WASHINGTON - US Agriculture Department inspectors need better training on what action to take when they see livestock being abused, the investigative arm of Congress said in a report on Thursday.

The US public has grown more concerned about food quality and safety after the biggest-ever meat recall in US history.

A California packing plant was closed in 2008 because animals too sick or injured to walk were processed for meat.

In a survey, USDA inspectors reported different responses for what they would do if they saw meat plants breaking a law to ensure animals do not feel pain at slaughter, the Government Accountability Office said.

Some 23 percent of inspectors surveyed said they would shut down the plant if they witnessed plant workers improperly stunning livestock, 27 percent said they would file a report requiring corrective action, 38 percent said they would take"regulatory control action," 5 percent said they did not know, and 7 percent had another response, the watchdog agency said.

The USDA needs clear guidelines and inspectors need more training to ensure they all know what to do, the GAO said. The USDA said it disagreed with the GAO's assessment.

"Field personnel know when to take action, and they do take action," said Jerold Mande, USDA's deputy undersecretary for food safety, in testimony prepared for a hearing of a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on Thursday.

Mande said the GAO's survey did not have enough context from which to draw conclusions.

"It can be very difficult to establish definitively which of the two regulatory actions at the disposal of an FSIS
inspector - suspension and issuing a noncompliance report - should be utilized, without knowing the history, context, and situation observed by FSIS inspection personnel," Mande said.

The key finding of the survey is that inspectors agreed they would take action, he said.

But Mande acknowledged there was room for improvement. He noted that USDA added 23 inspection positions and plans to hire a humane handling enforcement coordinator to provide oversight of inspectors.

The agency will also collect more data to analyze and monitor humane handling inspections, he said.

WHISTLEBLOWER: USDA LOOKS THE OTHER WAY

Lawmakers began the hearing by viewing undercover footage shot by the Humane Society of the United States at a Vermont veal calf slaughtering plant.

The GAO said it showed plant workers skinning and decapitating one-week old veal calves while they were
conscious. The USDA and state officials closed the Bushway Packing Inc plant in October when they saw the footage.

Dean Wyatt, a USDA veterinarian who works in slaughter plants and is a well-known whistleblower on inhumane practices, said he had suspended operations at the plant three times, only to have it reopened each time by a supervisor.

The Humane Society said the footage shows a USDA inspector turning a blind eye to the abuse.

The USDA continues to investigate the allegations, and has fired one employee, Mande said in his prepared remarks.

"The agency takes humane handling violations very seriously," Mande said.

Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society, said the USDA has taken some steps, but must take more.

"It will take significant effort to overcome the habits built up over so many years, in which inspectors have been made to feel that they shouldn't rock the boat," Pacelle said in prepared testimony.