USA Today report: USDA/FSIS overlooked mistreatment of animals at slaughterhouses
"When upper-level FSIS management looks the other way as food safety or humane slaughter laws are broken … then management is just as guilty for breaking those laws," says Dean Wyatt, a supervisory veterinarian for FSIS, in testimony sent to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. USA Today obtained a copy of the testimony in advance of today's hearing.
Wyatt says that he ordered suspensions in operations at Bushway Packing, in Grand Isle, Vt., three times in 2008 and 2009. He witnessed downed calves being dragged through pens to slaughter. Each time, he says, managers overruled him, and the plant was allowed to run. Bushway eventually was closed permanently after video of workers hitting calves was released by the Humane Society of the United States.