A 27-year-old unnamed farmer faces eight animal cruelty charges, including causing distress to an animal, permitting an animal to be in distress, and six counts of failing to comply with the prescribed standards of care, after more than 1,200 pigs were found dead at his farm in Southwestern Ontario.
The Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (OSPCA) investigated the farm on February 17 of this year, after a member of the public filed a complaint. The OSPCA, along with two veterinarians, found 1,265 pigs in the “flooded, manure filled barn. They also found 250 pigs in such dire condition they had to be euthanized on site. The pigs had no access to food or light.
Even an industry official was shocked by what he saw. “It’s something I’ve never come across in my 20 years in the pork industry,” stated Eric Schwindt, board chair of Ontario Pork, who was on site for the investigation.
Equally shocking is the abuse throughout the industry. Watch this 2012 Mercy For Animals investigation into one of Canada’s largest pork suppliers.
Similar abuse occurs all over the world. In the United States, not a single federal law protects animals during their miserable lives at factory farms.
Unfortunately, cruelty to animals at today’s farms is not just common; it’s also considered standard practice.
Just this June, more than 130,000 baby chicks were killed in a fire, and a reporter offered condolences to the farmer for the loss of his “crop. Similarly, 10,000 young turkeys died in a fire in April. And in October 2016, tens of thousands of chickens, pigs, and other farmed animals were left to drown in the wake of Hurricane Matthew.
In a world where farmed animals live in horrendous conditions and suffer tremendously before a cruel slaughter, the best thing we can do to help protect them is to withdraw our support from the meat, egg, and dairy industries.
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