Undercover Video Shows Pig Farm Employees Allegedly Abusing Pigs

Warning: Video is very graphic and may be disturbing

By Marla Cichowski, Fox News Chicago
Monday , November 16, 2009

A disturbing video released exclusively to Fox News by the animal rights group Mercy for Animals (MFA) shows a string of alleged abuses at one of the nation's largest pig farms, including footage of employees picking up baby pigs and tossing them like footballs.

Additional scenes from the video show injured pigs going uncared for, pregnant hogs being kept in very small pens, with several portions of the video so disturbing that Fox News will not show. MFA is now taking on America’s farming industry, hoping its latest undercover investigation will help create new federal and state laws to ensure better treatment for farm animals before they are slaughtered.

The national animal rights group’s investigation involves a large pig-breeding farm in central Pennsylvania owned by Country View Family Farms (CVFF). An MFA employee who applied for a job at the farm wore a hidden camera to record a shocking 12-minute video while he worked inside the pig barns for three months earlier this year.

The video starts by showing CVFF employees picking up baby pigs by their ears and hind legs and throwing them between employees. Another disturbing section of the video shows baby pigs being euthanized in carbon dioxide gas chambers. Although this euthanasia practice is standard throughout the pork industry, MFA claims the gassing procedure at this particular farm did not work properly and caused baby pigs to suffer unnecessarily.

MFA also claims adult female pigs were kept in gestation crates that are too small, and sick pigs were left untreated for weeks and did not receive proper medical care. “There are no federal laws that protect animals while they are on the farm, and most state anti-cruelty statutes exempt farm animals,” Daniel Hauff, MFA Director of Investigations, told Fox News.

“What we documented is standard and largely accepted by the pork industry and as a civilized society it’s our moral obligation to make sure animals don’t suffer needless cruelty. It’s important we look at these animals the same way we look at dogs and cats because there is no difference. They feel the same pain, the same joy our beloved animals at home do,” Hauff said.

Fox News Channel visited the Country View Family Farm in Fannettsburg, Penn., where CVFF veterinarian, Dr. Jessica Clark, and communications manager Eric Haman sat down with us to watch the MFA video for the first time. "There are some things in this video that I can’t and won’t defend.

The mishandling of animals I can't defend, it’s unacceptable," Haman told Fox News. "But there are others that could be seen out of context and I can’t really understand what’s going on.” Country View Family Farms, a division of Hatfield Quality Meats, is one of the largest pork producers in Pennsylvania and operates more than 100 pig farms across Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana.

While watching the MFA video, Haman says he felt anger and disappointment. He maintains CVFF takes animal welfare very seriously, requiring all employees to undergo rigorous training and sign code of conduct letters agreeing to proper handling of the animals. “We are more strict on ourselves than any government regulation could be. We hold ourselves very highly accountable," Haman told Fox News.

"As a business, it makes no sense to not take the best care of our animals that we can — No. 1 from an ethical standpoint, but secondly from a business sense.” Clark expressed similar disappointment in what she saw on the video, but defended the company. “CVFF is dedicated to taking care of the animals and we'll immediately investigate what is on this tape and take any necessary actions.”

Two days after the interview at the CVFF Fannettsburg farm, Haman told Fox News that the barn manager at the farm had been “immediately relieved of her responsibilities and a new barn manager assumed responsibility.” The mishandling of pigs was an issue discovered at the Fannettsburg farm back in July, according to Haman. Since then, CVFF has re-trained all employees to “reinsure every team member at every farm was perfectly clear on our animal handling code of conduct.”

Currently there is no federal law requiring the U.S. Department of Agriculture to inspect farms where animals are raised for slaughter. Most states, including Pennsylvania, exempt farm animals from state anti-cruelty laws that apply to domestic animals.

In 2007, the National Pork Board, which monitors the pork industry, launched its Pork Quality Assurance Plus program, focusing on animal welfare training and encouraging pork producers to hire third-party auditors to inspect their farms. "You have someone come out and go through your facility and give you suggestions on how to change and improve things," Iowa pork producer Dave Moody told Fox News.

"It’s not just a self-check the box and you pass the certification sort of deal. There is some definite education to it,” Daniel Hauff says MFA will keep fighting for stronger state and federal animal welfare laws while continuing to pressure grocery store chains to boycott companies that treat farm animals in ways MFA considers unethical.

But animal producing farms, including CVFF, realize they have become targets for groups like MFA, which promotes a strict vegetarian diet. The president of the American Association of Swine Veterinarians, Dr. Butch Baker, who also watched the MFA video, says it is upsetting to see animal rights organizations try to destroy America’s farmers. “They (MFA) would like to put all those people (farmers) out of business and out of work," Baker told Fox News. "I have no patience for anyone who abuses animals or no tolerance and I don’t think anyone should, but these films ... really are an attack on the rural lifestyle of America.

"People in rural communities depend on farms and farming for their livelihood. If you let an extremist group run the industry that’s just as bad as letting the people who didn't care about the animals at all run the industry,” he said.

