Group unveils undercover video from Minnesota slaughterhouse

The animal rights group has given “many hours” of raw video to the USDA and local authorities, and has met with federal investigators to assist in the investigation, Erica Meier, executive director of Compassion Over Killing, told HuffPost.

An animal-welfare group said an undercover video it released on Wednesday shows workers dragging and beating pigs at a slaughterhouse that supplies Hormel Foods Corp., allegations the supplier disputes.

Federal law requires livestock be stunned unconscious before killing.

Nate Jansen, QPP’s vice president of human resources and quality services, told HuffPost that the company’s own video monitoring system had already been “flagged” for something appearing on the Compassion Over Killing footage, and an employee was disciplined for an unspecified violation of company policy.

Compassion Over Killing says the video from a Quality Pork Processors plant in Austin shows workers taking inhumane shortcuts to keep slaughter lines moving.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has described the actions depicted in the video as “completely unacceptable”.

According to the company’s website, Quality Pork Processors (QPP) provides more than half of the “fresh pork raw material needs” for Hormel, the maker of Spam and other pork products.

Although USDA inspectors would have been at the plant, the actions depicted in the video occurred in a part of the plant that would likely have been out of their view, the agency said.

According to Jensen, if any additional video comes to light, QPP will investigate and take any corrective action warranted. The plant exclusively supplies to Hormel, which is among the leading producers of processed meat in the nation.

But Temple Grandin, an animal science professor at Colorado State University, said involuntary, reflexive movements can occur in animals immediately after the kill process. “If I would have done an audit, they would have failed”.

Meier said the video shows the failings of a “HIMP”, a pilot safety program under USDA auspices at five pork plants, including the Quality slaughterhouse in Austin. It allows the animal slaughter plants to operate at a faster speed but with lowered government oversight.

The USDA rejected that claim.

Meier said the USDA’s pilot program – known as HACCP-Based Inspection Models Project (HIMP) – took inspectors away from the area being filmed.