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Homedale slaughterhouse cited for violating Humane Slaughter Act

One incident involved the repeated use of an electric prod to move an animal and the other involved using a malfunctioning stunbolt gun on an animal multiple times.

HOMEDALE, Idaho — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has found two instances where a Homedale slaughterhouse, Owyhee Meat Company, violated federal laws around the treatment of livestock, the Idaho Press reports.

According to USDA documents and first reported in the Idaho Statesman, the Food Safety Inspection Service cited Owyhee Meat Company twice for incidents in September and December where employees violated federal regulations around treatment of livestock at a slaughterhouse.

According to a Sept. 12 letter to the meat company from the USDA, an inspector that afternoon witnessed an employee using an electric prod against a black beef cow. The report said the inspector “observed a plant employee repeatedly prodding a black beef cow that was balking at the entrance to the stunning area. The black beef cow continued to vocalize excessively.”

The report said the inspector instructed the employee to stop prodding the cow. The inspector spoke to another employee who oversaw the driving of cattle from the pens to the stunning area, according to the report, who informed the inspector that the employee with the prod was “unauthorized to use it.”

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In the letter to Owyhee Meat Company, Dawn Sprouls, acting district manager for the USDA, wrote, “This egregious act does not meet the regulatory requirements of 9 CFR 313.2, which states, among other things, that electric prods, canvas slappers, or other implements employed to drive animals shall be used as little as possible in order to minimize excitement and injury.”

Shawn Roberts, manager of Owyhee Meat Company, said by phone Thursday the cow was “a wild cow” and was “hard to contain.” He said that earlier that day, the cow jumped out of its pen.

He said the employee used too much force on the cow.

Following the Sept. 12 incident, the USDA issued the meat company a “Notice of Intended Enforcement,” which gave the company an opportunity to improve its tactics to handle cattle humanely.

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On Dec. 10, an inspector observed a second instance of inhumane treatment at the meat company. A USDA letter to the company said that while an inspector was in a room next to the slaughterhouse floor, they heard a stun gun go off and a carcass fall to the floor. The inspector then heard a cow cry out. The inspector then walked over and saw the employee apply another jolt from the gun to the cow on the floor and then, as the cow was “still rhythmically breathing and exhibiting a righting reflex,” shackle, hang and stick the animal for bleeding. The report said the inspector heard the animal cry out again and the employee applied a stun for a third time.

Roberts told the Idaho Press on Thursday the incident “happened in seconds.”

He said the employee stunned the cow once, noticed the eyes were flickering, then shot it a second time and hung it up to bleed, before shooting it a third time.

He said that employees later found that the gun the employee was using to stun the animal was broken. He said it was later fixed.

On Tuesday, the national animal rights organization PETA released a press release “calling on the U.S. attorney for the District of Idaho to review these violations of the Humane Methods of Livestock Slaughter Act and, as appropriate, file criminal charges against the facility.”

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PETA, in its press release, attached a copy of its letter to U.S. Attorney Bart Davis. In the letter, signed by Colin Henstock, assistant manager of investigations for PETA, the organization asks that Davis investigate and file criminal charges against Owyhee Meat Company.

Roberts said Owyhee Meat Company is a small operation with about 15 employees.

“We kill over 12,000 animals a year,” Roberts said.

Roberts said they are working closely with the USDA, they retrained their employees and are slowing things down.

“We have a doctor and an inspector here every day,” Roberts said. “Everything is strict here and we abide by the rules.”

He added that nothing like this has happened before to the company. He said that the company has been in his family since 1992.

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