By: Karen Estensen Rubio Reading Time: 4 minutes In a recent CNN report, Minnesota hog farmer Doc Hoehm regretfully stated “We put down sick pigs because you feel sorry for ‘em. But to have a healthy pig, and to take a rifle and shoot it…It’s unreal.” The Hoehms’ hog farm typically shipped over 700 hogs each week to a Smithfield plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. After weeks of feeling the pressure of COVID-19 closures and supply shortages, the farm tried to restrict the hogs’ diets to cut down on costs, but eventually, they started running low on money for feed. As a last resort many farmers faced, the Hoehms started culling their animals. Though the Hoehms declined to confirm which culling methods they used, several reports state that farmers are using ventilation shutdown (VSD). This method entails sealing off the building and inserting superheated steam and humidity until pigs die of hyperthermia—a body temperature higher than normal. Some farmers will pump in carbon dioxide to expedite the process. If pigs survive overnight, which some do, workers shoot the survivors in the head with a captive bolt gun. The Hoehms’ animals are not alone. Tens of millions of animals are being shot, gassed, or bludgeoned because they are no longer profitable to the industry. According to the Guardian, more than 10 million hens have been killed so far and an estimated 10 million pigs will be killed within the next four months. |
| The True Cost of Farming Animals A select few meat producers control the majority of the meat available for purchase in America today. These powerful meat monopolies don’t just spell disaster for animals, but threaten our planet and degrade the health and welfare of our local communities. JBS USA is a leading American meat processor responsible for some of the worst recalls, environmental scandals, and animal cruelty cases ever seen before. An undercover investigation produced by Animal Outlook unveiled immense suffering inside Prince Poultry, a North Carolina supplier of Pilgrim’s Pride chicken. Investigators witnessed live birds being dumped into outdoor pits where they were left to suffocate under the weight of deceased birds or starve to death, whichever happened first. JBS has been involved in widespread deforestation, public health scandals, and now at least one of its meatpacking facilities has been responsible for over 300 confirmed COVID-19 cases. Sources inside JBS’ Greeley, Colorado facility say management failed to adequately inform workers when the first COVID-19 cases broke out on the line. In fact, they did the opposite—offering workers bonuses to keep them coming back. Now, eight workers have died. Smithfield Foods: An estimated 121 million pigs are slaughtered every year in the United States, and Smithfield Foods is responsible for over 15 million of those deaths. Smithfield prides itself on raising “responsible, sustainable” pork products, but has been the focus of controversy since an undercover investigation by The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) unveiled immense cruelty inside its facilities in 2010. Pigs were beaten, confined, and stressed, unlike what their promotional advertisement displayed just two months after the investigation. In April, workers at a Smithfield plant in Milan, Missouri sued the company for operating the plant “in a manner that contributes” to the spread of the coronavirus. “Put simply, workers, their family members, and many others who live in Milan and in the broader community may die – all because Smithfield refused to change its practices in the face of this pandemic,” the suit states. Tyson Foods produces 20 percent of the United States’ chicken, pork, and beef products and slaughters around 37 million chickens in a single week. This company has been involved in scandals regarding food safety, environmental pollution, and animal cruelty on many occasions. In 2016, an undercover investigation inside multiple Tyson Foods broiler breeder factories in Virginia revealed violent abuses: workers punching, kicking, and throwing live birds, birds crushed by forklifts, and more. The video evidence drove the first court trials for cruelty to chickens raised for meat, resulting in nine former Tyson employees being convicted of 24 counts of animal cruelty. Since the pandemic began, more than 8,500 Tyson employees at 37 poultry, pork, and beef plants have tested positive for COVID-19, and over 25 Tyson workers have died from the virus due to lack of protective measures. |
| Animal agriculture is responsible for air, land, and water pollution, species extinction, deforestation, ocean depletion, and dead zones, and a warming climate that is accelerating drought, flooding, fire, and other extreme weather events at alarming rates. While Big Meat conglomerates reap the profit from livestock production, taxpayers pay for cleaning polluted water, health care for asthma, and other public health crises associated with factory farms. According to David Robinson Simon’s seminal report Meatonomics: The Bizarre Economics of Meat and Dairy, Americans pay $38 billion per year to subsidize animal agriculture, masking the true cost of using animals for food. Industrial animal agriculture is costing us billions—in dollars and animal lives. It doesn’t have to be this way. Read the full story here |
