Humane Slaughter Act
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The Humane Slaughter Act, or the Humane Methods of Livestock Slaughter Act, is a United States federal law designed to protect food animals during the moment of their slaughter. It was passed in 1958.
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[edit] Content of the Humane Slaughter Act
According to the law, animals should be stunned into unconsciousness prior to their slaughter to ensure a quick, relatively painless death. The most common methods are electrocution or a metal bolt to the head. Frequent on-site monitoring is necessary, as is the employment of skilled and well-trained personnel. An animal is considered properly stunned when there is no "righting reflex"; that is, the animal must not try to stand up and right itself. Only then can it be considered fully unconscious. It can then proceed down the line, where slaughterhouse workers commence in cutting up its body.
The act contains a broad exemption for all animals slaughtered in accordance with religious law. This generally applies to animals killed for the kosher meat market. Strict interpretation of kashrut generally requires that the animal be fully sensible when its carotid artery is cut.
[edit] History of the Humane Slaughter Act
[edit] 1958
The first version of the HMSLA was passed in 1958. Public demand for the act was so great that when asked at a press conference whether he would sign it, President Dwight D. Eisenhower stated, "If I went by mail, I’d think no one was interested in anything but humane slaughter." Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, author of the first humane slaughter bill introduced in the US Congress and chief Senate sponsor of the Federal Humane Slaughter Act, passed in 1958.
[edit] 1978
In 1978, the HMSLA was updated and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspectors were given the authority to stop the slaughtering line when cruelty was observed. Officially, slaughtering was not to continue until said cruelty, whether as a result of equipment or of abuses by personnel, was corrected. However, the USDA eventually stopped authorizing USDA inspectors to stop the line, since doing so incurs considerable cost of time for the industry.
[edit] 2002
Improvements were made on May 13, 2002, when President George W. Bush signed the Farm Bill (Public Law 107-171) into law. It includes a Resolution confirming that the HMSLA should be fully enforced.
When introducing the Resolution on the Senate floor, Senator Peter Fitzgerald said:
On April 10, 2001, the Washington Post printed a front page story entitled "They Die Piece by Piece." This graphic article asserted that the United States Department of Agriculture was not appropriately enforcing the Humane Slaughter Act. In response, I am introducing this resolution that encourages the Secretary of Agriculture to fully enforce current law including the Humane Slaughter Act of 1958, as amended by the Federal Meat Inspection Act in 1978.
The Humane Slaughter Act simply requires that animals be rendered insensible to pain before they are harvested. However, apparently this law is not being enforced in some instances. For example, the Washington Post article reported that "enforcement records, interviews, videos and worker affidavits describe repeated violations of the Humane Slaughter Act" and "the government took no action against a Texas beef company that was cited 22 times in 1998 for violations that include chopping hooves off live cattle".
[edit] Criticism of the HMSLA
[edit] Exclusionary Policies
The HMSLA is generally unpopular amongst animal rights advocates and the Humane Society of the United States, who criticize its exclusionary policies--it covers only cows and pigs but not poultry and fish, who compose 99 percent of the animals consumed in the United States. In 2005 the USDA began to lobby for the classification of rabbits as poultry, so as to better exclude them from the HMSLA.
[edit] Failure to Enforce
Additional criticism exists in the USDA's failure to enforce the HMSLA effectively. Arthur Hughes, president of the National Joint Council of Food Inspection Locals, has stated that, “We are the people who are charged by Congress with enforcing [the HMLSA], but most of our inspectors have little to no access to those areas of the plants where animals are being handled and slaughtered."
[edit] Violations
Undercover videos have shown that the pigs and cows whom the act is supposed to protect are often kicked and beaten at slaughter. Frequently unsuccessful attempts at slaughter often result in the animals being conscious while their bodies are cut apart.[citation needed]
[edit] Slaughterhouse Workers
Animal and human rights activists are concerned with the treatment of slaughterhouse workers, who are very often abused, overworked, and underqualified for their duties. Generally uneducated and without competent English skills, they are desperate for work. Some employees report that they are threatened with the loss of their jobs should they attempt to complain about the factory. They are expected to slaughter one animal every three seconds--and are penalized when they slow down. This translates to frustration and anger on the part of the workers, and further abuse for the animals they slaughter.[citation needed]
[edit] Inadequacy
The HMSLA is also criticized because, despite being the only U.S. law designed to protect livestock, it only focuses on the last few minutes of animals' lives and has no effect on how they are treated beforehand, even as they are going to slaughter.
An anonymous slaughterhouse worker (as documented by the Humane Farming Association) stated, "[If a cow is unable to walk] they put a big long chain around her neck then drag her all the way up to where we are. Usually she's dead by then. Strangled. Sometimes a steer would get its head stuck in the restrainer. You couldn't stun it at that point so you'd end up cutting its head off while the beef was still alive."
[edit] External links
- 2003 Report from the USDA
- Statute in Full at Animallaw.info
- Criticism of the HMSLA from an animal rights perspective
- Criticism of the HMSLA from the HSUS
- Blog of Former Slaughterhouse Worker, Virgil Butler
- Humane Farm Association USDA Petition, with Quotes from USDA Inspectors and Slaughterhouse Workers
