Sports Stars Team Up Against USDA’s Cruel High-Speed Slaughter Program

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Stars from across professional sports are teaming up with Compassion Over Killing’s (COK) “Not So Fast, USDA” campaign, to fight the nationwide expansion of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s (USDA) hazardous high-speed pig slaughter program.

Through May 2, the USDA is accepting public comments on its proposed rule, misleadingly titled “Modernization of Swine Slaughter Inspection,” and nearly 40,000 comments have already poured in. Submit your comment by May 2!

The New Swine Slaughter Inspection System (NSIS) will expand nationwide a pilot program known as “HIMP,” allowing slaughterhouses to operate with fewer government inspectors on the lines, while also running the lines at dangerously fast speeds.

These elite athletes are telling the USDA that it’s no game to reverse progress by speeding up slaughter lines under the guise of “modernization”:

Metta World Peace, NBA champion and All-Star
Dotsie Bausch, Olympic cyclist & activist
Jack Lindquist, cyclist
Steph Davis, rock climber and flyer
Spencer Pumpelly, race car driver
Dustin Watten, World Cup volleyball champion
Laura Kline, ultra runner
Andy Lally, race car driver

Last year, race car driver and activist Leilani Münter also joined COK as a driving force against HIMP, starting this growing roster of sports stars pointing out to the USDA that, while athletes are meant to be fast, high-speed slaughter is dangerous and cruel.

COK’s heartbreaking investigative video exposed high-speed horrors at Quality Pork Processors (QPP), a Hormel Foods supplier. Under the USDA’s pilot program, QPP is one of the nation’s fastest slaughter plants, killing approximately 1,300 pigs every hour.

“Compassion Over Killing is excited to pass the ball to these renowned athletes who are energizing our team effort to champion animals, workers, and consumers by opposing the USDA’s dangerous NSIS program.” – Erica Meier, Compassion Over Killing’s Executive Director

COK’s former investigator Scott David will soon personally deliver to the USDA more than a quarter of a million petition signatures against the program.

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