According to a recent AP article, PETA plans to ask law enforcement officials in Greene County, Iowa to prosecute not one - but EIGHTEEN people - caught on videotape abusing pigs on a farm about 60 miles outside of Des Moines. The farm is currently owned by MowMar, LLP of Fairmont, Minn. and is a supplier to Hormel.
According to the AP report:
At one point on the video, an employee shouts to an investigator, "Hurt 'em! There's nobody works for PETA out here. You know who PETA is?"The undercover PETA investigator replies that he's heard of the group.
"I hate them. These (expletives) deserve to be hurt. Hurt, I say!," the employee yells as he hits a sow with a metal rod. "Hurt! Hurt! Hurt! Hurt! ... Take out your frustrations on 'em." He encourages the investigator to pretend that one of the pigs scared off a voluptuous and willing 17- or 18-year-old girl, and then beat the pig for it.
Disturbingly, even the behavior of accused cat killer Joseph Petchka (see post below) pales in comparison to the multiple instances of sadism chronicled here. Thanks again to colleague University of Illinois Ag Law Professor A. Bryan Endres for the link.
Historically, prosecutors have been extremely reluctant to prosecute any conduct that occurs on a farm, no matter how cruel by any commonsense understanding of the term. That is starting to change, due in no small part to the efforts of PETA. PETA frequently gets a bad rap in the public eye (due in no small part to its own choice to be as controversial as possible), but it does some really good and important work. For example, last year it obtained other undercover video that resulted in the world's largest pig producer agreeing to ban gestation crates (crates that are too small for pregnant sows to turn around in). Read more about that here.
Bruce F. if you happen to be reading this blog and want to go after any abusers here in Illinois, you know my contact info...
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