The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) indefinitely pulled its inspectors from Brooksville Meat Fabrication (“Brooksville”), a slaughterhouse in Bracken County, Kentucky, for inhumane handling and slaughtering of animals. Without USDA inspectors, Brooksville cannot legally process meat for sale in interstate commerce. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time USDA has permanently withdrawn inspectors for inhumane treatment of animals. The order became final on May 3, 2014, after Brooksville repeatedly failed to handle animals humanely.
Brooksville had been suspended four times for egregious violation of the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act in the year leading up to USDA’s action. After the slaughter plant’s fourth violation, AWI wrote to the Food Safety and Inspection Service district manager for the region, who has authority to withdraw inspection from plants. AWI outlined the severity of Brooksville’s inhumane conduct and requested that USDA take this decisive course of action and thereby end Brooksville’s reign of misery.