USDA livestock rule changed, kept quiet
Posted on Saturday, September 30, 2006
The U. S. Department of Agriculture adopted a new policy that limits the number of hours livestock can be transported by truck, but didn’t tell anyone outside the government until this week — three years later.
For decades, the Twenty-Eight Hour Law, passed in 1873 to provide livestock with food, water and rest after 28 hours in rail cars, was not applied to trucks.
The agency never publicly announced the policy change, Jim Rogers, spokesman for the USDA’s Animal, Plant, Health Inspection Service, confirmed in an interview Thursday.
The policy change came to light this week in a letter the USDA sent to the Humane Society of the United States in response to a legal petition the group filed in October 2005 to extend the law to trucks.
The USDA clarified its position in a 2003 internal memo distributed to government veterinarians.
“The 28-hour law, first enacted in 1873, applied exclusively to animals by rail,” Rogers said. “In 2003, we sent our vets clarification on what that meant.” In 1906, the law was amended to include companies using the railroad. The statute was amended again in 1994 to clarify the language.
“We never considered the 1906 law as being applicable to the transport of animals by truck,” Rogers said. “Now we see the meaning of the statutory term ‘vehicles’ means vehicle.” Most livestock today is transported by trucks.
Industry groups such as the National Pork Producers Council and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association weren’t aware of the rule change until contacted by a reporter for this story.
“It had never been applied to trucks and no one ever said it did, so there was no reason to think that it did,” said Dave Warner, spokesman for the National Pork Producers Council. “We’re still trying to figure out what the impact is. It could change the structure of the shipping industry.” For years, the government had said the 1873 rule did not apply to trucks, according to a 1997 USDA publication, Cattle and Swine Trucking Guide for Exporters.
“Federal law requires that livestock in interstate commerce be in transit for no more than 28 hours without food, water, and rest. However, this law applies only to rail shipments,” the publication states.
Peter Brandt, an attorney with the Humane Society’s animal protection litigation unit, said the memorandum was never made public.
“It’s still not made public, and it doesn’t clearly address the issue of whether the law applies to trucks, when they’ve said publicly, unequivocally, that the law does not include trucks,” he said.
Joe Schuele, spokesman for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, said the agency hasn’t seen a USDA announcement or posting on the policy change.
“Apparently they did have communication back to the Humane Society, so they obviously intend to make some kind of announcement. We’ll be waiting to see what they do announce publicly before commenting on that,” he said.
The USDA has no enforcement authority for violations, and government veterinarians do not inspect livestock cargo, Rogers said. The agency passes violation complaints to the U. S. Department of Justice and state law authorities for prosecution.
“We do not have enough people to even begin inspecting on the roads,” Rogers said.
Companies, livestock haulers and industry groups all say that 28 hours on a truck would be an unusually long transit time for livestock.
Warner said pigs are usually hauled in a 20-hour to 24-hour trip, such as from North Carolina to the Midwest.
“Obviously, our industry is very concerned about transporting pigs and the welfare of the pigs. We need all of them to arrive alive at their destination,” he said. “The industry has a trucker quality-assurance program that educates truck drivers about loading and unloading pigs to reduce the stress on the animals.” Fletcher Hall, executive director of the agricultural and food transporters division of the American Trucking Associations, said he also hadn’t seen any notice of the rule change.
“The majority of livestock every day that are moved are moved by truck, regardless of whether it’s cattle, hogs, pigs, rams [or ] horses,” he said. “A lot of livestock movement is now based on a just-in-time delivery system. Trucks have been modified and enhanced to provide for safer transport of livestock.” Rick Yost, vice president of Colorado-based VY Truckline Inc., and a board member of the American Trucking Associations ’ agricultural and food transporters division, hauls livestock every day to Midwest states. “We’ve been in business for 50 years, and we’ve kind of always went by 24 hours,” he said. “If cattle are on truck over 24 hours, we needed to get them off. We don’t haul many loads where livestock are on truck over 12 hours.” To contact this reporter: ccody@arkansasonline. com
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