"Tell USDA to Ensure the Welfare of Chickens and Turkeys at Slaughter" - Animal Welfare Institute

“Tell USDA to Ensure the Welfare of Chickens and
Turkeys at Slaughter” – Animal Welfare Institute
USDA Needs to Know that People CARE About These Birds, So Please Take a Moment . . .

If the U.S. Department of Agriculture does Not hear from people, they assume no one cares how chickens and turkeys are treated. Public silence could increase animal cruelty in the slaughter plants, where birds are not even covered by the federal Humane Methods of Slaughter Act. So please: read this Animal Welfare Institute alert, and follow the easy instructions. Raise your voice – not for “food safety” of poultry products – but for the billions of innocent birds in U.S. slaughterhouses. Thank you for your act of compassion. United Poultry Concerns

Click here to view the AWI eAlert and submit your comments to the USDA

Subject: Proposed Poultry Slaughter Plant Inspection System Changes
Commenter: United Poultry Concerns
Position of United Poultry Concerns: Opposition to the Proposed Changes

I am writing to you on behalf of United Poultry Concerns regarding your proposed poultry slaughter plant inspection system changes that would reduce the number of slaughter line inspectors and allow the industry to increase the rate of slaughter and police itself.

The concern of United Poultry Concerns is that fewer USDA inspectors and faster line speeds will increase the injuries and abuses sustained by chickens and turkeys in the slaughter plants. Fewer inspectors on the slaughter line make it more likely that inhumane handling will occur and be overlooked. Increased line speeds will force workers to shackle birds even more rapidly resulting in more birds enduring painful bruises, fractures, and being hung in a shackle by only one leg.

As you know, chickens and turkeys bred for meat production are extremely fragile birds who are easily wounded. They suffer from pathological conditions of their bones, joints and tendons. Increased line speed, fewer inspectors, and slaughter plant self-inspection will put these birds at even greater risk than they already experience of abusive treatment, excruciating pain and suffering. Since poultry are excluded from the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, the proposed changes to the inspection systems will put billions of chickens and turkeys in even worse circumstances.

For these reasons, United Poultry Concerns opposes the proposed changes. We support only such changes as would render the slaughter process less cruel and inhumane.