Good news in our battle against extreme speed slaughter: on Friday, January 22, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) withdrew a proposed rule that would allow even more chicken slaughterhouses to increase their slaughter lines to the alarmingly fast rate of 175 birds per minute—nearly three birds killed per second—from official Office of Management and Budget review. We have also learned that the pig slaughter line speed rule finalized during the Trump administration is currently under review.

The ASPCA has been relentless in our efforts to halt extreme-speed slaughter, communicating the dangers of the proposed rule to the Biden administration’s transition team, as well as to key staff at the USDA. On Friday, we sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary-designee Tom Vilsack and Acting Agriculture Secretary Kevin Shea urging the department to stop the chicken line speed proposal from moving forward, and to address related, harmful line speed policies advanced during the Trump administration.

We applaud the Biden administration for recognizing the dangers of these policies and for taking immediate action to reconsider extreme-speed slaughter. Doing so will protect not just animals, but also workers and public health. While we hope that the USDA will soon confirm that it will fully reverse these concerning policies, these actions are very positive indicators. We will continue to speak out against extreme-speed slaughter and urge you to join us in securing this victory.

If you’d like to do more to help farm animals through policy protections, join our Regional Advocacy Field Team today!