Kingdom Provisions Slaughterhouse in Pipersville was served with a Notice of Suspension by the USDA on July 2, 2024. The action terminates the assignment of Inspection Program Personnel from its Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), and withholds its official marks of inspection.
The notice was issued based on the determination that Kingdom Provisions did not “handle or slaughter animals humanely.”
This is the third time USDA has taken action against Kingdom Provisions for the inhumane handling of animals in less than two years.
READ: Pipersville Residents Held Hostage By Slaughterhouse Horrors
According to the notice, the consumer safety inspector (CSI) observed a steer being readied for ritualistic slaughter in a “knock box,” an enclosed space that severely limits an animal’s movement.
After the animal’s throat was slit, the inspector watched the animal escape the box, walk into a room next to the slaughter floor and then get out of the building when a back door leading to the outside of the facility was opened by an employee.
The animal was standing behind the slaughterhouse and was bleeding from its neck.
Kingdom Provisions employees then proceeded to shoot the animal with a rifle. The steer was still conscious and standing after being hit with the first bullet, according to the USDA notification.
Two additional shots were fired and following the third and final shot, the CSI observed the animal lying on the ground.
Stoltzfus is required to respond to the notice and provide a plan of correction action and measures that address the nature and cause of the incident, how those corrective actions will be implemented to prevent a recurrence, and how the slaughtering process will be monitored to ensure compliance with FSIS regulations.
Two previous suspensions for Kingdom Provisions from USDA for violation of FSIS regulations were placed in abeyance upon receipt of Stoltzfus’ written response.
READ: Plumstead Township Moves to Enforce Regulations at Controversial Slaughterhouse
As previously reported by the Beacon, the first violation occurred on October 19, 2023, when a (CSI) heard and then observed the botched and inhumane slaughter of a steer that caused the animal needless immense suffering.
“This steer spent his last moments in terror and agony as slaughterhouse workers repeatedly shot him, dangled him upside down, and slit his throat,” said PETA Vice President of Evidence Analysis Daniel Paden in a news release.
The second violation occurred on January 18, 2024, when a Consumer Safety Inspector (CSI) heard and then observed sheep jumping four feet from a truck to the floor, causing serious injury, panic and undue pain.
Read the July 2, 2024, Notice of Suspension.
