If you are online now, please type in www.FoxNews.com

[Guest guest]

I didn't even watch or read the details, but I've

cried buckets already. I HATE NORTH CAROLINA! These

poor souls. PLEASE, please help these pigs - take

action!

 

http://getactive.peta.org/campaign/smithfield_investigation

 

--- Bruce Friedrich <brucef wrote:

 

> [AR-News] If you are online now, please

> type in www.FoxNews.com

> Wed, 12 Dec 2007 18:49:03 -0500

> " Bruce Friedrich " <brucef

>

>

>> http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,316624,00.html

>

> North Carolina Authorities Investigate Alleged Pig

> Abuse by Supplier for

> Largest U.S. Pork Producer

> Wednesday, December 12, 2007

> By Catherine Donaldson-Evans

> A local prosecutor in North Carolina is

> investigating allegations of

> animal cruelty by a pig farm supplying Smithfield

> Foods, the nation's

> largest pork producer. The investigation comes after

> an animal rights

> activist secretly videotaped workers beating and

> dragging swine, gouging

> out their eyes and cutting out their testicles.

> Attorneys from People for the Ethical Treatment of

> Animals presented

> their case to the Sampson County District Attorney's

> Office in North

> Carolina on Monday and will turn over videotapes and

> a signed affidavit

> by PETA's undercover investigator, who says he

> witnessed daily violent

> mistreatment of baby and adult pigs at Murphy Family

> Ventures Garland

> Sow Farm in Garland, N.C.

> In the black-and-white video, a supervisor can be

> heard bragging to the

> undercover PETA investigator that he brutally beats

> the animals.

> Click here to see the video.

>

<http://getactive.peta.org/campaign/smithfield_investigation>

> WARNING:

> GRAPHIC CONTENT AND EXTREMELY FOUL LANGUAGE.

> " I ain't going to lie to you; I've done it, " he

> says. " My temper is

> about that long. I get f- frustrated and I have

> knocked the s- out of

> them. Like that one bit me the other morning, that

> mother f-.... I cut

> the s- out of his G-d- nose with a f- gate rod. "

> In other segments, pigs who have the word " KILL "

> spray-painted on their

> backs screech in apparent pain as they're dragged to

> slaughter with a

> heavy metal prodder attached to their legs, ears and

> snouts, and women

> laugh as they castrate one piglet after another

> without anesthesia or

> painkillers.

> " One female employee told me that was her stress

> relief for the week, "

> said the PETA investigator, who spoke to FOXNews.com

> on condition of

> anonymity. " That's the type of person doing those

> jobs. ... The

> treatment of the baby pigs shook me the most. "

> He said he also witnessed piglets' tails being

> sliced off and other

> atrocities. Castration and tail-chopping are general

> practice at swine

> slaughterhouses, according to PETA.

> " We believe that these acts of abuse constitute a

> violation of state

> animal cruelty laws, " said PETA spokesman Matt

> Prescott. " Employees were

> gouging out the eyes of pigs and violently dragging

> animals by an ear or

> a snout or a leg. A supervisor admitted on camera to

> viciously attacking

> pigs with metal rods. "

> The county said it plans to look deeper into the

> case.

> " I have requested that the State Bureau of

> Investigation investigate

> allegations that some employees at a sow farm in

> Garland, N.C., have

> abused animals, " said Sampson County District

> Attorney G. Dewey Hudson

> in a statement. " The request was made as a result of

> information

> provided by PETA. As soon as an investigation is

> completed I will make a

> decision about whether charges should be filed and

> will make my decision

> public at that time. "

> Murphy Family Ventures pig-breeding farms and

> slaughterhouses are under

> contract with Smithfield Foods as pork suppliers.

> The PETA employee who

> videotaped the alleged pig abuse said he was hired

> as an entry-level

> " herd technician 1 " and worked from Sept. 13 until

> Nov. 2 of this year.

> " [The abuse of pigs] happened every day, " said the

> PETA investigator.

> " The video is compelling to people, but it pales in

> comparison to seeing

> it every day in person. You can't even capture the

> full horror of what

> goes on there. "

> PETA wants all those workers it filmed reportedly

> abusing the pigs

> charged with animal cruelty, a criminal offense

> that's generally

> classified as a misdemeanor under North Carolina

> law.

> It also is demanding that Smithfield Foods become

> more proactive in

> enforcing its animal welfare program by adopting

> measures including

> installing surveillance cameras at its farms and

> slaughterhouses and

> conducting its own internal investigations into how

> operations are

> handled.

> Smithfield's livestock subsidiary Murphy-Brown LLC,

> which is a different

> company from the contracting farm Murphy Family

> Ventures, said it is

> doing its own probe into the accusations of abuse at

> its

> slaughterhouses.

> " An investigation into the allegations of animal

> abuse at the Garland

> sow farm has begun, " the company said in a

> statement. " When the

> investigation is completed we will take the

> appropriate actions if

> violations of the company's animal welfare policy

> are identified. "

> The corporation said that the alleged cruelty

> occurred not on a

> company-owned or operated farm but on one contracted

> by Smithfield and

> Murphy-Brown, and vowed to work with the farm to

> make sure it was

> adhering to corporate standards for animal care.

> Corrective action would be taken if the

> slaughterhouse is found to be

> violating those guidelines, according to

> Murphy-Brown.

> The 2,200-pig farm that has come under fire said

> that it, too, is

> looking into the situation.

> " We have received information about this matter and

> are reviewing these

> specific allegations, " said Murphy Family Ventures

> in a statement. " The

> company is conducting its own internal investigation

> to determine the

> facts in this matter and will take any appropriate

> actions necessary. As

> a first step, farm managers were directed to fully

> review our animal

> welfare policies and practices with all farm staff

> immediately. "

> The farm and slaughterhouse also said it will

> " aggressively mandate

> strict compliance " with Murphy-Brown's animal

> welfare practices and will

> fire anyone caught violating it.

> " The policy states that 'Willful neglect or abuse of

> animals will not be

> tolerated and will result in immediate

> termination,' " Murphy Family

> Ventures said. " Any person or persons involved with

> abuse will be

> subject to the policy. "

> The investigator said he quit the $7-an-hour job

> with a week's notice

> because he feared his coworkers had begun to suspect

> him, since he said

> he was the only one who wasn't physically harming

> the pigs on the farm.

> " I was the only person there not abusing the hogs, "

> he said. " Everybody

> there - my supervisors, managers - commented to me

> that you have to hit

> them to make them move. I do think they suspected me

> because I never

> once would do that. That definitely made me stand

> out. I don't think

> they look at them like animals. They look at them

> like a piece of

> merchandise. "

> PETA says it conducted the undercover probe after

> receiving a tip in

> August from a former Murphy Family Ventures employee

> who reported

> similar animal cruelty on another of its farms. The

> PETA investigator

> said he couldn't get a job there but was hired to

> work at the Garland

> location, where he said he witnessed the abuses.

> The North Carolina State Attorney General's office

> said it won't get

> involved in the case unless requested to do so by

> Sampson County

> authorities. To date, said state Attorney General

> spokeswoman Noelle

> Talley, the local D.A. hasn't approached her office

> for help.

> The U.S. Department of Justice declined to say

> whether it planned to

> open a federal probe into the case.

> " We don't have any comment on the local district

> attorney's

> investigation, " said DOJ spokesman Andrew Ames in an

> e-mail to

> FOXNews.com.

> Smithfield has come under scrutiny before for human

> rights violations,

> hiring of illegal workers and labor union practices.

>

>

>

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