More Botched Killings at Blood Farm—PETA Renews Call for Criminal Probe

For Immediate Release:
September 11, 2019

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

According to a recent U.S. Department of Agriculture report, workers at Blood Farm botched the stunning of a cow and electroshocked a pig three times—causing the animal to cry out—before shooting the animal with a captive bolt, amounting to 10 violations of the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act since March 2017. A September 2018 report describes how staff improperly shot a pig in the head. The wounded animal ran through the kill floor, parking lot, and a nearby field before being shot again. PETA has just sent a letter to U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling urging him to launch a criminal probe into this facility and its history of violations.

“As Blood Farm’s record shows, gruesome slaughterhouse deaths are far from isolated incidents,” says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “These animals suffer and die in horrific ways, and anyone who cares about animals can help stop their suffering by going vegan.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. Our letter to Lelling follows. For more information, please visit PETA.org.

September 11, 2019

The Honorable Andrew Lelling

United States Attorney

District of Massachusetts

Dear Mr. Lelling,

I hope that you’re well. I’m writing to follow up on my June 11, 2018, letter to you regarding a rash of violations of the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act at E.L. Blood & Son, Inc., located at 94 W. Main St. in West Groton. Since that correspondence, in which I let you know that slaughterhouse staff had violated the law at least seven times between March 2017 and May 2018—including by beating a pig in the head with an aluminum panel and shooting cattle in the head up to five times—the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has documented at least three more violations of law on the facility’s kill floor and suspended operations there two more times.

On September 10, 2018, after staff at the facility shot a pig in the head, the wounded animal ran through the plant, the parking lot, and a nearby field before finally being rendered unconscious. On July 31 this year, a cow was ineffectively stunned. On August 16, a worker electroshocked a pig three times—causing the animal to cry out—before shooting him or her with a captive-bolt gun. The FSIS reports regarding these violations, which are the facility’s eighth, ninth, and tenth since March 2017, are attached for your convenience.

These persistent violations of federal law plainly illustrate that FSIS enforcement actions are insufficient to deter future violations at this facility and that criminal prosecution is in the best interests of the animals killed there and the public. We respectfully ask that you bring appropriate criminal charges against those responsible for the long list of violations—and the suffering—at E.L. Blood & Son, Inc.

Please let us know what we might do to assist you.

Sincerely,

Colin Henstock

Investigations Specialist | People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)