Over the last year, the same old humane handling issues stayed as the key contributors to USDA FSIS Humane Handling Enforcement Actions. The good news is that fewer humane handing enforcement action letters were posted to the USDA FSIS website in 2021 (62) than the previous three years: 2018 — 109, 2019 — 85, and 2020 — 99.
Mechanical stunning — which includes captive bolt and gunshot — continues to be the primary root cause outlined in USDA FSIS Humane Handling Enforcement Actions. Last year, there were 62 humane handling enforcement action letters posted to the USDA FSIS website, and 51 (82.3%) were related to stunning. Of those 51 enforcement actions, 43 were associated with mechanical stunning methods — specifically captive bolt and gunshot. The remaining stunning-related enforcement actions were associated with carbon dioxide (4/51) and electrical stunning (3/51).