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Seshmeister
11-01-2013, 06:59 AM
I'm no animal rights PETA nut but I would definitely boycott Walmart pork...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/31/walmart-pigs-abuse-video-mercy-for-animals_n_4178768.html





Undercover footage that appears to show horrifying conditions at a Walmart pork supplier has prompted investigations at a Minnesota factory farm.

Local law enforcement executed a search warrant at Pipestone System's Rosewood Farms in Pipestone, Minn., on Oct. 9, following a complaint filed by animal rights nonprofit Mercy for Animals. The organization says an undercover private investigator collected first-hand evidence, including video footage, of inhumane treatment of pigs raised and slaughtered at the facility.

The hidden-camera footage appears to show pregnant pigs confined in tiny "gestation crates," pigs being punched and abused, and piglets being thrown on their heads and mutilated without anesthetic.

Although the Pipestone County Sheriff’s Office told The Huffington Post it found "no evidence of animal neglect or abuse" during its search, the nonprofit's video has led to independent investigations by Walmart and Pipestone System.


Matt Rice, the director of investigations at Mercy for Animals, told HuffPost the investigator -- whose identity has been kept private -- spent 10 weeks posing as an employee at Rosewood Farms earlier this year.

Animals were found to be living in "nightmarish conditions," Rice said over the phone Wednesday.

"Pregnant pigs are confined in tiny metal crates that are just barely big enough to hold them," he said of the factory farm. "They're basically immobile for their entire lives. They can't turn around, they can't lie down comfortably, and they suffer from large open wounds and pressure sores from rubbing against the bars."

Many of these sows "typically go mad in these conditions," Rice added. "They smash their heads against the bars and bite them out of stress and frustration."

Rice calls these gestation crates -- banned in the European Union and in nine U.S. states, including California, Colorado, Florida and Arizona -- "one of the most cruel forms of institutionalized cruelty."

Unlike more than 60 other major retailers, including Kroger, McDonald's, Safeway, Costco and Kmart, which have all refused to work with pork suppliers that use gestation crates, Walmart has not instituted such a policy.

"We're calling on Walmart to take a stand against this blatant animal abuse and to do what their competitors have already done," Rice said.

Pork producers have long maintained that gestation crates have many benefits that make them useful. For instance, the crates are said to allow for better management of individual sows and to protect the animals from the aggression of other pigs. Last year, the New York Times reported that "about 60 to 70 percent of the more than five million breeding sows" in the U.S. are kept in these crates.

Commenting on this issue, Danit Marquardt, a spokeswoman for Walmart, told HuffPost:

This is a complicated issue [...] We are currently engaged with pork suppliers, food safety experts and other organizations to work towards an industry-wide model that is not only respectful of farmers and animals, but also meets our customers’ expectations for quality and animal safety.
In addition to gestation crates, Mercy for Animals says the investigator found evidence of other inhumane practices at Rosewood Farms.

Boars who are kept for breeding purposes are kept in similarly tiny crates, Rice said, and animals who are sent to be slaughtered are forced to live in cramped pens, where they are deprived of sunlight and fresh air for their entire lives.

In the video above, narrated by "Babe" actor James Cromwell, employees of the farm appear to be cutting off the tails and testicles of piglets without anesthetic.

"Pigs are widely thought to be one of the world's smartest animals," Rice said. "They are incredibly intelligent and social, and are able to feel joy and pain and suffering just as dogs and cats do. Yet, they are subject to such needless cruelty."

Commenting specifically on the employees' seemingly haphazard handling of animals seen in undercover video, both Pipestone System and Walmart have expressed outrage. The companies have also vowed to address the allegations of abuse.

"Pipestone System does not condone any type of willful animal abuse," the company said in a statement obtained by HuffPost. Pipestone added that it has conducted an internal investigation into the alleged mistreatment of animals, which resulted in the "immediate termination of one employee, reassignment of another and follow-up training of the remaining employees."

A Walmart rep told HuffPost the company is conducting its own investigation into the allegations of abuse.

"The animal handling in this video is unacceptable," the rep said, adding that a "new comprehensive auditing and tracking program for pork" -- which promises to help ensure that the company purchases pork only from farms that are "certified to meet the highest standards for the treatment of animals" -- is scheduled to roll out in the coming weeks.

The nonprofit says it has conducted at least two dozen such undercover investigations at factory farms, dairy farms, hatcheries and slaughterhouses in recent years -- three of which, including the most recent at Rosewood, were at Walmart pork suppliers.

"Every single time, our investigators have brought back images that would horrify most Americans," Rice said. "This is a sign that mutilating animals without anesthesia and confining them in cages so small they can't turn around are considered standard industry practice."

A major problem, says Rice, is that though there are federal laws in place to guard against animal cruelty, many states have "common farming exemptions." In other words, farm practices that may otherwise be seen as inhumane are perfectly legal so long as they are considered standard policy in the farming world.

