Undercover Investigations // Pigs
Cruel Conditions at a Nebraska Pig Farm
The pigs were emaciated and received little feed because most of it had been thrown on the floor out of their reach or fell through the slats in the floor into the manure pit below. Damaged troughs deprived many pigs of water. A nonfunctioning heating system left the animals freezing in winter temperatures.
The pigs lived in crates that were caked in feces directly above a pit of their own waste, and many suffered from skin infections caused by the pervasive excrement. The floor was in such a state of disrepair that dozens of piglets had fallen through and drowned in their own excrement. Other piglets got their heads stuck in the bars of their crates and died from the cold or from being crushed. Pigs were observed with abscesses bigger than volleyballs, profusely bleeding wounds, broken legs, missing hooves, and numerous other injuries, none of which was given any treatment. Many pigs were too wounded to stand and were simply left for weeks or months to die of starvation, dehydration, or infection. One worker reported, “Some of them lay in those crates so long, their legs rot off. … It’s just a real atrocity how many sows that die in that place.” There were buckets of dead piglets covered in maggots in the sheds, and dead sows were left among the living to rot for days. What You Can Do
HFA’s petition fell on deaf ears because state laws are ineffective in protecting farmed animals and the Animal Welfare Act exempts farmed animals entirely. The best thing that you can do to help spare animals from such torture is to stop supporting the industry that allows this cruelty to occur by no longer eating them. Order a free vegetarian starter kit full of delicious recipes. We’ll also include a free DVD. Investigation after investigation has found egregiously inhumane conditions at factory farms across the country. At Belcross Farm in North Carolina, PETA videotaped a pig having her leg sawed off and her skin peeled off while she was still conscious. At Seaboard Farms in Guymon, Oklahoma, we found dying pigs left on freezing cement for days, pigs who were clubbed in the head, and ammonia levels so high that the animals contracted pneumonia. At Pilgrim’s Pride in West Virginia, workers smashed chickens against cement block walls, stomped on them, and ripped their legs and beaks off while managers casually walked through the area. Farm animals are exempted from any protection under the federal Animal Welfare Act, so their fate rests in your hands.
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