PETA Global 2020 Issue 1

Terrorizing Pigs for ‘Fun’

Texas Shame

A sick piglet lay on the metal floor as his siblings sniffed his twitching body.

Bacon bash photo: © PETA • Pig billboard: Billboard © iStock.com/ghornephoto | Pig © iStock.com/IlonaBudzbon

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SEEING

PETA investigators documented a “wild hog catch” in Texas in which young pigs were tackled, grabbed by the tail or ears, and stuffed into sacks. Some of the animals were so desperate to escape that they crashed headfirst into metal fencing, spattering the area with blood. When PETA informed animal health officials that the “Bacon Bash” likely violated state laws, the event’s organizers received a warning for illegally keeping feral pigs without a permit.

THE PERSON Insider Refuses to Turn a Blind Eye to Pigs’ Suffering L ying virtually immobilized in a crampedmetal crate, amother pigwatches helplessly as her baby slowly dies a few feet away. Nearby, the INSIDE EVERY PIG

Feral pigs endure similar abuse in New South Wales and Queensland, Australia, where dogs are used to hunt them and pin them down, sometimes mauling them to death.

Thousands of young pigs were confined to barren pens to be fattened for slaughter. Mother pigs were crammed into metal crates barely any larger than their own bodies and enclosures that were even more restrictive after they gave birth. Prevented from tending to their newborns, they spent their days and nights lying helpless and immobile on the slatted floor. Pigs are clean animals, but at East Fork Farms, they were forced to live amid their own feces and just above a reeking manure pit – in which some piglets were seen struggling to stay afloat. Playful, friendly, sensitive, and self-aware, pigs are one of the few species to ace the “mirror test” by recognizing themselves. Their complex social lives rival those of primates, and their intelligence is legendary. They excel at video games and have been observed using bark as a tool to build their nests.

bodies of dead piglets rot. Rats are everywhere, and the filthy barns are teemingwithmaggots and roaches.

Take Action Now Please mess with Texas. Watch and share PETA’s video at PETA.org/BaconBash , and

Boundless Suffering The suffering at East Fork Farms is typical. PETA obtained eyewitness footage from Excelsior Hog Farm, one of British Columbia’s largest pig factories, showing mother pigs imprisoned in crates and young pigs suffering from volleyball-size hernias. The dead rotted alongside survivors or were thrown into bloody bins. PETA UK released eyewitness video documenting the rampant cruelty on pig farms in Norfolk and Yorkshire. In one heartbreaking scene, a sick piglet lay on the metal floor as his siblings sniffed his twitching body.

As a whistleblower revealed to PETA, this disturbing scene is business as usual at East Fork Farms, an Indiana pig factory that supplied massive meat conglomerate JBS USA. The company, whose Swift brands are sold at Costco and Kroger stores, dropped East Fork from its supply chain after PETA released the eyewitness video. Mutilated and Desperate for Water The footage shows young pigs with bloody, open sores and mothers so weak or injured that they were unable to move. One sow, who couldn’t reach any water, drank frantically for nearly two minutes when the eyewitness offered her some. Piglets screamed as a worker cut off their tails without any pain relief. The babies were then thrown to a coworker.

urge Gov. Greg Abbott to stop the cruel spectacle. Urge Australian authorities to ban pig hunting with dogs at PETA.org.au/PigDogging .

When dozens of pigs died in a truck crash in Kentucky and another was shot in the head four times during a botched slaughter in South Carolina, PETA erected billboards encouraging motorists to stop eating them. I

Take Action Now Try tempeh bacon – you’ll love it! Visit PETA.org/JBSUSA to watch PETA’s video

and share it on social media. Please also send a polite e-mail to Cameron.Bruett@jbssa.com calling on JBS to improve monitoring of its supply chain.

They deserve respect as living, feeling beings – not to be treated like walking sausage factories.

Global 23

PETA’S 2020 VISION: ANIMALS ARE PEOPLE, TOO

22 HOG HELL