PETA Offers to Help Goldsboro Pork Producer Reduce Truck Crash Carnage

Magnetic Safety Warnings Sent to Company After Tractor-Trailer Crash Claims the Lives of 80 Pigs

For Immediate Release:
December 18, 2013

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

PETA has written to Bob Ivey, general manager of Goldsboro, N.C.–based Goldsboro Milling Co., urging him to install specially designed magnets—the first of their kind—on the door of the 18-wheelers his company uses to transport pigs, warning drivers to exercise caution while on the road. On November 29, a crash killed some 80 pigs when a Goldsboro truck overturned after running off Virginia State Route 10 in Suffolk. The magnets—which Ivey received today—carry the message “Get enough rest, and drive safely—for the pigs you are hauling, for yourself, and for other people.”

“Goldsboro Milling’s safety record regarding fatal crashes is one of the worst in the business,” says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “The best way anyone outside the business can help prevent this carnage is to go vegan, but PETA’s aim here is to remind the company and its drivers—much as memorial markers along highways do—to slow down and drive carefully for the sake of all those, human or not, whom they put at risk.”

In April 2013, yet another truck loaded with Goldsboro Milling pigs ran off U.S. 258 in Isle of Wight County, Va., killing 55 pigs. PETA discovered that the driver, David Lambert, had been charged with at least 15 traffic offenses in North Carolina since 1995. Following Goldsboro Milling truck crashes in Suffolk in 2004 and again in 2008, PETA documented that injured pigs were abused—including by being struck in the face and dragged by the ears—before being loaded onto replacement trucks and taken to slaughter.

For more information, please visit PETA’s blog.

PETA’s letter to Goldsboro Milling Co. General Manager Bob Ivey follows.

December 18, 2013

Bob Ivey
General Manager
Goldsboro Milling Co.

Dear Mr. Ivey:

I am writing regarding Antonio Marquez—who, while hauling some 180 pigs for Goldsboro Milling Co., crashed a tractor trailer in Suffolk, Va., on November 29—and to ask you to put magnets that we have produced for Goldsboro Milling Co. (“Goldsboro”) on trucks hauling live animals in order to protect all the lives that such wrecks put at risk.

Marquez, of Goldsboro, N.C., ran off Virginia Route 10 while headed north, toward Smithfield, Va., and overturned the vehicle. Approximately 80 slaughter-bound pigs were killed as a result of severe injuries and related trauma. Marquez was charged with reckless driving and failure to maintain control.

I have documented many similar crashes—including those involving Goldsboro in 2004 and 2008 in Suffolk—and seen injured and debilitated survivors hit in the face, dragged by the ears, electro-shocked, left to be trampled by other pigs, and shot over and over in the head. In May, after another man driving for Goldsboro crashed a tractor trailer near Smithfield and killed 55 pigs, I found that his driving record included being charged with at least 15 traffic offenses and asked you to review all your drivers’ records and fitness to haul live animals.

We want Goldsboro to prevent these wrecks for the sake of animals and that of the motorists traveling alongside these trucks and your drivers. While PETA and Goldsboro differ on whether pigs should be raised and killed for food, we hope that you will put that aside and work with us toward our common goal of cutting down on these wrecks. Will you please put the pig-hauler safe-driving awareness magnets that you are receiving today—the first of their kind—on the driver’s side doors of trucks that are used for hauling live animals? They will remind Goldsboro drivers to avoid fatigue, a leading cause of these crashes, and to be careful for their own sake as well as that of other motorists and animals. They are free to Goldsboro and should help your bottom line.

We hope to hear that Goldsboro will join us in this crash-prevention strategy. Thank you for your time, Mr. Ivey.

Sincerely,

Dan Paden
Evidence Analysis Manager
Cruelty Investigations Department