Annual Animal Slaughtering and Processing has declined 1 percent over the past 12 months with additional decline likely through the end of 2014.

The USDA said it was required by law to issue a grant of inspection to Valley Meat Co.

The company is one of several that have applied to the USDA to slaughter horses.

Investigating the use of ultrasound to determine lung problems in sheep so as to screen for kosher slaughter.

The owner of a poultry processing plant that supplies chickens to Sacramento-area restaurants and markets won approval on Thursday to move his operation after the Sacramento SPCA, an early foe of the new site, dropped its opposition. The Sacramento Planning Commission, on a 10-0 vote, approved a special-use permit for the New American Poultry facility, reports the Sacramento Bee.

Nebraska state senators advanced a bill that would allow for a state meat inspection program and possibly a horse slaughter and processing facility, and the chair of the state's Agriculture Committee slammed the Humane Society of the United States in the process.