Slaughterhouse’s Repeated Violations of Federal Law Reported to U.S. Attorney

PETA Calls for Federal Criminal Investigation After Latest Report Shows Slaughterhouse Worker Shot Pig in the Head Four Times

For Immediate Release:
May 14, 2018

Contact:
Audrey Shircliff 202-483-7382

PETA has obtained a recent U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) report revealing at least the fourth violation of federal law in one year at Harmon Brothers Meats, Inc. In response, PETA sent a letter today calling on the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky to investigate the slaughterhouse for its persistent violations of the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act and, as appropriate, file federal criminal charges against the facility and the workers responsible for the animals’ suffering.

According to USDA reports, on April 13, a Harmon Brothers employee shot a pig with a rifle three times but failed to stun the animal, who cried out and tried to crawl away. A worker lowered the side of the stunning chamber onto the pig’s neck, and the animal cried out again. Finally, a fourth shot with a captive-bolt gun rendered the animal unconscious. On January 22, a worker shot a longhorn bull in the head three times; on July 17, 2017, a cow who’d been shot, shackled by the back legs, and hung upside-down began crying out and struggling and was shot again; and on May 8, 2017, a worker dragged a conscious, squealing pig across the floor by the front two legs.

“These disturbing revelations show that workers at Harmon Brothers Meats either can’t or won’t handle and stun animals competently and without causing them terrible fear, pain, and suffering,” says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “PETA is calling for federal prosecution in this case on behalf of the cows and pigs who suffered at this facility and the members of the public who care about them.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—notes that other animals have a central nervous system and sense of self-preservation, just as humans do, and that the only way to prevent cows, pigs, chickens, and others from suffering in slaughterhouses is to go vegan.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.