Investigation of Slaughterhouse Sought After Pig Repeatedly Shot in Head

PETA Cites Federal Reports Showing That a Central Missouri Meat & Sausage Worker Took Three Tries to Stun Screaming Animal

For Immediate Release:
July 20, 2017

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Armed with damning U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) records, PETA sent a letter this morning calling on the Callaway County prosecutor’s office to investigate local slaughterhouse Central Missouri Meat & Sausage and, as appropriate, file criminal charges against the worker there who failed to stun a pig on the first attempt—causing the animal to cry out and struggle to stand after enduring multiple shots to the head.

According to the USDA documents, operations were suspended at the slaughterhouse on July 3 after a worker ineffectively shot a pig with a handheld pistol. The pig screamed and tried to rise from his or her knees before being blasted with a second shot and then another, at which point the animal was finally stunned. PETA notes that this incident may violate Missouri’s abuse statute, which prohibits a person from purposely causing injury or suffering to an animal.

“PETA is calling for a criminal investigation into Central Missouri Meat & Sausage, which caused a pig to scream out in pain while being shot multiple times in the head,” says PETA Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations Daphna Nachminovitch. “There’s no difference between the terror and pain that this pig felt and how dogs or cats would feel if they suffered from shots fired into their skulls.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—notes that animals have the same central nervous system and sense of self-preservation as humans and that the only way to prevent pigs, cows, chickens, and other animals from suffering in slaughterhouses is to go vegan.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.