Four petitions for policy changes — one from 2016 — have received final rulings from USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).
The oldest petition was from the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) requesting that the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) amend its poultry products labeling regulations to define “free
Continue Reading FSIS delivers the final word on four food safety petitions
If you can always ask, you can always ask again. And asking again is the tactic the Animal Welfare Institute is taking with USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).
In May 2023, the Animal Welfare Institute, Compassion in World Farming, the Humane Society of the United States, Humane Society
Continue Reading After waiting a year, petitioner asks nicely for a second time
Mass killings to control highly contagious, highly pathogenic avian influenza are being criticized by at least one animal activist organization.
The non-governmental Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) has petitioned the USDA’s Animal and Plant Inspection Service (APHIS), asking the government to “incentivize producers to adequately plan for the rapid killing of
Continue Reading Animal activists want mass killings to control avian flu to use more humane methods
A multi-million dollar Washington D.C.-based nonprofit, the Animal Welfare Institute, has filed the second petition this year seeking a policy change with USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.
The Animal Welfare Institute petition has been assigned to the FSIS Office of Policy and Program Development for review and assigned petition
Continue Reading Animal activist group asks FSIS for more regulation of ‘Custom Exempt’ slaughter
There are just 10 more days to comment before USDA can finalize the Organic Livestock and Poultry rule for the National Organic Program. If enacted, new animal welfare standards would apply to animals raised under the USDA Organic label.
If it all sounds familiar it should. The rule is similar
Continue Reading Organic Label’s animal welfare rule is close to crossing the finish line
A federal judge in Rochester, NY, has ruled he can review the denial of a rulemaking petition that suggests USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service should prohibit behavior that has the potential to cause birds to die other than by slaughter.
The FSIS denied the petition in 2019, saying its
Continue Reading USDA denial of poultry handling rule is subject to Administrative Procedures Act review
Four and a half years after the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) petitioned USDA over the use of labeling claims like “humane” and “sustainable,” the issues involved may be taken up by a federal court.
AWI has sued USDA in the federal court for the District of Columbia, asking a yet-to-be-assigned
Continue Reading USDA sued for not requiring verification for ‘humane’ labeling
People are often shocked to learn how little government oversight exists surrounding the way animals are slaughtered in the United States.
There are only about 148 (full-time equivalent) humane slaughter inspectors for the 148 million cows, pigs and sheep slaughtered every year at federally inspected establishments, according to the
Continue Reading Poultry Industry Misleads the Public About the Humaneness of Slaughter
