During a USDA inspection of the Prestage Foods plant early this month, USDA inspectors entered a barn in the slaughterhouse area of the plant, where they witnessed a Prestage employee attempt, unsuccessfully, to stun a hog with a hand held bolt device.
According to a letter of suspension issued by the Des Moines district office of the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, In-Plant inspection Personnel (IPP) observed a Prestage employee preparing to stun a hog "standing on all four feet next to him". The suspension letter details that the employee then attempted to stun the hog with a hand-held captive bolt (HHCB) device, also known as a "bolt gun". A properly used HHCB device in good working order drives a steel piston, or "bolt" into the animal's skull, either killing or at least rendering it unconscious.
Following the first attempt at stunning the hog with the bolt device, the animal "appeared dazed, but did not go down" and remained conscious and standing on all four feet. After the attempt, the USDA inspector examined the hog's head and noted that the skin was not broken. The unnamed Prestage employee then made another attempt to stun the hog. This time the bolt penetrated the hog's head.
According to the letter of suspension, the hog then "dropped to its stifles and hocks and was conscious and began to move away from the employee." The letter offered more detail, stating that the hog "could not walk and was crawling and dragging itself on its hocks and stifles and maneuvered itself … approximately 90 feet."
After the second attempt to stun the hog, the inspector called for another nearby Prestage employee to intervene. The employee, whose name is redacted from the public copy of the letter obtained by the Eagle Grove Eagle, then took the same bolt gun from the first employee, reloaded it, and used it to render the animal "unconscious".
Animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), then issued a misleading press release. "Feds Suspend Operations at Prestage Over Latest Violation; PETA Seeks Kill-Floor Cameras", read the headline, giving the average reader the impression the plant had been shut down. An incorrect assumption which the text of the press release did not make any effort to clear up. And the release also stated falsely that, in an earlier, July 2020 violation a pig had been fed "through a machine that scraped off the animal’s hair" while still conscious.
In fact, according to documents obtained by the Eagle, the hog referred to in the earlier violation had not been put through the machine, called a polisher, while conscious. But instead the USDA's inspector had stopped the line, and seen to it that the animal was rendered unconscious before going through the machine. A fact that was made very clear in the USDA's notice to Prestage regarding that 2020 suspension. And just as it was two years ago, the suspension at Prestage was brief, lasting less than a single day, according to Prestage Communications Director Deborah Johnson.
"The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Services is responsible for federal meat inspection. Part of that responsibility means that USDA inspectors must be present at all times for harvesting of pigs in our plant," Johnston told the Eagle by phone. "One of the inspection personnel's duties is to verify the proper handling of all animals and if there are any conditions in which we need to improve or correct, that is immediately addressed and done so working closely with USDA."
However, despite the shortness of the work stoppage, Prestage is not out of the woods yet. On April 7th, the day after the brief suspension, the USDA issued Prestage a Notice of Suspension Held in Abeyance. Essentially, this allows Prestage to continue operations in a probationary status for the following 90 days. The abeyance notice states that Prestage had provided the Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) "written corrective actions and preventive measures" in response to the April 6th Notice of Suspension. The FSIS deemed those measures to be "adequate to address the noncompliance regarding the humane handling of livestock". During the period of probation, in-plant inspectors will report back to the USDA's Des Moines District Office on a weekly basis.
