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Posted by Antoinette Smith on 5/25/2005, 6:32 pm Dr. Barbara Masters, Acting Administrator, Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety & Inspection Service, says that in November 2003, the agency issued two directives to inspector program personnel. The directives provide precise instructions explaining the requirements, verification activities, and enforcement actions required for ensuring humane handling and slaughter. She says those directives are already improving documentation and enforcement efforts. In 2003, the FSIS suspended operations at plants nine times, but in 2004, she was aware of four suspensions by March. Operations are suspended at plants when an animal is not properly stunned or a violation has a direct impact on an animal. "I believe the increase we have seen in 2004 is from this directive we put out in November," Dr. Masters said. FSIS officials say that, with the introduction of a district veterinary specialist at each of the agency's field offices, the current number of personnel devoted to humane handling and slaughter compliance is adequate. The agency hired 17 of those specialists to serve as program coordinators for all humane handling issues, and by March 2002, one was at work in each of its district offices to provide training to inspectors. See this story in it’s entirety at: http://avma.org/onlnews/javma/may04/040515k.asp#top Please bear in mind that this report includes all slaughterhouses, not just equine slaughterhouses.
In January 2004, the FSIS launched the electronic animal disposition reporting system to report information about animals presented for slaughter, including each animal's disposition and the number slaughtered annually. This information was previously reported on paper. One component of this system is the humane activities tracking program, which will collect complete data on nine humane handling-related tasks.
"They are open recommendations, until (FSIS) provides documentation to support what actions they have taken to (meet) those recommendations," Gobin said.
Antoinette's e-mail address: asmith@usesr.org
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