Stop Skinning Animals Alive

Target: Tom Vilsack, United States Secretary of Agriculture

Goal: Demand the USDA strengthen animal welfare standards on farms throughout the U.S. and ban custom-exempt slaughter.

An undercover investigation of three USDA certified, custom-exempt slaughterhouses revealed gross violations of the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act. Workers at the three slaughterhouses—Operation Orlando Poultry, Operation Ali Meats, and Operation A-Poultry—were reportedly observed dragging animals inhumanely, stabbing them to death, slowing sawing off their heads, and skinning animals while still conscious. Investigators with Animal Recovery Mission allege that workers also failed to use any sort of stunning device to render the victims insensitive to pain and, so, they were fully conscious during the butchering process. Among the species found at the locations were goats, dogs and puppies, cows, donkeys, horses, sheep, rabbits, and many others.

Custom-exempt slaughterhouses, like the ones investigated here, are not uncommon throughout the United States. These facilities are exempt from federal inspection by the USDA and, as a result, can essentially do whatever they please with their animals. In addition to allowing inhumane treatment of animals, this laissez-faire way of slaughtering poses food safety risks for humans who consume the meat, especially in a time where bird flu is contaminating tens of thousands of live poultry.

Sign this petition to demand all slaughterhouses are federally inspected and stop allowing animals to be tortured in custom-exempt facilities.

PETITION LETTER:

Dear Secretary Vilsack,

Animal Recovery Mission recently conducted an undercover investigation of three of Orlando’s USDA certified, custom-exempt slaughterhouses, and their reported findings are downright atrocious. According to investigators, animals were inhumanely dragged to slaughter, violently stabbed in the neck and chest, had their heads sawed off, and were skinned alive. And, as none of the three locations seemed to possess a stun gun, animals–including goats, sheep, puppies, dogs, horses, cows, rabbits, and others–remained fully conscious throughout the whole process and literally felt their skin being shredded from their bodies.

Sadly, these three slaughterhouses–namely Operation Orlando Poultry, Operation Ali Meats, and Operation A-Poultry–are only a few of the custom-exempt slaughterhouses that exist in the United States. Federal violations to animal welfare laws are already common on USDA regulated farms and slaughterhouses, so one could only imagine the horrors committed with no regulation at all. This lack of interest in the operations of custom-exempt slaughterhouses might also have dangerous implications for public health–especially in the face of bird flu resurgence–as there are no federal food safety inspections.

We are asking you, Mr. Vilsack, to demand that all slaughterhouses are federally inspected and to stop allowing animals to be tortured in custom-exempt slaughterhouses.

Sincerely,

[Your Name Here]

Photo Credit: Garrett Ziegler