This means, Rice says, that a large proportion of the roughly 9 billion animals that are raised annually for human consumption in the United States may be subject to cruelty.

"Change starts with awareness. Once people know about the conditions that these animals are subject to, we hope they'll stand up and demand change," he said.

Nickdfresh
11-01-2013, 07:02 AM
I generally boycott Wal-Mart for food in general, but no way I'd get meat there from those fucks. I think some serial killers have more scruples...

VAiN
11-01-2013, 05:15 PM
I'm not surprised, really.. I have a friend who is a pharmacist in WM and the stories she tells me are insane. It's a disgusting old boys money making machine. Not a single fuck is given.

twonabomber
11-01-2013, 05:38 PM
I had some particularly tasty bacon this morning.

fraroc
11-01-2013, 05:46 PM
Linda Blair would probably fucking die if she looked at this :(


But in all seriousness, this video belongs on one of those shock sites, I mean this is totally fucked up.

jacksmar
11-01-2013, 06:02 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EHsbIcV-6I

ZahZoo
11-01-2013, 06:24 PM
After reading this thread and watching the video... I got a hankerin for some bacon!!

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QlZH4HIO4JE/UZOluHpTO2I/AAAAAAAAAyE/4bQdLI5rRpE/s1600/CinnamonBrownSugarBacon_CookingwithKale.JPG

WARF
11-01-2013, 06:32 PM
This is horrific, but I then again there really is no humane way to murder an animal. Why are some selected animals okay to torture (pigs, chickens, cows etc) but if someone kills and eats a DOG or CAT they can go to prison? There seems to be a huge hypocrisy in animal rights.

Seshmeister
11-01-2013, 06:53 PM
I had some particularly tasty bacon this morning.

I've had bacon twice this week, but not from pigs kept in boxes is all I'm saying.

Nickdfresh
11-01-2013, 07:24 PM
Me fucking too. I eat bacon all the time, I love that shit. It doesn't mean the corporate equivalent of Jeffery Dalmer has to torture fuck your animals before they get served to you. That's the point of the thread for the Za thick...

BTW, non-torture fucked animals might actually taste better, like free-range chickens. Just sayin...

cadaverdog
11-01-2013, 07:44 PM
I'm sure somebody other than WalMart gets their pork from the same people but the title WalMart Animal Abuse would draw more readers. A few years ago KFC was catching flack for cruelty to chickens and they buy their chicken like WalMart buys their pork. They don't own the farms. I worked at a Walmart for awhile. They suck as an employer but as far as I know they still hire direct and offer some bennies if you last long enough to get them. I shop at a WalMart neighborhood market on a regular basis. It's alot cleaner than the nine million mexican markets in So Cal and they even have air conditioning. And the prices are a butt load cheaper than Vons or the other union markets.

Seshmeister
11-01-2013, 09:05 PM
"Unlike more than 60 other major retailers, including Kroger, McDonald's, Safeway, Costco and Kmart, which have all refused to work with pork suppliers that use gestation crates, Walmart has not instituted such a policy."


I bet KFC have improved since they got the bad publicity. I even think that McDonalds is better than many now because of bad publicity in the past.

Public pressure works and corporations fear it.

Which is another part of this story which is so depressing.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/states-move-ban-hidden-cameras-farms/story?id=18738108

Ag Gag': More States Move to Ban Hidden Cameras on Farms

Legislators in six more states are seeking to ban or limit the use of undercover camera investigations by animal rights groups that expose animal cruelty on farms.

"We have law enforcement and regulatory agencies to handle those kinds of situations," said Indiana state Sen. Travis Holdman, who authored such a bill in Indiana that passed the state Senate in February. "We don't need a vigilante group out there with cameras and video cameras taking pictures of things that we just don't like."

Since the first of the year, legislation that would ban or restrict the undercover taping on farms has been introduced in nine states and remains active in six of those: Nebraska, Indiana, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and California. Hearings on the bills were held this week in three of those states.

Should it pass the state House, the Indiana law would make it illegal to take photos or video at an agricultural facility without the consent of the owner. The bill had its first reading in the state House of Representatives this week.

In Arkansas, pending legislation would make it a crime for anyone other than law enforcement personnel to investigate or collect evidence of animal cruelty.

The laws come in the wake of a series of undercover camera exposes that have led to a public outrage and calls for reform on large-scale, so-called "factory farms."

Last year ABC News reported that Mercy for Animals, which has shot undercover footage at chicken, turkey, pig and dairy farms around the country, had joined with 26 other groups, including the ASPCA and the Humane Society of the U.S., to oppose such laws. A statement from the coalition called the "ag gag" bills "a wholesale assault on many fundamental values" and a threat to health, safety and freedom of the press.

"This flawed and misdirected legislation," Nathan Runkle, executive director of Mercy for Animals said then, "could set a dangerous precedent nationwide by throwing shut the doors to industrial factory farms and allowing animal abuse, environmental violations, and food contamination issues to flourish undetected, unchallenged, and unaddressed."

