Illegal, Deadly Drug Found in Meat From Smithfield

For Immediate Release:
July 24, 2023

Contact:
Brittney Williams 202-483-7382

Federal records just obtained by PETA from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reveal that meat from Virginia-based Smithfield Foods (a Chinese-owned company)—along with meat from pork producer Swift Pork Company—tested positive for clenbuterol, an illegal drug that increases muscle mass in animals and can cause cardiac problems, tremors, and even death in humans. Just last year, hundreds of people in the Mexican state of Yucatán were thought to have fallen ill after ingesting meat laced with clenbuterol, and in 2011, tainted meat from Smithfield owner Shuanghui (now WH Group) sickened 1,700 people and killed one in China.

Tainted pork from pigs killed at Smithfield’s Tar Heel slaughterhouse was exported to Mexico, where authorities denied entry to the shipment(s) and documented the violation in a memo to the USDA. The agency launched an investigation, and USDA records note that Smithfield management was “unable to provide any monitoring records” to show that the animals they receive are clenbuterol-free. The U.S. only permits the drug for veterinary use in horses.

“An illegal and dangerous drug in Smithfield’s supply chain is one more reason people should stop eating animal products now,” says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “PETA encourages everyone to choose healthy, clean, ‘green’ vegan foods and spare pigs a lifetime of misery.”

Most of the 129 million pigs killed for food each year in the U.S. are confined to filthy enclosures so small that they can barely turn around. Workers chop off piglets’ tails, cut their teeth with pliers, and castrate the males—all without pain relief. At slaughterhouses, workers shoot, electrocute, or gas pigs before hanging them upside down and cutting their throats.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview, and offers a free vegan starter kit on its website. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.