PETA to Protest State’s Contract With Pork Supplier Outside Elementary School

Video Reveals Mother Pigs Crying Out as They’re Repeatedly Jabbed and Illegally Electro-Shocked; Group Asks Schools to Plan Field Trips to See How Factory-Farmed Pigs Fare

For Immediate Release:
October 17, 2013

Contact:
Allison Lakomski 202-483-7382

Memphis, Tenn. – Led by a costumed “pig” and holding signs that read, “Stop Feeding Miserable Pigs to Kids,” a group of PETA members will gather outside Southaven Elementary School on Friday to protest the Mississippi Department of Education’s contract to feed kids sausage from Southern Quality Meats, Inc. (SQM). The Department of Education has chosen to maintain its contract worth more than $1.9 million with SQM 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 used the device on one apparently stunned mother pig’s lower abdomen and/or genitals for no apparent reason.

When:   Friday, October 18, 3 p.m.

Where:  Southaven Elementary School, Farmington Drive between Claireborne and Boulder drives (at the school bus stop), Southaven

“By contracting with Southern Quality Meats, the Department of Education is sending students a message that it’s OK to mistreat animals and break the law,” says PETA Executive Vice President (and mother) Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on Mississippi’s school authorities to sever all ties with this despicable slaughterhouse and asking every principal to take children on a field trip to see how pigs are raised on the farms that supply the school.”

For more information, please visit PETA.org.