Video footage obtained in an investigation revealed horrific cruelty to mother pigs and their piglets on a farm owned by Murphy Family Ventures, LLC, which supplies the largest pig-killing company in the world, Smithfield Foods.
In addition to the confinement of mother pigs to cruel "gestation crates" so small that the animals can't even turn around or lie down comfortably, the following cruelty was documented at Smithfield supplier Murphy Family Ventures, LLC:
- Workers dragged injured pigs out of the facility by their snouts, ears, and legs before killing them with a captive-bolt gun. Some of the pigs had "KILL" spray-painted on their backs.
- A farm supervisor admitted that he violently beat pigs, saying of one that he "cut the shit out of his god damn nose with a fucking gate rod."
- Workers cut off piglets' tails and pulled out piglets' testicles--without using any pain relief--as the baby animals screamed in pain in front of mother pigs.
- Two workers and a supervisor hit and jabbed pigs--sometimes in their faces and near their ears--with 2-foot-long metal gate rods on 31 of the 41 days that PETA's investigator worked.
- A worker gouged the eyes of four pigs with his fingers. Pigs suffered from ailments including cysts, sores, and a uterine prolapse for which they were denied treatment.
Update:
Several employees were fired in response to PETA's laudable efforts.
North Carolina officials have filed six cruelty-to-animals charges against one of the individuals documented dragging and beating pigs and abusing them in other ways in a 2007 PETA undercover investigation of a sow farm. Charges are pending against a second man who has apparently fled the state.
That worker faces six misdemeanor counts of cruelty to animals for actions documented by PETA's investigator, including dragging pigs by the ear, striking a pig in the face with a handling board, and poking a pig in the eyes with his fingers. If he returns to North Carolina from out-of-state, a second worker will face one count of cruelty to animals for also dragging a pig by the ear.
This was probably just an isolated incident though, right?
Many cite evidence documenting the fact that pigs are more intelligent than human infants, are far cleverer than many other animals (humans and nonhumans alike), are naturally very clean, etc. However, this matters not when challenging the moral justifiability of castrating a feeling being without anesthetics for example, with the goal of turning him into a food item that as a matter of chance conditioning some happen to believe "tastes good."
Remember, suffering any harm on a being capable of experiencing said harm without a sound reason for doing so - thus excluding "because my ma gave me bacon every morning" - is not justifiable.
This said I am quite literally ecstatic that those who have done these terrible acts are going to be punished. I'm equally saddened by the minimal charges. But it's to be expected, yes, given that "workers cut off piglets' tails and pulled out piglets' testicles--without using any pain relief--as the baby animals screamed in pain in front of mother pigs" as common practice; therefore it is judged according to what the industry deems "necessary."
"Necessary" for what? Because ham sandwiches strike a pleasing cord in your mouth: Pain, sadness, distress, and frustration...trumped for mere taste.
Gandhi said,
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."
Where do we currently reside on the "moral progress scale"? Somewhere between Adolf Hitler and the Saudi Arabian monarchy perhaps?
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