Slaughterhouse Audits Ineffective?

INEFFECTIVE AUDITS?

The effectiveness of third-party audit inspections employed by the meat industry to verify animal handling and other practices is being questioned, notes Steve Bjerklie in his column for Meat & Poultry. The Hallmark slaughterplant [ http://tinyurl.com/ac6fk3 ], the subject of a massive meat industry scandal in early 2008, passed 17 private audits in 2007. Robert LaBudde, a former third-party auditor, explains that, typically, places that are audited also pay for the audit, so there is a conflict of interest for the auditor. In addition, third-party audits are often announced in advance, and most auditors cannot levy fines or other penalties. "Consequences - "pain" is the word LaBudde used - will cause change, but little else will...The meat industry operates on pennies of profit, so it won't change unless it has to," states Bjerklie.

The popularity of video auditing was one of the topics at the American Meat Institute Foundation's recent Animal Care and Handling Conference: http://tinyurl.com/cvtlbu Cargill has announced it will begin implementing a third-party video auditing program which it plans to have in at all of its U.S. beef slaughterplants by the end of 2009. The company also created an animal-handling training and certification program for its employees: http://tinyurl.com/ct3n4a

UPSET ABOUT AUDITS
Meat & Poultry, Steve Bjerklie, March 27, 2009
http://tinyurl.com/dh3rvj

VIDEO AUDITING BENEFITS TOUTED AT ANIMAL WELFARE CONFERENCE
Meat & Poultry, Joel Crews, March 20, 2009
http://tinyurl.com/cvtlbu