Saw this on FOX News a few moments ago and was rather shocked. However, once again PETA is stretching the truth about what is abuse and what is standard practice when it comes to mass scale industrial farming operations. As someone who worked on a hog farm for nearly 5 years, I know what some of this stuff is and I know that it is not abuse. I am not saying however that the pigs were not being mistreated because they obviously were, I just want to put the record straight on a few of the things I noticed in the article.
First thing is to cut out the incisor teeth so that the pigs cannot bite each other, chew off the teats of the mother and also to ensure that they cannot penetrate skin if they were to bite a human. Second thing that happens is that they get a shot of iron in the neck, basically a booster shot similar to what you give children at an early age and also boosts the immune system.
The third thing that happens is that the ears are tattooed using a pair of pliers with needles arranged in a pattern that shows what barn the animal came from. This is so that if a deformity, disease or any other potentially harmful occurance can be tracked back to the barn the animal originated in so that production and shipping can stop until the problem is rectified. This is mainly to stop the spread of disease. Lastly the tail is cut off from the pig. This is done so that the tails of the animals will not be caught in doors, gates, trucking walls, etc etc and also so that other pigs will not chew on them. It is done with a pair of plier like clippers and is extremely quick. After the processing is done the pigs is covered in an anti-bacterial solution so that none of the wounds become infected.
In the 5th week the males are castrated. This is so that the meat of the pig does not develop to much testosterone and become tough and stringy. You could relate this to why bucks are hunted for trophies and does are generally hunted for food, also to why beef mostly comes from cows and not from bulls. It's no more than two slits to the scrotom, removing the testicles and disinfecting the wounds.
*Pigs are kept in three different barns.
--Breeding: Which is were the sows that have recently had piglets shipped off come back to in order to re-breed.
--Gestation: Which is were the sows sit through the majority of their pregnancy.
--Nursing: Which is were the sows go to have the piglets and nurse them for the six weeks before they are shipped to a feeder barn. Once the piglets are gone they are rotated back through Breeding, rinse and repeat.
The worker in question is obviously a fucking tree-hugging hippy who doesn't know the first thing about livestock or nursery operations.
That is pretty horrible. The employee in question should definitely be put away, for a long long time.FOX News/PETA wrote:
A local prosecutor in North Carolina is investigating allegations of animal cruelty by a pig farm supplying Smithfield Foods, the nation’s largest pork producer. The investigation comes after an animal rights activist secretly videotaped workers beating and dragging swine, gouging out their eyes and cutting out their testicles.
Attorneys from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals presented their case to the Sampson County District Attorney's Office in North Carolina on Monday and will turn over videotapes and a signed affidavit by PETA's undercover investigator, who says he witnessed daily violent mistreatment of baby and adult pigs at Murphy Family Ventures Garland Sow Farm in Garland, N.C.
In the black-and-white video, a supervisor can be heard bragging to the undercover PETA investigator that he brutally beats the animals.
"I ain't going to lie to you; I've done it," he says. "My temper is about that long. I get f— frustrated and I have knocked the s— out of them. Like that one bit me the other morning, that mother f—.... I cut the s— out of his G—d— nose with a f— gate rod."
Now this, this is what I'm talking about. First off to explain what they are talking about I'll explain what we called "Processing". Processing occurs within the third week after being born. This is basically setting the piglets up for when they will be shipped to a feeder barn at 6 weeks of age. What happens is that the piglets are gathered up out of the pen and placed in a rolling cart.FOX News/PETA wrote:
In other segments, pigs who have the word "KILL" spray-painted on their backs screech in apparent pain as they're dragged to slaughter with a heavy metal prodder attached to their legs, ears and snouts, and women laugh as they castrate one piglet after another without anesthesia or painkillers.
"One female employee told me that was her stress relief for the week," said the PETA investigator, who spoke to FOXNews.com on condition of anonymity. "That's the type of person doing those jobs. ... The treatment of the baby pigs shook me the most."
He said he also witnessed piglets' tails being sliced off and other atrocities. Castration and tail-chopping are general practice at swine slaughterhouses, according to PETA.
First thing is to cut out the incisor teeth so that the pigs cannot bite each other, chew off the teats of the mother and also to ensure that they cannot penetrate skin if they were to bite a human. Second thing that happens is that they get a shot of iron in the neck, basically a booster shot similar to what you give children at an early age and also boosts the immune system.
The third thing that happens is that the ears are tattooed using a pair of pliers with needles arranged in a pattern that shows what barn the animal came from. This is so that if a deformity, disease or any other potentially harmful occurance can be tracked back to the barn the animal originated in so that production and shipping can stop until the problem is rectified. This is mainly to stop the spread of disease. Lastly the tail is cut off from the pig. This is done so that the tails of the animals will not be caught in doors, gates, trucking walls, etc etc and also so that other pigs will not chew on them. It is done with a pair of plier like clippers and is extremely quick. After the processing is done the pigs is covered in an anti-bacterial solution so that none of the wounds become infected.
In the 5th week the males are castrated. This is so that the meat of the pig does not develop to much testosterone and become tough and stringy. You could relate this to why bucks are hunted for trophies and does are generally hunted for food, also to why beef mostly comes from cows and not from bulls. It's no more than two slits to the scrotom, removing the testicles and disinfecting the wounds.
