Federal food inspectors asked a Tooele County butcher shop to stop slaughtering animals after one of its agents saw staff “inhumanely” amputate an injured and conscious steer’s foot ahead of slaughter.

The black steer in line to be killed at Tooele Valley Meat on Nov. 5 tried to escape the queue and got its front left hoof stuck in between a gate post and a gate as it tried to jump the fence, U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors witnessed, according to a notice of suspension letter .

As the animal struggled to get free, it broke its legs at the ankle in a compound fracture and laid against the gate, the notice said, “slumped with its head under its stuck leg.”

The owner decided the only way to free the animal and get it to slaughter was to amputate its hoof, according to the noti

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