|
Corporate Campaigns // Smithfield Foods: Cruel to Pigs and Humans // Smithfield's Trucking Accidents: Pigs Pay the Price
March 2004 Accident: 25 Pigs Dead on the Highway
On March 29, 2004, a Smithfield Foods pig-transport truck overturned on Virginia Route 10. The truck, loaded with 180 pigs bound for the slaughterhouse, tipped over on a straight road. The crash scene was littered with beer bottles and injured pigs. The driver, Edwin Batts of Warsaw, North Carolina, was charged with reckless driving, but no charges were ever filed against Batts or Smithfield for the hideous cruelty inflicted on the 180 pigs.
Most of the pigs were forcibly thrown from the truck into a nearby field, and some were killed on impact. Many of the survivors were severely injured: Some suffered broken legs or ribs, and all were confused and terrified. The injured pigs lay in the field for hours, most unable to move, while Smithfield workers attempted to corral other pigs. Finally, after more than two hours of chasing down the other animals, the Smithfield employees went to work killing the injured pigs. The workers used a captive-bolt gun, a tool that propels a metal shaft into animals' brains. Many animals had to be shot several times before they finally died, causing them to scream out in agony and terror each time that they were unsuccessfully shot. After all the animals were killed, the workers used a front-end loader to shovel the piles of dead bodies into the back of another truck.
PETA field officers at the scene of the accident tried to help, asking to be permitted to euthanize the injured animals, which would have spared them hours of pain and suffering. Smithfield refused, and the pigs continued to suffer. Smithfield's excuse? The animals' dead bodies could not be sold if they were euthanized! The Virginia state veterinarian, contacted by PETA, also refused to come to the scene to help oversee or properly euthanize the suffering pigs.
Such accidents are not uncommon in the factory-farming industry, where transport is largely unregulated and laws protecting animals on their way to the slaughterhouse are virtually useless. PETA is lobbying the state of Virginia to enact strict policies mandating that animals injured in transport accidents be euthanized and is asking for Smithfield's help.
The only real way to ensure that you are not supporting cruelty is to adopt a vegetarian diet. Order a free vegetarian starter kit, filled with recipes and information to help you make the transition to a cruelty-free diet.
Eyewitness Account From PETA Field Officer Misty Collins
When I arrived on the scene, I saw a large hog truck on its side. There were pigs thrown from the truck into a field. Some were alive, some were not. The living ones were bleeding and terrified, and some were screaming in pain. When the slaughterhouse workers with the captive-bolt guns approached the injured pigs, they would scream and try to escape. Their battered and broken bodies did not allow them to flee far. I asked one man if I could cover one of the pigs' eyes with a sheet so that the animal wouldn't be so terrified. The man said no. When the pigs would flail their heads around, one man would clamp the pig's snout while the other man shot the pig in the head with the bolt gun. Unfortunately, the animals' suffering did not end there. For several minutes, the screaming continued and the pigs writhed in pain, their mangled bodies twisting and squirming. Hours after the accident, when all the animals were finally dead, they were piled into a container with a front-end loader and were then taken to the meat plant for processing.
|
Factory Farming 
Photo Gallery
Undercover Investigations 
Delicious Recipes
Free Vegetarian Starter Kit
Vegetarian 101
Printer-Friendly
l
E-Mail This Site
l
Subscribe to E-News
