Injured Pigs Suffer After Truck Crash
As if a life of suffering on a factory farm that ends with a terrifying death in a slaughterhouse weren’t enough, pigs killed for Smithfield Foods, Inc.’s, ham and bacon also face being injured or killed in a traffic accident on their way to slaughter. The latest wreck makes at least the 11th by pork industry drivers since 2004 in southeastern Virginia alone—many of them en route to Smithfield’s slaughterhouse.
On April 19, David Earl Lambert was hauling 184 pigs from the Goldsboro Milling Co. factory farm to slaughter when he flipped the truck, sending pigs hurtling through the air. Fifty-five pigs died either on impact or in pain in the hours that followed, as a result of their injuries. The survivors were hauled the rest of the way to slaughter. After many crashes, pigs are dragged or electro-shocked to force them to their feet.
Lambert has a deplorable driving record, which includes charges for speeding, operating a vehicle without insurance, reckless driving, and attempting to evade federal motor carrier safety regulations. And his latest accident occurred on a dry road on a clear day. By putting known-dangerous drivers behind the wheel, some meat industry giants show that they have no regard for the safety of animals or other drivers on the road.
PETA is asking Goldsboro Milling Co. to use common sense and hire only safe drivers, just as we called on Smithfield to do when one of its drivers flipped a truck carrying pigs just three months after he had crashed while hauling cattle. And of course, the safest and most responsible thing that all of us can do to protect animals and our own health is to go vegan.
