FORT VALLEY, Ga. — Sitting on 21 acres of farmland at Fort Valley State University is a meat technology facility where goats, sheep, and cattle are slaughtered.
This is where the anti-meat activist group PETA says a worker bull died a cruel and agonizing death.
"Someone at the Georgia Small Ruminant Research and Extension Center at Fort Valley State University shot a bull in the head 10 times before the animal was rendered unconscious," says PETA investigator Colin Henstock.
This happened back on June 26th, and the United States Department of Agriculture sent the school a suspension notice, saying they were withdrawing their inspectors for the meat programs.
The letter says the USDA suspended their inspections that same day, which means meat coming out of the Fort Valley center wouldn't get USDA approval.
But the federal agency lifted the suspension the next day.
Cedric Mobley, a university spokesman, says, "The USDA was concerned about what they observed regarding this isolated incident of this one very large, very large bull that needed to be rendered unconscious before processing."
Mobley continues to say, "They asked us to look at that, which we did immediately, and then asked us to let them know and inform our corrective actions that we were going to take, which we did immediately within a day."
As a result, the university agreed to use stronger handheld bolt guns, specifically for larger animals.
"Procure larger charges to make sure that the animals can be rendered unconscious more decisively."
But Henstock says PETA is looking for charges against everyone who was involved.
"File appropriate criminal charges against the facility and those responsible for this animal's agonizing death."
The office of District Attorney David Cooke says they are gathering information from law enforcement about the case before deciding whether to charge the worker involved.
Meanwhile, the university says they are voluntarily stopping their meat processing on large cattle until they get the new devices approved by the USDA.