| Post COVID-19, Let’s Forge a New Normal for Farmed Animals By: Karen Estensen Rubio Reading Time: 4 minutes In a recent CNN report, Minnesota hog farmer Doc Hoehm regretfully stated “We put down sick pigs because you feel sorry for ‘em. But to have a healthy pig, and to take a rifle and shoot it…It’s unreal.” The Hoehms’ hog farm typically shipped over 700 hogs each week to a Smithfield plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. After weeks of feeling the pressure of COVID-19 closures and supply shortages, the farm tried to restrict the hogs’ diets to cut down on costs, but eventually, they started running low on money for feed. As a last resort many farmers faced, the Hoehms started culling their animals. Though the Hoehms declined to confirm which culling methods they used, several reports state that farmers are using ventilation shutdown (VSD). This method entails sealing off the building and inserting superheated steam and humidity until pigs die of hyperthermia—a body temperature higher than normal. Some farmers will pump in carbon dioxide to expedite the process. If pigs survive overnight, which some do, workers shoot the survivors in the head with a captive bolt gun. The Hoehms’ animals are not alone. Tens of millions of animals are being shot, gassed, or bludgeoned because they are no longer profitable to the industry. According to the Guardian, more than 10 million hens have been killed so far and an estimated 10 million pigs will be killed within the next four months. |
| The True Cost of Farming Animals A select few meat producers control the majority of the meat available for purchase in America today. These powerful meat monopolies don’t just spell disaster for animals, but threaten our planet and degrade the health and welfare of our local communities. JBS USA is a leading American meat processor responsible for some of the worst recalls, environmental scandals, and animal cruelty cases ever seen before. An undercover investigation produced by Animal Outlook unveiled immense suffering inside Prince Poultry, a North Carolina supplier of Pilgrim’s Pride chicken. Investigators witnessed live birds being dumped into outdoor pits where they were left to suffocate under the weight of deceased birds or starve to death, whichever happened first. JBS has been involved in widespread deforestation, public health scandals, and now at least one of its meatpacking facilities has been responsible for over 300 confirmed COVID-19 cases. Sources inside JBS’ Greeley, Colorado facility say management failed to adequately inform workers when the first COVID-19 cases broke out on the line. In fact, they did the opposite—offering workers bonuses to keep them coming back. Now, eight workers have died. Smithfield Foods: An estimated 121 million pigs are slaughtered every year in the United States, and Smithfield Foods is responsible for over 15 million of those deaths. Smithfield prides itself on raising “responsible, sustainable” pork products, but has been the focus of controversy since an undercover investigation by The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) unveiled immense cruelty inside its facilities in 2010. Pigs were beaten, confined, and stressed, unlike what their promotional advertisement displayed just two months after the investigation. In April, workers at a Smithfield plant in Milan, Missouri sued the company for operating the plant “in a manner that contributes” to the spread of the coronavirus. “Put simply, workers, their family members, and many others who live in Milan and in the broader community may die – all because Smithfield refused to change its practices in the face of this pandemic,” the suit states. Tyson Foods produces 20 percent of the United States’ chicken, pork, and beef products and slaughters around 37 million chickens in a single week. This company has been involved in scandals regarding food safety, environmental pollution, and animal cruelty on many occasions. In 2016, an undercover investigation inside multiple Tyson Foods broiler breeder factories in Virginia revealed violent abuses: workers punching, kicking, and throwing live birds, birds crushed by forklifts, and more. The video evidence drove the first court trials for cruelty to chickens raised for meat, resulting in nine former Tyson employees being convicted of 24 counts of animal cruelty. Since the pandemic began, more than 8,500 Tyson employees at 37 poultry, pork, and beef plants have tested positive for COVID-19, and over 25 Tyson workers have died from the virus due to lack of protective measures. |
| Animal agriculture is responsible for air, land, and water pollution, species extinction, deforestation, ocean depletion, and dead zones, and a warming climate that is accelerating drought, flooding, fire, and other extreme weather events at alarming rates. While Big Meat conglomerates reap the profit from livestock production, taxpayers pay for cleaning polluted water, health care for asthma, and other public health crises associated with factory farms. According to David Robinson Simon’s seminal report Meatonomics: The Bizarre Economics of Meat and Dairy, Americans pay $38 billion per year to subsidize animal agriculture, masking the true cost of using animals for food. Industrial animal agriculture is costing us billions—in dollars and animal lives. It doesn’t have to be this way. Read the full story here |
Exposing the Big Game 
Reblogged this on The Extinction Chronicles.