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.

Read an investigation summary [PDF].

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.

See a slideshow of selected photos from the investigation.

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

• The Smithfield Packing Company, Inc.
• Cumberland Gap Provision Co.
• Smithfield Specialty Foods Group
• John Morrell & Co.
• Armour-Eckrich Meats, LLC
• Curly's Foods, Inc.
• Patrick Cudahy, Inc.
• Stefano Foods, Inc.
• Farmland Foods, Inc.
• Cook's Ham, Inc.
• North Side Foods Corp.

Exports

• Smithfield Foods International Group

International

• Campofrío Food Group, S.A. (Europe) 1
• Animex (Poland)
• Smithfield Prod (Romania)
• Smithfield Foods, Ltd. (U.K.)
• Norson (Mexico) 2

Hog Production

Domestic Hog Production

• Murphy-Brown, LLC
• Premium Standard Farms, LLC

International Hog Production

• AgriPlus (Poland)
• Smithfield Ferme (Romania)
• Granjas Carroll de México (Mexico)2
• Norson (Mexico)2

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!