PETA to Protest Dept. of Ed’s Contract With Sausage Supplier Illegally Mistreating Mother Pigs

Pigs Jabbed, Electro-Shocked at Southern Quality Meats 

For Immediate Release:
September 11, 2013

Contact:
Shakira Croce 202-483-7382

Jackson, Miss. – Holding signs that read, “Stop Feeding Miserable Pigs to Kids” and “Kids & Pigs Deserve Better: Get SQM Out of Schools,” PETA members will gather outside the Mississippi Department of Education on Thursday to protest the department’s contract, worth more than $1.9 million, with Southern Quality Meats (SQM). SQM continues to supply sausage to Mississippi schools even after the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed “inhumane handling” of pigs—a violation of the federal Humane Methods of Livestock Slaughter Act—at SQM, where video footage obtained by PETA revealed that an employee jabbed sows with electric prongs and even used the device on one apparently stunned mother pig’s lower abdomen and/or genitals for no apparent reason.

When:    Thursday, September 12, 12 noon

Where:  Mississippi Department of Education, 359 N. West St. (near the intersection with E. Griffith Street), Jackson

The Mississippi Department of Education has awarded contracts worth more than $6 million in taxpayer funds to SQM to supply sausage to state schools, many of which have meal programs that are supplemented with federal funds.

“By contracting with SQM, the Mississippi Department of Education is sending students a message that it’s OK to support a business that mistreats animals and breaks federal law,” says PETA Executive Vice President (and mother) Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on the Department of Education to sever all ties with this despicable slaughterhouse.”

For more information, please visit PETA.org.