Orland meat house operations suspended after inhumane slaughter

Nov. 23—An Orland meat plant was issued a Notice of Suspension in April after violating federal Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) laws while slaughtering a pig.

According to federal documents recently released, officials at the Olson Meat Plant in Orland observed a non-ambulatory hog in a pen on the morning of April 6. After evaluating the pen, officials said the hog was laying in a right lateral recumbency position, looking around and aware of its surroundings.

"The hog was not able to stand up on its own and would not be able to walk to the CO2 stunning unit for slaughter," read a statement by slaughterhouse officials in the document.

As a result, officials made the decision to apply a handheld captive bolt gun to the hog's forehead, but this attempt failed and the hog remained conscious. After testing the device on the concrete, a second attempt to stun the hog was made 7 minutes later but this attempt also failed.

After looking for an alternative device to stun the hog, the employee that had administered the first two stunning attempts was switched out with another employee.

"(The employee) went to the slaughterhouse floor to get another employee, and at 0925 hours the other employee came in and stunned the hog effectively with the captive bolt device," slaughterhouse officials said.

This final stun came 11 minutes after the first attempt by the other employee during which time the animal remained conscious and sensible, according to the document.

Slaughterhouse officials said they informed the employee that they would be issuing a humane handling noncompliance following the missed stuns. Officials then applied a rejection tag on the entry doors of the CO2 chamber and informed employees that "no further stunning would be allowed due to the inhumane handling of livestock."

According to the federal document, this incident was in "egregious noncompliance" of 9 CFR 313.15(a)(1), which states, "the captive bolt stunners shall be applied to the livestock in accordance with this section so as to produce immediate unconsciousness in the animals before they are shackled, hoisted, thrown, cast, or cut. The animals shall be stunned in such a manner that they will be rendered unconscious with a minimum of excitement and discomfort."

In a Notice of Suspension letter sent to Olson Meat Plant President James Olson, U.S. Department of Agriculture FSIS officials said this is an egregious act of inhumane handling of animals in connection with slaughter, as the establishment failed to effectively stun and euthanize a non-ambulatory disabled market hog on the first shot and had not planned for or performed immediate corrective actions upon realizing that the animal was still conscious.

Based on the findings outlined by the FSIS and the Olson Meat Plant's failure to meet statutory and regulatory requirements for the humane handling and slaughter of livestock, and in accordance with Title 9 CFR 500.3(b), the FSIS suspended the assignment of inspectors and is withholding the marks of inspection for the slaughter operations at the facility.

"The suspension of the assignment of inspectors will remain in effect until you can proffer to the FSIS, Alameda District Office, adequate written assurances including corrective actions and preventative measures to assure that livestock at your establishment are handled and slaughtered humanely, in accordance with the FMIA, The Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, and regulations promulgated thereunder," read the Notice of Suspension letter.

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