An employee was using a hand tool (4- to 5-feet-long stainless steel rod with a two-pronged end) to pull meat out of a dump hoist vat and into a hopper. The hand tool (two-pronged end) became caught on the running/rotating hopper paddles, pulling the tool and the employee into the interlocked barrier guard. His finger was caught between the guard and the tool handle, partially amputating the right fourth digit's distal phalanx and lacerating the right fifth digit.