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Inside Smithfield's Toxic Pig Farms

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Inside Smithfield's Toxic Pig Farms INSIDE SMITHFIELD’S TOXIC PIG FARMS A DxE investigation at Smithfield Foods finds animal cruelty, suffering, carcinogenic drugs, air pollution, and death Farmland®, Armour®, Farm- Typically in the pork indus- EXECUTIVE er John®, Kretschmar®, John try, workers “thump” sick, Morrell®, Cook’s®, Gwalt- or small piglets in order to ney®, Carando®, Margherita®, kill them. Thumping means SUMMARY Curly’s®, Healthy Ones®, Mor- smashing their skulls against liny®, Krakus® and Berlinki®. a wall. An investigatory team with Direct Action Everywhere At the farms investigated, DxE In addition to being the big- (DxE), an international grass- found animal abuse and air gest producer of pigs in North roots animal rights network, pollution. When a journalist Carolina, Smithfield is also spent nearly a year (early for Vox contacted Smithfield the biggest producer of pig 2017 into 2018) investigating during his reporting of the manure in the state, which Smithfield Foods pig farms DxE investigation, a Smith- in turn has caused massive in North Carolina and found field veterinarian confirmed air and water pollution there. hundreds of animals suf- to him that the company dos- That pollution has been tied fering from what appeared es pigs with carbadox, a car- to various illnesses in hu- to be the potentially deadly cinogenic antibiotic that has mans, fish and other animals Greasy Pig Disease (Staphylo- been banned in Europe and is in North Carolina. coccus hyicus), entire rooms currently under FDA scrutiny. filled with pharmaceuticals In the state, a person who including antibiotics key to DxE rescued one pig from a removes a sick pig from a human health, and sows con- Smithfield farm, whom the in- farm without the owner’s fined in gestation crates only vestigators named Lauri, who permission can be charged slightly bigger than each pigs’ was sick with Greasy Pig Dis- with both larceny, a Class H body despite Smithfield’s an- ease, according to the vet who felony, and with breaking/ nouncement in January 2018 examined her. entering, also a Class H felo- that it had completely elim- ny. Each Class H felony con- inated the cruelly confin- Additionally, there was a se- viction carries a maximum ing gestation crates from its verely ill four day old pig who sentence of 39 months in jail farms. died within a few hours of be- if you don’t have prior con- ing rescued; a post mortem ex- victions. DxE co-founder and Smithfield, the largest pork amination by a vet found that lead investigator Wayne Hsi- producer in the United States the pig had a cranial fracture. ung has been charged with and in the world, killed 27 million hogs in 2006; the # company is now owned by China’s WH Group. Smith- field annually slaughters 25% of the pigs raised for food in the U.S. and its pork products are sold at Walmart, Costco, Target, Sam’s Club, Bel Air, Food Maxx, Vons, Ralphs, Safeway and other retail- ers. Additionally, Smithfield bought Clougherty Packing PLC in 2016, which produc- es the Los Angeles Dodgers’ famous Dodger Dogs. Smith- field’s brands include Eck- rich®, Nathan’s Famous®, Smithfield pigs still in cruel gestation crates in 2018. Photo by DxE 2 two Class H felony crimes and Additionally, North Carolina industry that dominates the a misdemeanor for remov- is an “ag gag” state, which state, and particularly whether ing a sick goat from a North means the DxE investigators the prosecutors have acted Carolina farm in early 2018. who researched the Smithfield with improper motives because farms could be subject to of their own extensive ties to DxE co-founder and lead penalties (including a fine of that industry,” wrote Pulitzer investigator Wayne Hsiung up to $5000 a day) for going Prize-winning journalist Glenn has been charged with two on the property without Greenwald in The Intercept. Class H felony crimes and a Smithfield’s permission to misdemeanor for removing take pictures or video, and DxE’s findings make it a sick goat from a North publicizing the results of their clear that action is needed. Carolina farm in early 2018. investigation. Industrialized animal He has also been charged agriculture violates Americans’ with multiple felonies for DxE investigators believe the values and threatens families, removing sick or injured pigs charges against them are yet the industry is not just and turkeys from Smithfield meant to intimidate animal unregulated but receives and Norbest farms in Utah in rights activists and cause billions in government 2017, and for simply walking them to stop investigating subsidies. Nearly three dozen onto a farm in Petaluma, farms and exposing the investigations of farms by California in the fall of 2018. animal abuse they find there. DxE during the past five years have found the same kinds of Other DxE investigators have “These