Latest Pig Factory Shocker
A worker kicks one of the pigs in this video from the HSUS
As legislators in farm states keep scrambling to ban undercover investigations, the shocking videos just keep coming. The latest, from the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), may just be one of the worst. Here’s a handful of the abuses documented in their investigation of Wyoming Premium Farms:
- Piglets kicked like soccer balls and thrown like bowling balls
- Mother pigs viciously struck in the face with large paddles
- Pigs dying in their gestation crates without even being noticed – one dead pig was half-buried in feed that had been automatically dumped onto her head
- Mother pigs punched and kicked into the breeding area to be re-impregnated, then crammed back into gestation crates
- Mummified piglet corpses lying around on the ground
- Piglets placed on pipes eight feet off the ground for the amusement of workers
- A very heavy worker bouncing on the back of a pig who can’t walk due to a broken leg, as she screams in agony.
One of the customers of this “farm’s” dead pigs is Tyson Foods, the world’s second largest meat processor. Tyson Foods says it is “appalled” by the video and protests that it doesn’t really buy from this facility; it’s just that it has “a small, but separate hog buying business that buys aged sows; however, these animals are subsequently sold to other companies and are not used in Tyson’s pork processing business.” (Huh?)
The National Pork Producers Council’s (NPPC) feigns high-minded shock:
[The video] shows practices that are abhorrent to U.S. pork producers. The National Pork Producers Council condemns such actions, which are not in accord with the U.S. pork industry’s best practices that are exemplified in its Pork Quality Assurance Plus program.
Providing humane and compassionate care for their pigs at every stage of life is one of the ethical principles to which U.S. pork producers adhere. U.S. pork producers are committed to caring for animals in a way that protects their well-being. Just as it is to others, mistreatment of animals is appalling to pork producers. We do not defend and will not accept mistreatment of animals.
NPPC understands that the farm in question is taking immediate steps to address the situation, including an unannounced inspection of the facility by the farm’s consulting veterinarian. Individuals responsible for willful abuse of animals must be held accountable.
(Last month, when HSUS filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission accusing the NPPC of deceptive advertising, the pork producers called the complaint “the latest attack by animal-rights activists on America’s hog farmers.”)
And Wyoming Premium Farms had this to say:
The video … shows some practices that are not and will not be tolerated. The owners and managers of the farm are investigating the incidents shown in the video and wish to assure everyone we will take action to correct all problems and to deal appropriately with any employees that were involved.
All this righteous indignation AFTER they’ve all been caught red-handed. Were the managers as blind and helpless as the piglets? Where was Tyson Foods when these horrors were being committed? When has there ever been an undercover investigation by the NPPC pork council, supposedly the watchdog agency for the whole miserable industry?
And where is the general public on all this? Why is anyone still buying food from these companies? Why is anyone still voting for the legislators in states like Iowa and Utah who have been tripping over each other as they race to crack down, not on the perpetrators of these crimes against nature, but on the courageous people who take their own safety in their hands to infiltrate these Houses of Horror and then blow the whistle.
Here’s some video from the HSUS investigator. It’s sickening, but we owe it to the pigs to watch: