About My Blog.

Welcome! This is "Catatonic Digressions."
Most readers don't understand my blog's title. It's an old inside joke from a forum long gone. I was going to change it, but since it's been "confusing" for so long, I decided to leave it. Don't worry about what it means, the content of the blog is what matters...or not

Unfortunately, my blog isn't what I set out for it to be. A sick woman in Orleans, MA began stalking me in 2007 on Myspace. Since that time, this woman obsessed over me to the point of having the police come to her home and threaten to confiscate her laptop. She is a racist and anti-Semite.I could no longer blog freely, knowing this nutbag was just going to take the photos I'd post and put them on a child exploitation website.

This site is only up for the information it has that others might need to know about. That information is about "Seal Shepherd" aka Michael McDade, Kat McAboy aka Marilyn McAboy and Veronika Hompo, a self-proclaimed Nazi.


I'm a real person. I'm real and I don't pretend to be someone I'm not. After years of putting up with online abuse by manipulative, pathological liars, attention whores or narcissists, I've had it. Don't bother me with pathetic drama. I have no time for these types of people and their need to absorb others' time and attention.

This blog is no longer used. I've retired it for the most part unless something very important comes up.

Please, join Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, and follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Undercover at Smithfield Foods

  Undercover at Smithfield Foods


(Dec. 15, 2010)—The Humane Society of the United States has released findings from an undercover investigation that documented the inhumane treatment of female breeding pigs and piglets at a Virginia factory farm owned by a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods, the world's largest pork producer. The investigation is the latest examination by The HSUS into the operations of the nation's top animal agribusinesses. It follows HSUS investigations last month into Cal-Maine Foods, the country's largest egg producer, and Willmar Poultry, the nation's top turkey hatchery. In each case, The HSUS found unacceptable and systemic abuses, revealing that these companies do not always observe even minimal best practices when it comes to animal welfare.
The investigator—who spent a month working inside a Smithfield-owned facility in Waverly, Va.— documented numerous abuses including the following:
  • Female breeding pigs were crammed inside "gestation crates" so small the animals could barely move for virtually their entire lives. The animals engaged in stereotypic behaviors such as biting the bars of crates, indicating poor well-being in the extreme confinement conditions. Some had bitten their bars so incessantly that blood from their mouths coated the fronts of their crates. The breeding pigs also suffered injuries from sharp crate protrusions and open pressure sores that developed from their unyielding confinement.
  • The investigator never saw a veterinarian at the operation. A barn manager told the investigator to ignore a pig with a basketball-sized abscess on her neck, and then cut the abscess open with an unsterilized razor.
  • Employees jabbed a lame pig's neck and back with gate rods to force her to move.
  • Three times, the investigator informed employees that a pig was thrown into a dumpster alive. The animal had been shot in the forehead with a captive bolt gun, which is designed to render an animal unconscious, and was thrown in the dumpster still alive and breathing.
  • Employees mishandled piglets and tossed them into carts.
  • Some piglets prematurely born in gestation crates fell through the slats into the manure pits.
"If this is the best that Smithfield can do, it is evident that there are terrible problems in the nation's pig industry," stated Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The HSUS. "It is indefensible for Smithfield to allow its sows to linger in crates barely larger than their bodies for months on end."
In January 2007, Smithfield Foods pledged to phase out the use of gestation crates within 10 years, but in June 2009, the company backtracked on its self-imposed timeframe for doing so. "Now that Smithfield just posted its highest-ever quarterly profit, it's a good time to make a public pledge to honor its previous commitment," added Pacelle. "The company can no longer claim that economic circumstances don't allow for facility improvements." Other large pork producers, such as Maxwell Foods, are already gestation crate-free, while Cargill is 50 percent gestation crate-free.
An investigation summary is available, and media may download broadcast quality b-roll. High-resolution photos are available by request.

Facts


  • Murphy-Brown is the livestock production subsidiary of Smithfield Foods, Inc., and is the world's largest producer of pigs for slaughter. The company owns approximately 888,000 sows and brings a total of 17 million pigs to slaughter annually.
  • Seven states have passed laws banning gestation crates, as has the entire European Union. Extensive scientific research confirms that confining sows in gestation crates is detrimental to animal welfare.
  • Burger King, Wendy's, Carl's Jr., Hardee's, Chipotle, Quizno's, Sonic, Wolfgang Puck, Safeway and Whole Foods have reduced or eliminated their use of pork from pigs bred using gestation crates.
  • A recent 2.5 year study by Iowa State University found that not using gestation crates can actually decrease production costs by up to 11 percent.
  • An American Farm Bureau-funded poll found that the vast majority of consumers think gestation crates are inhumane.
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Media contact: 
Erin Williams, 301-721-6446, ewilliams@humanesociety.org
Follow The HSUS on Twitter. See our work for animals on your iPhone by searching "HumaneTV" in the App Store.
The Humane Society of the United States is the nation's largest animal protection organization — backed by 11 million Americans, or one of every 28. For more than a half-century, The HSUS has been fighting for the protection of all animals through advocacy, education and hands-on programs. Celebrating animals and confronting cruelty — On the Web at humanesociety.org.











Your dinner?


Remember, this is your dinner if you eat pork products.
Smithfield is just another factory farming horror.

List of BRANDS under







Pork

International

Hog Production

1Joint venture
2Smithfield Foods owns a 24 percent stake




All of the above is what Humane Watch doesn't want you to even think about. Humane Watch is The Center for Consumer Freedom, and they'd like nothing more than for you to keep eating factory farmed animals, buying your children fast food and all the junk foos possible in the supermarkets, all for their cause — "freedom of choice."  Funny, though, that the main backers of Humane Watch, The Center for Consumer Freedom, are restaurant owners, meat farmers, and people who really don't care how obese our kids get. Do a lot of research before believing a word they write. I did. I used to follow Humane Watch. Silly me!


        
         

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