A disturbing undercover investigation reveals that lame and injured pigs are left to suffer and that many pigs die at a worldwide leader in pig production. Their bodies and spirits are broken, and they need your help.
This video was captured by a PETA investigator at a leading supplier to other pig meat companies of pig semen and the sows who are artificially inseminated to produce more pigs to be slaughtered. It is the first-ever undercover look at the very beginning of the lives of animals who become bacon, pork chops, and sausages.
Nothing More Than Numbers
These clever and sensitive animals, who animal behaviorists have found are smarter than dogs, are identified by having a tag punched through their ears and become just another number inside the factory. Here are just a few of their stories:
- One pig, known simply as 112688, struggled to stand and had to drag his hind legs across the filthy floor. Day after day, this pig lay barely moving. He was not even put out of his misery. Instead, he was loaded onto a truck and hauled to slaughter.
- Pigs 112105 and 113436 sustained injuries that caused their internal tissue to protrude from their anuses. They were apparently denied veterinary care for up to five days and then hauled to slaughter.
- Pig 115544, who was missing his tail, was left to die slowly without any apparent veterinary care for days in what workers called "the junk pen." This is where the company's injured, undesirable, and sickest pigs are kept. Pig 115544 was found dead six days after he was put in the "junk pen."
Widespread Misery
Many pigs' abdomens had huge bulges caused by protruding intestines. These pigs were also relegated to the "junk pen." Later, they were loaded onto trucks and taken to slaughter.
As is typical of most pig–breeding factories, mother pigs at this factory farm are confined to crates so small that they can't walk or even turn around. Pigs, who are known to be excellent mothers and who "sing" to their piglets, are kept in such restricted conditions that they can't shift positions while nursing without having a metal bar or prong pressing into them. The constant pressure of the hard, slatted floor and the metal bars rubbing against the sows' bodies causes gaping ulcers.
The company's vice president admitted that if pigs "don't get the treatments" they need, "they'll die." Dozens of pigs were found dead at the factory farm during the course of PETA's investigation.
If this is the best that the pig–breeding sector of America's pork industry has to offer, imagine the rest.
You Can Help!
Please share this video with everyone you know. And remember, the best thing that you can do for pigs is to refuse to eat them!