Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Health Law Blogs -> Food Safety News

Health Law

: Food Safety News

Judge Orders NY Dairy to Stop Selling Cows

By Dan Flynn and Suzanna Schreck

A Wyoming, New York dairy farmer was ordered to stop selling cows for slaughter until he complies with federal law.

U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Arcara ordered Jerald P. Schumacher, who sells dairy cattle through an auction yard in Pavilion, NY to be slaughtered for human consumption, to cease doing business.  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration cited a sole proprietor of the dairy farm, Schumacher, for selling cows that tested positive for illegal residues of antibiotics.

Judge Arcara, who was appointed to the federal bench by former President Ronald Reagan, signed a consent degree of permanent injunction on March 25, ending Schumacher's ability to sell cows for human consumption.

The FDA complaint said Schumacher has sold cows for slaughter for at least 10 years with residues of the antibiotics penicillin and sulfadimethoxine in the animals' edible tissue. The agency also said he illegally gave the cows higher-than-allowed dosages.

"The sale of animals for animal-derived human food products that contain illegal levels of animal drugs poses a significant public health risk," said Dr. Bernadette Dunham, D.V.M., director of FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine. "FDA will continue to take action against producers who violate federal laws intended to protect the health of the public and of livestock."

The farm was most recently inspected between Oct. 6 and Oct. 21, 2009, and Schumacher was given a written report detailing the violations. After FDA issued a warning letter in 2006 requiring him to abide by the law, violations continued.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which has the responsibility for detecting drug residues in beef sold for human consumption, cited Schumacher six times in the past 10 years.

Schumacher also violated the law by failing to keep adequate records of which cows were medicated, according to the complaint.

FDA routinely finds dairy farmers who are selling cows for human consumption that have higher than allowed levels of animal drugs in edible tissues.  On March 8, or example, FDA issued a warning letter to the Double B. Dairy, LLC in Wendell, ID for selling an animal for human consumption that had higher than allowed levels of the drug Flunixin in its system.

Full post as published by Food Safety News on March 27, 2010 (boomark / email).