Investigation reveals ongoing cruelty at halal slaughterhouse in Maryland
CURRENT STATUS: (Open) Pending results of USDA investigation.
October 14, 2026
Our recent investigation, completed in collaboration with Strategies for Ethical and Environmental Development (SEED), documented numerous welfare concerns at Hamzah Slaughter House (Hamzah), a halal slaughterhouse in Williamsport, Maryland. Footage obtained during the investigation shows a conscious goat being dragged by their hind legs, as well as a cow with a badly injured leg being forced to rise and hobble around, despite being unable to put any weight on one back leg. Following the investigation, we reported our findings to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and the Humane Society of Washington County (HSWC). Sadly, the HSWC declined to press charges against the slaughterhouse. However, we are still awaiting a response from FSIS.
Hamzah is a small, FSIS-inspected slaughter plant with years of records showing a pattern of animals being dragged, injured, and subjected to immense suffering during slaughter. In 2023, a federal inspector watched a worker drag a lamb with injured front legs. After the inspector informed him that this conduct was unacceptable, the worker sarcastically asked the inspector if he should "call an ambulance" instead. Similarly, a Snapchat video posted in 2025 depicts a worker dragging a sheep by a single back leg to the kill floor. Additionally, FSIS inspections dating back to 2020 reveal that slaughterhouse workers continuously fail to provide food and water to animals as they await slaughter, while one 2023 inspection documented a small cow being trampled by other animals.
Hamzah also has a history of brutal, prolonged ritual slaughter. Between 2023 and 2024, inspectors documented at least three instances of cows being killed by having their throats sawed with dull knives for up to two minutes. Descriptions of these incidents describe one calf “loudly vocalizing” while their throat was sliced 10-15 times, with another “continuously vocalizing” until he bled out, and a final cow “thrashing around” throughout the process. The inspectors note that, had this conduct not occurred under a ritual slaughter exemption, these incidents would have been considered “egregious” humane handling violations.
But Hamzah’s problems go back even further—and are not limited to animal welfare concerns. In 2020, FSIS suspended federal inspection at the slaughterhouse after the previous owner allegedly assaulted and intimidated federal inspectors—the very people responsible for catching the kind of cruelty documented above. Federal inspection was only reinstated once the previous owner agreed to completely divest his ownership of the slaughterhouse to his family members, in addition to being absent from the property during any federal inspection activities for three years. In 2014, Hamzah was fined $175,000 after the Maryland Department of the Environment discovered that the slaughterhouse was dumping slaughter waste into a nearby creek that ultimately fed into the Potomac River.
Many people believe small, local slaughterhouses are a humane choice, and that fewer animals and a slower line mean animals are spared from the worst treatment. Hamzah Slaughter House shows that size is not the safeguard the industry wants consumers to believe it is. A small plant still has workers under pressure, frightened and injured animals, and every incentive to keep the line moving—particularly when operating under a ritual exemption that allows egregious slaughter practices to go unpunished.
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