The 'Fat Map': Putting World Hunger Into Perspective

Per capita calorie consumption on a nation by nation basis, compiled and produced by the World Food Program

By Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, Huffington Post
11.16.09

Hunger now scars the lives of over 1 billion people -- a new record. Today, Monday the 16th, world leaders will gather at a UN food summit in Rome to debate what to do about it. As a former Goodwill Ambassador for the World Food Program, I sense how the meeting may go. There will be more media attention on the politicians than on the issues, an abundance of speeches, and a series of oddly fancy luncheons -- with more speeches. At a similar luncheon, I remember wondering: What if I could magically transfer the 1000 calories in this vanilla souffle in front of me to a malnourished child begging in the slums of Nairobi? Sharing the extra calories eaten in the United States or Europe alone would end hunger in Africa.

These gratifying fantasies highlight some terrible inequities in how the world handles its food supply. In 2006, the World Food Program produced, but never publicly released, a map charting food consumption. Dubbed the "Fat Map," it shows where the world's calories go. Nations grow or shrink based on how much the average person eats. Depending on your perspective, it maps starvation or overeating.

The mis-distribution of food goes deeper than even the "Fat Map" implies. In India, for example, more than 300 million overweight people coexist with another 300 million who starve. Chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease that often stem from overeating are growing at a far faster rate in developing countries than in the more prosperous West. In my own region, the Middle East, obesity is skyrocketing, especially among young people.

In 2007-2008, a global food crisis surprised us as prices soared. But would the crisis have been as severe if we were not so accustomed to wasting the food we have?

Globally we are moving to an "energy morality" with young people lobbying against wasting energy -- yet there is no "food morality" even though food is organic energy. We sit by and watch each other overeat and discard food without a thought. Extravagant overindulgence is viewed as hospitality and many assume that being a good parent requires that we force feed those we love.

Eating is even a competitive sport. Earlier this year in Taiwan, a binge-eating contest claimed the life of a 23 year-old student. Each Fourth of July in New York, a young man named Joey Chestnut takes on his Japanese archrival Takeru Kobayashi at a hot dog eating contest -- last year Joey wolfed down 68 hotdogs in 10 minutes -- more than a week's supply of calories for a hungry African. At one point, Kobayashi even had a hot dog eating contest with a large brown bear -- a bizarre hit on YouTube:

We pay dearly for this overconsumption. Recent calculations set obesity-related health spending just in the United States at $150-$200 billion -- more than all foreign aid worldwide. The cost of extra medical care for the obese runs as high as $1400 per person annually. Over 2 billion people do not earn that much in a year.

Food losses are another reflection of our embrace of excess. Each year, food waste costs the average Briton over 400 UK pounds per year, while US households lose or discard 14 percent of their food. America's supermarkets and restaurants discard another 27 million tons. Adding farm and wholesale losses brings the annual bill to over $100 billion just in the US. Similar figures would, no doubt, emerge from analyzing losses in the European Union and I suspect the Gulf States as well.

While initiatives emerge to tax unhealthy food, improve nutrition education and label foods to show the carbon footprint required to produce them, there is no broad public embrace of the need to eat less and eat responsibly. Retailers and restaurants still sell food in portion sizes and packages encouraging excess eating and waste.

It is time to recognize the energy, health, and productivity losses we incur from consuming and wasting so much food. Public health campaigns worldwide -- including in the Gulf States -- now promote the message that excess weight and lack of physical activity is linked to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, strokes, and some types of cancer. Is anyone listening? Well, after years of increases, the Center for Disease Control in the US found that levels of obesity have finally begun to level off.

Would cutting overeating and waste really change the contours of the "Fat Map"? Not by itself. The UN estimates we need $30 billion more invested in agriculture yearly. But each of us can consume more wisely and donate food we now waste to a food bank or charity. If it makes sense to save energy, why throw away billions of dollars worth of food and overeat until it endangers our health and our future?

Week 13 Agenda

Veggie Penne with Pesto from Rachel Ray's 30 Minute Meals (Food Network, USA)

Week 13

M 11.16
Read: KC—pg. 75-218
In-Class: Watch—Waitress (2007)

W 11.18
Read: KC—pg. 219-250
In-Class: Book discussion; Presentations
Catering Group 2: Soup

UPCOMING:
Week 14

M 11.23
Read: KC—pg. 251-295; CR—“Leave Calorie Counts Off the Menu” by Trice Whitefield, “Want a Warning Label with Those Fries?” by Jeff Jacoby, “Editorial: New Law Will Help Those Who Want It” from The Chico Enterprise Record, “California Calorie Law Alters Chains’ Fare” by M.S. Enkoji, “Nutrition by the Cup” from Starbucks, “Dinner Menu Nutritional Index” from Maggiano’s Little Italy
In-Class: Book discussion, Presentations

W 11.25
NO CLASS—Mandated Furlough Day: This class only