allowed to operate slaughter lines at any speed they choose.



"The lawsuit challenges the USDA's complete revocation of limits on the number of pigs that can be slaughtered per hour, leading to approximately 11.5 million more pigs being slaughtered annually at these massive industrial plants, according to USDA profit estimates for the rule", the Business Wire release stated.

"Slaughtering 11.5 million more pigs in these cruel plants will recklessly increase the already overwhelming amount of pollution generated by this dirty industry," said Hannah Connor, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. "It's an immoral disgrace that this administration is so blatantly willing to trade environmental health and animal welfare for inflated corporate meatpacker profits."



ALLC want to make clear that the USDA can not deny or defy it congressional mandated duty.



"The Department of Agriculture is supposed to regulate the meat industry, but instead this regulation reads like a joint venture between big business and the federal government," says Cristina Kladis, an ALLC student representing the plaintiff organizations.

The next steps according to Delcianna Winders is that the USDA will have 60 days to respond to the lawsuit. She anticipates they will probably move to dismiss the lawsuit and then they will have to move forward with litigation.