Probe of Slaughterhouse Sought After Pig Repeatedly Shot in the Head

PETA Cites Federal Report Showing That Worker at Fauquier’s Finest Custom Meat Processing Committed ‘Egregious’ Noncompliance

For Immediate Release:
January 31, 2018

Contact:
Audrey Shircliff 202-483-7382

Armed with a damning U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) report, PETA sent a letter today calling on the Fauquier County Sheriff’s Office to investigate and, as appropriate, file criminal charges against Fauquier’s Finest Custom Meat Processing, Inc., and the worker responsible for repeatedly shooting a pig in the head, both before and after the animal’s throat was cut.

According to the USDA record, on January 9, an inspector witnessed a worker shoot a pig in the head twice with a .22-caliber rifle and then slit the animal’s throat. The pig then stood up and struggled to walk before collapsing. The worker shot the pig two more times as the animal continued to cry out and struggle, before another worker shot the pig twice with his .357. PETA notes that this incident may violate Virginia’s cruelty-to-animals statute, which makes it a crime to kill an animal in a cruel manner.

“PETA is calling for a criminal investigation of this facility and the worker who caused a pig to stagger around, crying out, after his or her throat was slit,” says PETA Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations Daphna Nachminovitch. “There’s no difference between the fear and pain that this pig felt and how dogs, cats, or humans would feel if they were subjected to multiple gunshots to the head.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—notes that the meat industry slaughters more than 115 million pigs every year, that other animals have a central nervous system and sense of self-preservation just as humans do, and that the only way to prevent pigs, cows, chickens, and others from suffering in slaughterhouses is to go vegan.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.