Hog wash

Smithfield Foods Inc. is giving consumers a guided, behind-the-scenes look at the world's largest pork producer on the heels of animal abuse allegations at one of its Virginia hog farms.

The Smithfield, Va.-based company said Monday that it has released a new series of videos on YouTube that provide an in-depth look at pork production at the company's Murphy-Brown livestock production subsidiary, based in North Carolina.

The seven videos, which run from three to 10 minutes each and were shot at facilities across the U.S., show clean, grunting, apparently contented piglets beginning their life on a sow farm, moving to a nursery farm, and then transitioning to a finishing farm.

"My son came home and asked me, you know, 'Mommy, you raise those pigs for meat?' And I explained that, 'Yes, son, I do,'" said staff veterinarian Dr. Mary Battrel, cradling a piglet in her arms. "They are going to be consumed. But while they're in my care . . . we have to see to it that they have the best possible environment, the best care that we can make available to them. That's our job.'"

In December, the Humane Society of the United States released results from an undercover investigation that showed breeding pigs abused and crammed into small crates at one of Smithfield's Virginia farms.

Photos and video from the Humane Society's investigation showed about 1,000 large female pigs crammed into metal crates. After the piglets are born, the sows are moved for about three weeks to a crate large enough to nurse their piglets before being artificially inseminated and placed back into the gestation crates.

"These animals... have done nothing to deserve the fate that they're enduring inside of these crates," said Paul Shapiro, senior director of the Humane Society's "End Factory Farming" campaign. "Open wounds, pressure sores, infections, bleeding gums from biting the bars so much, and these animals aren't even being cared for with individual veterinary attention."

In 2007 Smithfield promised to phase out gestation crates over 10 years but Shapiro claimed it is failing to do so, even as other major pork producers drop the practice.

Although animals do not have the same rights as people, as some advocates insist, the abuse of animals should concern Christians, said Dr. Mark Mitchell, associate professor of government at Patrick Henry College. He affirmed that people have the responsibility to give thoughtful care to animals, even when they are being produced for consumption.

"We should eat with gratitude," Mitchell said. "We too easily forget that the meat on our table was once a living, breathing, feeling creature made by God. It died so we can go on living.... If we come to see animals as merely inert objects in our food production system we will invariably come to mistreat them."

At the center of the controversy was the use of gestation crates, also called sow stalls, that some farms use during the sows' four-month pregnancies.

In the videos, Smithfield emphasized that its pigs do receive proper veterinary care and defended their facilities as clean and humane.

"I've never spoke with a hog, but I would assume that he would prefer indoor, climate controlled [facilities]," said Scott Brown, one of the Smithfield farmers spotlighted in the video.

Smithfield's video claims scientific studies show a majority of sows will spend time in individual stalls rather than in the common areas. The company said it is in the process of converting a number of its sow farms from individual gestation stalls to group housing for pregnant sows, but hasn't said when that transition will be finished.

Shapiro on Monday called on Smithfield to provide a timeline for replacing the small gestation crates. "We documented footage from a whistleblower ... showing what conditions are like, not when a public relations firm brings their cameras in there for a white-glove tour," Shapiro said.

The investigation also found that a lame pig was shot in the forehead with a stun gun and thrown into a trash bin while still alive, employees jabbed pigs with gate rods to get them to move, and pigs developed open sores from rubbing against the bars.

Smithfield said it regretted the incident and abhorred the actions of individuals who chose to ignore its policies. As part of the company's investigation, it interviewed more than 175 employees and subsequently fired two employees and their supervisor. Smithfield Foods released recommendations of an independent investigative team after the allegations.

Murphy-Brown is the livestock production subsidiary of Smithfield Foods, Inc., and is the world's largest producer of pigs for slaughter. The company owns approximately 888,000 sows and brings a total of 17 million pigs to slaughter annually.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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