In the wake of a flood of announcements from major food providers, including McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Safeway, Tim Horton’s and Compass Group, that they are moving away from inherently cruel gestation crates, The Humane Society of the United States has released gruesome undercover footage shot inside a gestation-crate facility that supplies to Tyson – one of the world’s largest meat processors.
The shocking investigation reveals:
- Mother pigs confined in tiny metal gestation crates, unable to turn around for nearly their entire lives;
- Workers punching and kicking mother pigs and piglets, and whipping piglets around by their hind legs, smashing them into concrete floors, and throwing them high into the air;
- Employees throwing piglets’ testicles at each other and feeding them back to the mother pigs for “fun”;
- Pregnant pigs suffering from severe rectal and uterine prolapses without proper veterinary treatment;
- Dead and decaying piglets – including some who were mummified – littering the facility, including in piles next to mother pigs in crates; and
- Dead pigs left to rot in their gestation crates for days. One dead pig was half-buried in grain from an automatic feeder.
Watch the investigation here:
MFA’s investigations into pig factory farms have revealed similarly horrific scenes of blatant animal abuse and needless suffering, including at Iowa Select Farms, the nation’s fourth-largest pork producer, and at Pennsylvania’s Country View Family Farms. Unfortunately, even the most extreme cruelty documented in these facilities is considered standard and largely acceptable within the pork industry.
More than 100 million pigs are subjected to a lifetime of abuse and neglect each year in the United States. These intelligent and social animals are treated as mere meat-producing machines on factory farms, where their short lives are filled with needless violence, suffering and fear.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Click here to take action on this important issue.
Then, consider removing your financial support from an industry that abuses animals for profit by adopting a humane vegetarian diet. Visit ChooseVeg.com for more information and delicious recipes to get started on your journey toward cruelty-free living.
