Submitted by Michael Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg blog [4],
The cruelty inherent in animal factory farming is something that we as a species should find completely and totally unacceptable. Indeed, evidence shows that when people are exposed to the nightmarish conditions faced by factory animals prior to consumption they demand change. This is precisely why corporate interests have pushed ag-gag laws throughout the nation [5] in an attempt to criminalize the exposure of these methods.
I am sure many of you have already been exposed to videos of shocking animal cruelty before. Even if you have, the video below created by Mercy for Animals is a very important watch. It exposes unthinkable abuse of tiny, helpless pigs for absolutely no good reason. These incidents were filmed at Pipestone System’s Rosewood Farms in Pipestone, Minnesota earlier this year.
WARNING: Parts of this video are extraordinarily disturbing. While I think it is important for people to watch it and be aware, it might be too much to handle for some.
More from the Huffington Post:
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 [6]. 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.
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.
“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.”
Rice calls these gestation crates — banned in the European Union and in nine U.S. states [7], 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.
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 [8].
“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.”
Full article here [9].