SIOUX FALLS, S.D., Dec. 11 (UPI) -- A national animal rights group Tuesday petitioned the U.S. Department of Agriculture to expand enforcement of a federal law governing the humane slaughter and handling of animals bred for food.
Norfolk, Va.-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals contends that the USDA illegally limits enforcement of The Human Slaughter Act to federally inspected slaughterhouses where animals are killed. They are seeking to force the agency to enforce that law on farms where animals are bred and while animals are being transported.
PETA argues that the federal law, which states that it is "the policy of the United States that the slaughtering of livestock and the handling of livestock in connection with slaughter shall be carried out only by humane methods," requires officials to ensure human treatment during the entire cycle of a food animal's life.
"Animals bred, born, and raised for no other purpose than to ultimately be slaughtered are from the time they are born being "handled in connection with slaughter" and, therefore, must be protected for their entire lives by humane handling methods as required by the Act," according to PETA court papers. "PETA therefore seeks agency action to designate methods for the humane treatment of livestock handled in connection with slaughter, methods that are applicable from the time the animals are born to the time they are killed ..."
"The USDA has enacted regulations that only apply when the animals have actually reached the slaughterhouse, which leaves them to suffer without protection for nearly their entire lives before they reach the slaughterhouse" said Bruce Friedrich, a PETA spokesman.
The group also filed with its petition photographs and video evidence of what it claims are abusive farm practices. PETA officials said that the videos had been taken at various locations throughout the country and that some of the photographs had actually been culled from USDA archives. The materials are available on the groups website at peta.org.
One of the photographs depicts what PETA says is a pig being skinned while still conscious. The video, which Friedrich said was taken "from multiple undercover investigations," showed graphic images of squealing animals being branded and cut while conscious and, the group claims, without anesthetic.
"The USDA has been doing as little as it can get away with. The USDA mandate is to promote U.S. agriculture," said Friedrich. "The agency's failure to comply with the Humane Slaughter Act is unlawful and they are failing to do what the American people want, which is to make sure animals are not grotesquely and gratuitously abused."
The group announced the legal filing at a press conference in Washington and simultaneously posted materials on its Web site.
By limiting the enforcement of the Humane Slaughter Act only to federally inspected slaughter houses, PETA says the government leaves animals to the mercy of cruel farming practices, including non-anesthetized branding, dehorning and castrations.
"In addition to the misery suffered by livestock during the handling process, every year millions of animals are killed by painful, inhumane methods at the farms themselves," the petition reads. "Whether it be because they are diseased, injured, underweight, crippled or simply because, for whatever reason, it is no longer 'cost effective' to keep them alive, livestock are routinely slaughtered at 'farming' operations in horrifically cruel ways."
