Jensen-Fowers Farm Investigated Over Pig Abuse

Sheriff Acts on Video Showing Workers Beating and Kicking Pigs in the Face

For Immediate Release:
March 22, 2021

Contact:
Nicole Meyer 202-483-7382

The Weber County Sheriff’s Office has opened a criminal investigation into Jensen-Fowers Farm on State Route 39 after PETA sent a letter with video footage showing men beating pigs with a wooden board, kicking them in the face, and lifting them off the ground by their tails and legs to move them. According to the concerned citizen who filmed the abuse, the incidents occurred on the farm on March 15.

“Utah law recognizes that a pig feels pain just as any dog, cat, or human does and is as deserving of protection from abuse,” says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “We thank Sheriff Ryan Arbon for swiftly launching an investigation into these acts of wanton cruelty to animals.”

PETA notes that violence is common in the pork industry. Because the terrible stress of severely crowded conditions can cause pigs to fight and bite each other on the tail, workers cut off piglets’ tails at between 4 and 14 days of age. Male piglets are also castrated at that time. These extremely painful procedures are performed by laypeople, without pain relief. PETA’s undercover exposés of pig farms have resulted in felony cruelty charges against workers who threw, beat, and kicked pigs, among other abuse.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.