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Federal Court Dismisses Advocacy Groups’ Challenge to USDA’s 2018 Line Speed Waiver Action

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Humane Society of the United States, Animal Outlook, Government Accountability Project, Mercy for Animals, and Marin Humane challenging the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s 2018 policy allowing poultry processors to apply for waivers to increase line speeds from 140 to 175 birds per minute. The court found that plaintiffs lack standing but dismissed with leave to file an amended complaint addressing traceability and redressability.

United Kingdom Government Announces New Regulations for Pigs

The United Kingdom has announced a plan to regulate contracts involving pigs in order to provide greater certainty and stability to the supply chain. According to the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, the regulations will strengthen the sector’s ability to deal with challenges and will include collecting and sharing more supply chain data in order to increase wholesale price transparency and national slaughter numbers. The move follows a public consultation in which nearly 400 respondents from the sector expressed a desire for legally required written contracts to remove ambiguity around the sale of and trade in pigs.

Investigation Launched After Video Reveals Cruelty at “Humane” Slaughterhouse

A complaint from Animal Justice has triggered an investigation of alleged animal cruelty at Meadow Valley Meats, a small-scale, “humane” slaughterhouse in British Columbia (BC). On February 23rd, Animal Justice released hidden-camera footage that depicts workers beating animals in the face with various instruments, animals being improperly stunned, and other kinds of illegal abuse. The conditions also put worker safety at risk, as employees face terrified animals trying to escape the abuse. The BC Society for the Prevention of Animal Cruelty, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food are currently reviewing the footage and will be conducting an investigation into the complaint.

Bills Aim to Make Industrial Agriculture Safer for Workers and More Humane for Animals

Senator Cory Booker reintroduced a package of four bills that aim to make the agriculture industry safer and more humane. The Farm System Reform Act would address monopolistic practices in the meatpacking industry, place a moratorium on concentrated animal feeding operations, and restore mandatory country-of-origin labeling requirements; the Industrial Agriculture Accountability Act would end line-speed increases, prohibit the slaughter of downed animals, and require more humane treatment of livestock during long-haul transport; the Protecting America’s Meatpacking Workers Act would institute systemic reforms to improve worker safety and fair labor standards for meatpacking workers and ensure worker access to remedies regardless of citizenship; and the Protect America’s Children from Toxic Pesticides Act would ban the use of certain pesticides that have been proven harmful to people and the environment. The bills have not yet been assigned numbers or referred to committees.

Saskatchewan Government and “Sask Pork” Announce One Million Dollars for Swine Disease Mitigation

Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister David Marit has announced $700,000 in funding to support Saskatchewan’s swine disease preparedness efforts. The Saskatchewan Pork Development Board (Sask Pork) has said they will further provide $300,000 toward a “swine market disruption plan” meant to help the pork industry prepare for potential animal health emergencies such as an outbreak of African swine fever and the need to quickly slaughter many pigs infected with the disease.

Bill Would Impose Multiple Factory Farming Reforms, including Amending the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act to Include Birds

Senator Cory Booker announced the Industrial Agriculture Accountability Act of 2022, which would impose multiple reforms, including by:

  • Requiring industrial operators to register high-risk CAFOs, submit disaster preparedness plans, and pay to cover the costs of preparing for and responding to disaster events;
  • Ensuring that industrial operators aren’t using the worst depopulation and slaughter practices, including dangerously fast line-speed increases and self-inspection programs;
  • Amending the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act to include poultry, with a 10-year phase in and grants provided to assist transitions to controlled atmosphere stunning systems;
  • Creating new protections for nonambulatory (downer) pigs at slaughter;
  • Amending the 28-Hour Law to include new protections for animals during transport; and
  • Prohibiting the use of prison labor during disaster events.

The bill has not yet been assigned a number or a committee.

Federal Court Denies Pork Producers’ Attempt to Intervene in Case Challenging Elimination of Line-Speed Limits

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed a lower court’s ruling denying pork producers’ motion to intervene in a case brought by unionized workers challenging the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s rule eliminating pork processing line-speed limits. The lower court granted summary judgment in favor of plaintiff workers to aside the USDA rule and found that the pork producers’ motion was untimely.

Advocacy Groups Move for Summary Judgment in Case Challenging Inhumane Treatment of Live Birds in Slaughterhouses

The Animal Welfare Institute and Farm Sanctuary, represented by Harvard Law School’s Animal Law & Policy Clinic, filed a motion for summary judgment in their case challenging the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s refusal to promulgate regulations banning the inhumane treatment of live birds at slaughterhouses. Plaintiffs argue that inhumane treatment of live birds leads to adulterated meats, the sale of which is illegal under the Poultry Products Inspection Act.

From Slow Food to Slow Meat: Slowing Line Speeds to Improve Worker Health and Animal Welfare in Canadian Abattoirs

Sarah Berger Richardson, “From Slow Food to Slow Meat: Slowing Line Speeds to Improve Worker Health and Animal Welfare in Canadian Abattoirs” (2021) 59:1 Alberta Law Review 99.

Abstract: This article examines the regulation of production line speeds in Canadian meat and poultry processing facilities to better understand their impact on worker safety and animal welfare. The article begins with an overview of the regulatory framework that sets line speed conditions in federally licenced facilities. It notes how recent shifts in food safety governance facilitate increased speeds that endanger workers and animals on the kill floor. First, it highlights tensions between regulatory objectives in the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations that focus on food safety targets and humane handling guidelines respectively. It then turns to the occupational health and safety risks associated with working at meat and poultry processing facilities. Particular emphasis is placed on the way that COVID-19 outbreaks in Canadian slaughterhouses drew attention to this grueling work that had previously been ignored. The article concludes by noting that the pandemic has created a unique policy window to slow down production speeds; a policy window that should be seized.