PETA seeks charge against a pig farm

NORFOLK, Va. — An animal-rights group said Tuesday its undercover investigation has documented animal cruelty at a pig-breeding farm that supplies Smithfield Foods Inc., the nation's largest hog producer and pork processor.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has asked local authorities to file charges against Murphy Family Ventures LLC, which owns the Garland, N.C., farm.

PETA also planned to send a letter Wednesday to Smithfield Foods Chairman and CEO C. Larry Pope asking the Smithfield-based company to demand that Murphy Family Ventures fire workers found abusing animals. The letter also would urge Smithfield Foods to conduct its own investigations of its supplier farms and slaughterhouses.

"Smithfield is responsible for the abuses of its suppliers," PETA spokesman Bruce Friedrich said in an interview. He also said "anybody who eats meat is supporting this abuse that we believe is felony-level cruelty in North Carolina."

Smithfield owns Circle Four Farms in Utah, which operates farms in Beaver and Iron counties. A representative from the company did not return a phone call seeking comment Tuesday.

Murphy Family Ventures, based in Wallace, N.C., is an independent contract grower for Murphy-Brown LLC, a Smithfield Foods livestock production subsidiary in Warsaw, N.C.

Murphy-Brown spokesman Don Butler said the company had not received information about PETA's allegations but would conduct an internal investigation to determine the facts and take any appropriate actions.

"Murphy-Brown has no higher priority than the well-being of animals we produce," Butler said, reading a statement. All contract growers are required to abide by an animal welfare management program, he said.

Friedrich said a PETA investigator applied for a job with Murphy without revealing a connection to PETA after a whistleblower called the organization about abuse allegations at another Murphy sow farm. The investigator was hired at the Garland farm and worked there from Sept. 13 to Nov. 2, Friedrich said.

PETA said the investigator documented workers dragging screaming pigs by their snouts, an ear or a leg to an area where they then were killed. Workers also hit and jabbed pigs with metal rods, a supervisor admitted that he beat pigs, and numerous pigs went without treatment for cysts, sores and other injuries, PETA said.

PETA gave video and notes taken by the investigator to local prosecutor G. Dewey Hudson and asked him to file charges under North Carolina's anticruelty statute, Friedrich said. Hudson said he had no immediate comment.

PETA also is asking Smithfield to require all of its suppliers to phase out the use of gestation crates and to issue a detailed phase-out plan for its company-owned farms, Friedrich said. Animal-rights groups argue that confining pigs in crates is inhumane because the sows don't have room to turn around and they develop leg problems and suffer from boredom and frustration.