Lots of jibba-jabba.FOX News/PETA wrote:
"We believe that these acts of abuse constitute a violation of state animal cruelty laws," said PETA spokesman Matt Prescott. "Employees were gauging out the eyes of pigs and violently dragging animals by an ear or a snout or a leg. A supervisor admitted on camera to viciously attacking pigs with metal rods."
The county said it plans to look deeper into the case.
"I have requested that the State Bureau of Investigation investigate allegations that some employees at a sow farm in Garland, N.C., have abused animals," said Sampson County D.A. G. Dewey Hudson in a statement. "The request was made as a result of information provided by PETA. As soon as an investigation is completed I will make a decision about whether charges should be filed and will make my decision public at that time."
Murphy Family Ventures pig-breeding farms and slaughterhouses are under contract with Smithfield Foods as pork suppliers. The PETA employee who videotaped the alleged pig abuse said he was hired as an entry-level "herd technician 1" and worked from Sept. 13 until Nov. 2 of this year.
"[The abuse of pigs] happened every day," said the PETA investigator. "The video is compelling to people, but it pales in comparison to seeing it every day in person. You can't even capture the full horror of what goes on there."
PETA wants all those workers it captured on camera reportedly abusing the pigs charged with animal cruelty, a criminal offense that's generally classified as a misdemeanor under North Carolina law.
It also is demanding that Smithfield Foods become more proactive in enforcing its animal welfare program by taking measures, such as installing surveillance cameras at its farms and slaughterhouses and conducting its own internal investigations into how operations are handled.
Smithfield's livestock subsidiary Murphy-Brown LLC, which is a different company from the contracting farm Murphy Family Ventures, said it is doing its own probe into the accusations of abuse at its slaughterhouses.
"An investigation into the allegations of animal abuse at the Garland sow farm has begun," the company said in a statement. "When the investigation is completed we will take the appropriate actions if violations of the company's animal welfare policy are identified."
The corporation said that the alleged cruelty occurred not on a company-owned or operated farm but on one contracted by Smithfield and Murphy-Brown, and vowed to work with the farm to make sure it was adhering to corporate standards for animal care.
Corrective action would be taken if the slaughterhouse is found to be violating those guidelines, according to Murphy-Brown.
The 2,200-pig farm that has come under fire said that it, too, is looking into the situation.
"We have received information about this matter and are reviewing these specific allegations," said Murphy Family Ventures in a statement. "The company is conducting its own internal investigation to determine the facts in this matter and will take any appropriate actions necessary. As a first step, farm managers were directed to fully review our animal welfare policies and practices with all farm staff immediately."
The farm and slaughterhouse also said it will "aggressively mandate strict compliance" with Murphy-Brown's animal welfare practices and will fire anyone caught violating it.
"The policy states that 'Willful neglect or abuse of animals will not be tolerated and will result in immediate termination,'" Murphy Family Ventures said. "Any person or persons involved with abuse will be subject to the policy."
You DO have to hit them to make them move. It's a 500lb animal that sits in a small cage all day. When it gets out, it doesn't want to move, you have to make them move. Normally, slapping their backs with your hand a few times would sufice, sometimes you would have to use a prod and in extreme cases you would have to put a big board behind their ass and physically push them along. They probably suspected this guy because he never did any work, he obviously didn't participate in processing or castrating the pigs and now he's pretty much saying he never moved the pigs from barn to barn*.FOX News/PETA wrote:
The investigator said he quit the $7-an-hour job with a week's notice because he feared his coworkers had begun to suspect him, since he said he was the only one who wasn't physically harming the pigs on the farm.
"I was the only person there not abusing the hogs," he said. "Everybody there — my supervisors, managers — commented to me that you have to hit them to make them move. I do think they suspected me because I never once would do that. That definitely made me stand out. I don't think they look at them like animals. They look at them like a piece of merchandise."
*Pigs are kept in three different barns.
--Breeding: Which is were the sows that have recently had piglets shipped off come back to in order to re-breed.
--Gestation: Which is were the sows sit through the majority of their pregnancy.
--Nursing: Which is were the sows go to have the piglets and nurse them for the six weeks before they are shipped to a feeder barn. Once the piglets are gone they are rotated back through Breeding, rinse and repeat.
The worker in question is obviously a fucking tree-hugging hippy who doesn't know the first thing about livestock or nursery operations.
Once again, don't believe everything you read. The only thing PETA even has a case on is the nutjob worker who beats animals for fun and the eye gouging. Everything else is standard, necessary practice.FOX News/PETA wrote:
PETA says it conducted the undercover probe after receiving a tip in August from a former Murphy Family Ventures employee who reported similar animal cruelty on another of its farms. The group's employee said he couldn't get a job there but was hired to work at the Garland location, where he said he witnessed the abuses.
The North Carolina State Attorney General's office said it won't get involved in the case unless requested to do so by Sampson County authorities. To date, said state Attorney General spokeswoman Noelle Talley, the local district attorney hasn't approached her office for help.
The U.S. Department of Justice didn't immediately return calls from FOXNews.com seeking comment about whether it planned to open a federal probe into the case.
Smithfield has come under scrutiny before for human rights violations, hiring of illegal workers and labor union practices.