An ABC News investigation that aired in November 2010 showed video recorded by a Mercy for Animals activist who worked undercover at one of the nation's largest egg producers, Sparboe Farms, located in Iowa. Wearing a hidden camera, he recorded unsanitary conditions and repeated acts of cruelty on chickens.

After the investigation, which aired on "20/20" and "World News with Diane Sawyer," Sparboe's major customers – McDonald's and Target – cancelled contracts with the egg producer. Several grocery chains followed suit and the Food and Drug Administration launched an investigation into conditions found there.

FORD
11-01-2013, 11:31 PM
I don't eat a lot of pork, but it's good to know that Costco and Safeway stay away from the cruelty like this. Wouldn't buy meat at WalMart in either case. Just another reason never to go into that shithole for anything.....

cadaverdog
11-02-2013, 02:12 AM
I don't eat a lot of pork, but it's good to know that Costco and Safeway stay away from the cruelty like this. Wouldn't buy meat at WalMart in either case. Just another reason never to go into that shithole for anything.....
As far as grocery stores around here you can choose between Walmart, Vons and a butt load of Mexican grocery stores. Vons does sell better quality meat but you pay out the ass for it. The only thing I buy at the mexican market is carne asada for the bbq. As far as retailers you got Wallies, a few K Marts and Target. Pretty soon it's just going to be WalMart and Target. The upper crust department stores like May Company, The Broadway and Gottchalks are in malls and I only go to the mall when I have a hankering for cheese on a stick or when I feel like checking out jail bait girls wearing short skirts.

ZahZoo
11-02-2013, 11:30 AM
Most people would be appalled at the processes used at farms to mass produce meats. Not that they are necessarily inhumane or tortuous to the animals... but just the fact that they are large scale production centers. At some point... all that product has to be... killed. Plus sometimes... babies die or need to be destroyed due to illness or abnormalities.

I think most people work on the simple mental concept of cute little animals frolicking in some beautiful pasture somewhere... then somehow the mercifully end up in a hamburger in a box or bacon on a plate. It's not that nice in reality.

Nickdfresh
11-02-2013, 12:07 PM
There are clear differences in the tolerances and standards of various meat producers and slaughterhouses and likening them as all the same is a bit ignorant. Consequently, the ones that are most notorious for allowing appalling cruelty also tend to be the ones with the least cleanliness. It's all endemic of the organizations. This is of course a symptom of mindless budget cutting and of the gutting of the FDA. We need more food inspectors! Save money by cutting a few government jobs - pay later with outbreaks of mass food-borne illnesses and shitty cheapo crap festering meat products...

sadaist
11-02-2013, 03:20 PM
I had some particularly tasty bacon this morning.


I had a sausage McMuffin. Delicious.


But animal cruelty disgusts me. I actually wrote to PETA once and asked what I could do to improve the conditions in which cattle are raised/treated. I believe there is a humane way to raise them and a humane way to slaughter them for the food supply. Just because we eat them doesn't mean that the time they are alive they should be tortured.

Anyways as you can probably guess, PETA responded basically yelling at me for eating meat at all. This is a big problem for them. While they could probably make progress step-by-step starting with small things, they are pretty much all or nothing. Which is sad because I am sure a lot of meat eaters would help the cause for well treated animals.

FORD
11-02-2013, 03:37 PM
All animals have stress hormones, so it goes without saying that animals that don't live their lives in stressful nightmarish conditions are going to taste better.

Saw a lot of chickens when I was growing up. They were dumb, but happy, as far as I could tell. Never was a big fan of rabbit meat, but I know they were happy, because there were so damn many of them. The cows that my grandpa raised seemed to have a good life. Doesn't seem all that complicated.

cadaverdog
11-02-2013, 03:58 PM
All animals have stress hormones, so it goes without saying that animals that don't live their lives in stressful nightmarish conditions are going to taste better.

Saw a lot of chickens when I was growing up. They were dumb, but happy, as far as I could tell. Never was a big fan of rabbit meat, but I know they were happy, because there were so damn many of them. The cows that my grandpa raised seemed to have a good life. Doesn't seem all that complicated.
I'm not sure that the theory less stressed animals taste better when they're cooked but it sounds feasible. We had a pet chicken for a couple years. Her name was Bbq. She loved to be held and petted. She wasn't dumb. She would run to the front door when we'd call the dogs and peck them on the ass as they passed by just to be ornery. She had a nest in a storage shed in our back yard. When my girlfriend moved in with her son Bbq went with. She died not long after that and we buried her in the backyard.

TFM_Dale
11-04-2013, 10:08 AM
We have a small Amish meat market close to us, they raise and process all the fresh meat they sell and it is far better then anything from the big stores that happen to also sell meat.

PETE'S BROTHER
11-04-2013, 11:56 AM
there is a hut party joke there