charges raise serious animal abuse, release of toxins been charged with multiple questions about whether into the air and water, and use felonies for investigating prosecutors are attempting of antibiotics crucial to human a Smithfield pig farm and to unconstitutionally punish health. a Norbest turkey farm; if the activists for filming, convicted, the investigators documenting, and exposing could face decades in prison. abuses by the agricultural Farrowing crates as brutally confining as gestation crates. Photo by DxE 3 Pigs who are intelligent and social suffer extreme confinement at Smithfield. Photo by DxE WHAT WE FOUND` DxE made numerous visits to antibiotics. And investigators found sows Smithfield pig farms in North • Dead piglets rotting in confined in small (6.6 feet by Carolina during 2017 and crates with live piglets. 2 feet) crates which have been 2018, entering nearly a doz- • Pigs with infected cysts and described as “one of the cru- en different sheds during the wounds. elest forms of confinement visits. DxE investigators wore • Pigs suffering from stress devised by humankind” by sanitary coveralls, covers for and psychological torment. Ian Duncan, Emeritus Chair their shoes and sanitary dis- • Sows with bloody, damaged in Animal Welfare at the Uni- posable gloves whenever they nipples such that their pig- versity of Guelph. These so- entered the farms. lets were nursing on blood called gestation crates do not and pus. allow pigs to turn around; During 2017 and early 2018 • Plastic bags filled with confinement in the crates investigators found: clipped-off pig testicles causes some pigs to exhibit and tails. (Smithfield vet- stereotypies (repeated move- • Hundreds of pigs who erinarian Mary Battrell has ments having no purpose) appeared to be suffering confirmed that the pigs are such as head wagging and from Greasy Pig Disease, castrated and their tails chewing on the metal bars which can be resistant to clipped with no anesthetic.) in front of them. The sows 4 Infected wounds are common at Smithfield farms. Photo by DxE stand on slatted floors and rich social life. All of this is Eleven years later, in January the urine and feces falls to completely denied them by 2018, the company informed pits below them. The sows gestation crates and leads to the world that it had met and piglets are subject to enormous frustration.” their 2007 goal. Smithfield noxious fumes from the stated in a press release that waste, which cause respirato- Donald M. Broom, Professor it had “fulfilled its industry- ry problems. of Animal Welfare at the leading commitment of University of Cambridge providing group housing Sows spend about half of in England, told HSUS that systems for pregnant sows their short two-year lives in keeping a pig in a gestation on all company-owned these crates; the other half is crate “is much worse than farms in the United States.” spent in miserable, crowded severely beating an animal and concrete pens. most laboratory experiments.” Yet DxE found that sows were still confined in gestation “Sows are intelligent, inquis- In January 2007, Smithfield crates on the Smithfield- itive animals who natural- announced in a press release owned farms they visited. ly spend their time rooting, that it was “beginning the Additionally, at Smithfield, foraging and exploring their process of phasing out DxE found pigs with their environment,” Duncan con- individual gestation stalls at newly born piglets confined tinued in a statement he pro- all of its company-owned sow in farrowing crates, which are vided to the Humane Society farms and replacing them with only slightly less restrictive. of the United States (HSUS) pens—or group housing—over in October 2012. “When the next 10 years.” The kept in extensive conditions, company also said it would sows engage in a wide vari- “work with its contract growers ety of behaviour and lead a regarding system conversion.” 5 Lauri At one Smithfield farm, DxE Additionally, there was a rescued a piglet, whom the severely ill four day old pig investigators named Lauri, who died within a few hours of who was sick with Greasy being rescued; a post mortem Pig Disease (Staphylococcus examination by a vet found that hyicus), according to the vet the pig had a cranial fracture. who examined her. Greasy Typically in the pork industry, Pig Disease can be resistant workers “thump” sick or small to antibiotics. Lauri had piglets in order to kill them. “moderate-severe excoriation Thumping means smashing and scabbing over face,” their skulls against a wall. the vet wrote in a medical exam report. The S. hyicus bacterium produces toxins which are absorbed into the system and damage the liver and kidneys, according to The Pig Site. Seriously affected piglets will die. The vet treated the piglet with the antibiotic Excede (ceftiofur). DxE investigator rescues sick piglet. Photo by DxE 6 Rescued piglet is treated to a banana.
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