Two Investigations into US Pig Farm Abuse Highlight Critical Need to Prevent EATS Act
The EATS Act would set animal welfare standards in the United States back decades. Now, two major investigations conducted by Animal Outlook and Mercy for Animals have exposed widespread abuse in the pig farming industry, emphasizing the urgent need to make sure that this legislation does not pass.
A breaking undercover investigation into one of the United States’ largest pork producers has revealed harrowing animal torture and abuse.
Animal Outlook found that Holden Farms, an intensive confinement pork breeding facility in Minnesota that has been linked to Tyson Foods and to JBS, inflicted repeated and routine abuse and neglect on mother pigs and their young.
“Pigs trapped in this cruel industry are born into a world of suffering,” said Cheryl Leahy, Executive Director of Animal Outlook. “The cruelties we documented at Holden Farms are so rampant and so extreme, this is how this facility does business. Holden should not be allowed to continue this rampant abuse. Though we were not able to secure state animal cruelty charges here, the public stands with us in demanding an end to this large-scale cruelty and the industry that profits from it, and each of us has the power to refuse to support it.”
The footage shows often-botched attempts to gas sick or injured piglets to death using carbon dioxide poisoning, with piglets writhing and gasping for breath inside the gassing chamber box. Young piglets are also subjected to castration, where their testicles are forcibly torn out by hand, all without pain relief, leading some piglets to experience injuries like ruptured internal organs, often resulting in death. As recorded by investigators, piglets cry in distress during castration, while some of the workers throw the testicles at each other. This practice is done so often that there is a wall covered with testicles stuck to it.
Workers also blend the intestines of deceased piglets together with pig feces to create a slurry that is fed to pregnant pigs - a method known as “feedback.” The recorded footage further exposes numerous incidents of hitting, kicking, slapping, punching, paddling, and rough handling of pigs.
Widespread neglect led to internal organs hanging from live pigs’ bodies and the deaths of many of the animals. One animal was trapped between bars and died there. Her body was then sawed in half and made the subject of disturbing jokes.
Systemic Animal Cruelty
Animal Outlook isn’t the only organization to reveal rampant abuse within the industry. Mercy for Animals (MFA) has also released an investigation into pork farming in the US, revealing “some of the most horrific animal cruelty ever made public”.
Mother pigs are depicted lying in squalor, frequently deprived of water, suffering from dehydration, and undergoing excruciating deaths over extended periods after being subjected to multiple pregnancies in their short lifetimes. They endure confinement within cramped individual metal gestation crates, each scarcely larger than their own bodies, all while being pregnant and unable to find comfort or even turn around. In addition, the animals are seen suffering without adequate veterinary care, with sick and injured pigs bearing bloody wounds from cage bars or exposed organs after labor.
the EATS Act
These investigations come as pro-pork lawmakers reintroduce the Exposing Agricultural Trade Suppression (EATS) Act, a bill that failed to pass in 2021, in response to the Supreme Court's recent decision to uphold farmed animal protections.
If approved, this legislation could have devastating consequences on the majority of land animals bred for food in the US, and unravel decades of painstaking efforts by animal protection advocates to improve welfare conditions for cows, hens, and pigs. It would also nullify essential anti-confinement regulations in over 14 states, including California, Florida, Kentucky, Michigan, Washington, and Ohio while stopping other states from enacting similar measures in the future.
"For decades, we have fought for basic protections for pigs—allowing mother pigs enough space to turn around and interact with their babies is hardly a radical reform," said AJ Albrecht, managing director of MFA in the US Canada. "And the vast majority of Americans surveyed agree, as does the European Union and other nations around the world that banned the archaic use of gestation crates years ago. Yet the US pork industry has steadfastly refused to put compassion over corporate greed. Despite clear-cut state ballot initiatives and laws—and even a recent Supreme Court decision—the industry refuses to phase out cruel gestation crates."
Credit: Animal Outlook
In 2021, nearly 129 million hogs were slaughtered in the US alone —about four pigs a second. The US produces 11 percent of the world's pork, and in 2022, US pork exports surpassed $7.7 billion in value.
The latest data shows that Americans eat an annual 66.18 pounds of pork per capita. US census data and the Simmons National Consumer Study found that 268 million Americans ate bacon in 2020, with over 16 million eating five pounds of bacon or more during the year.
Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) and Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA) are expected to sponsor the EATS Act. Support for the 2021–2022 version of the EATs Act suggests that additional co-sponsors could include Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Joni Ernst (R-IA), John Cornyn (R-TX), and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), as well as nine House members from the Southeast and Midwest.
"Pro-pork members of Congress have recently reintroduced the EATS Act as their latest attempt to undermine our progress and keep pigs in extreme confinement," Albrecht continues. "Our undercover investigation footage shows what is at stake and puts a face on the harrowing reality that is life for the vast majority of pigs in the United States."
“[Animal Outlook’s] investigation shows in depth the kinds of cruelty and related harms the industry is fighting so hard to be able to continue perpetrating,” added Leahy.
What Can You Do?
Please take urgent action against the EATS Act by visiting EATSActExposed.com and refuse to be part of this cruelty by signing up to the Species Unite 7-Day Vegan Challenge here.
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