Animal rights groups challenge USDA pig slaughter rules at Second Circuit

MANHATTAN (CN) — A panel of federal appeals judges in New York City presided Thursday over arguments from a coalition of animal protection groups that claim changes to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s animal slaughterhouse inspection protocol increased the risk of severe disease outbreaks and potentially subjected sick animals to inhumane treatment before they were killed.

The USDA rolled out its New Swine Inspection System in 2019, couching it as an effort to modernize pork inspections throughout the country by establishing a voluntary inspection system for slaughterhouses while speeding up the slaughter lines for more efficient meat processing.

Animal Outlook, a national nonprofit animal advocacy organization, joined six other animal rights groups in challenging the USDA’s decision to dramatically reduce federal oversight at pig slaughterhouses.

The plaintiffs claimed the new regulatory regime sharply cut back the roles of government food safety inspectors at slaughterhouses while increasing the regulatory responsibilities of private meatpackers who are tasked with deciding which hogs will go into the food supply system and be inspected by the USDA.

“The regulations take private employees who have no training, very high turnover and no protection from employer retaliation, and makes them the front line responsible for protecting us from the next major disease,” Animal Outlook attorney Piper Hoffman told the Second Circuit during oral arguments Thursday, seeking on appeal to reverse the lower court’s dismissal of their complaint on summary judgment.

U.S. Circuit Judge Steven Menashi questioned whether the new regulatory regime violates the terms of the federal Meat Inspection Act.

“If the purpose is to keep it out of the food supply, as you just said, if in fact, they’re out of the food supply, how does that undermine the purpose?” the Donald Trump appointee asked.

The groups sought to have the regulation vacated for violations of the Administrative Procedure Act, arguing that the new meat inspector regulations violate Congress’ explicit mandates to protect public health, unlawfully delegate agency responsibility to regulated parties and are not grounded in reasoned decision-making.

U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Wolford dismissed the group’s complaint on summary judgment in December 2023, finding that the plaintiffs failed to meet the burden of proof to show that the delegation of the sorting process was improper.

On appeal, the plaintiffs raise concerns that sick and near-death pigs identified by establishment personnel as unfit for slaughter may be disposed of by establishment personnel outside the view of USDA inspectors and in an inhumane manner.

Plaintiff-appellants Farm Sanctuary and Animal Equality joined Animal Outlook on appeal, with Animal Legal Defense Fund, the Center for Biological Diversity, Mercy For Animals and North Carolina Farmed Animal Save named as co-plaintiffs.

The animal rights groups say the streamlined regulatory regime requires slaughterhouse employees of establishments that opt into the NSIS to dispose of “unfit” animals without inspection by USDA-appointed and -trained inspectors, contrary to the Federal Meat Inspection Act’s mandate that the USDA “shall cause to be made, by inspectors appointed for that purpose, an examination and inspection of all amenable species” under the Amenable Species Provision, and contrary to the Supreme Court’s holding in National Meat Association v. Harris that the Federal Meat Inspection governs the inspection of all animals that arrive at a slaughter establishment.

The USDA, meanwhile, contended that many swine plants using the traditional system have historically already voluntarily segregated animals that show signs of diseases or conditions from healthy animals before USDA inspectors conduct their ante-mortem — performed before death — inspections.

“The pre-sorting rule is either the same or more protective of public health than the rule that it replaced,” Steven H. Hazel, an appellate attorney at the Department of Justice, told the Second Circuit on Thursday. “It’s the same or better than what came before, that that ought to be the end of their standing.”

Hazel described to the panel how slaughterhouses will attach a “pen card” that identifies a specific quantity of the animals in the lot that the USDA inspector signs after confirming the animals are healthy and ready for slaughter.

“Congress told us that the purpose here is to prevent adulterated meat from entering the food supply,” he said. “Under this rule, every pig that’s going to be in the food supply is subject to federal inspections just as they have been for 100 years.”

The USDA also noted that while new regulations eliminated existing line speed limits for post-mortem inspections under the new system, the head inspector on site can still force establishments to reduce their speeds if they are operating too fast for the inspectors to perform adequate carcass-by-carcass inspection.

U.S. Circuit Judges Gerard Lynch, a Bill Clinton appointee, and William Nardini, a fellow Trump appointee, joined Menashi on the panel. The panel did not immediately issue a ruling from the bench on Thursday.

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