Last September, the Food Safety and Inspection Service issued Directive 6900.2 Revision 2. A significant portion of this directive was focused on recommendations for the development of a robust systematic approach to animal welfare for slaughter establishments. Many larger plants were already operating under their own systematic approaches when the directive was released. As a matter of fact, a strong argument can be made that the industry’s initiative to develop the systematic approach to animal welfare prompted FSIS’s recommendation.