Source:  Michael Fielding, MEATINGPLACE, 6/29/11

Despite the graphic images in a two-minute video released by a Chicago-based animal rights group of the handling of piglets and sows by employees at an Iowa pork producer, the heart of the issue is opposition to a legal industry wide practice: gestation stalls.

Iowa Select Farms, which is the target of an undercover video by the 60,000-member Mercy for Animals, has launched an investigation “into the portions of the video that show unacceptable animal handling,” company’s senior veterinarian, Howard Hill, told Meatingplace.

The group claims that the video shows piglets castrated and their tails docked without painkillers; intestinal ruptures seemingly the result of botched castrations; and workers throwing piglets across the room. “It’s like a roller coaster ride for piglets,” one worker says in the video.

The industry’s response: Both castration and docked tails are general practice and often are conducted within the first 24 hours of birth; anesthetics have not been approved for swine; and the small confines of the gestation stalls prevent the sows from fighting.

“The vast majority of sows in the United States are raised in gestation crates,” Dave Warner, director of communications for the National Pork Producers Council, told Meatingplace. Warner, who has seen the video, said that although the council fiercely supports proper animal handling practices, one apparently cruel practice – tossing piglets across the room – is something the industry decries. ”That’s the only thing that would be considered mistreatment,” he said.

“Castration of male pigs is done quickly, and they heal quickly,” Hill added. “Seldom are there are complications, and we can fix most of those. But if they’re not repairable, those animals are quickly and humanely euthanized.”

He said that in 2009 Iowa Select converted all of its farms from blunt force trauma euthanasia to carbon dioxide euthanasia. He also said that the sow in the video with a uterine prolapse was euthanized.
Interestingly, Warner said, Mercy for Animals never alleges that the euthanasia wasn’t timely. “They’re going to retailers with a four-page letter. The retailers already know all of this stuff, but they’re using this video as leverage to ban gestation stalls,” Warner added. “That’s pretty much what the whole letter is about.”
“Although all of the abuses perpetrated against mother sows and piglets for your stores are unnecessary and intolerably cruel, subjecting animals to a lifetime of confinement in crates so small they are virtually immobilized is perhaps the cruelest form of institutionalized animal abuse in existence,” said the group’s executive director, Nathan Runkle in the letter dated June 27 and sent to retailers. “The majority of the American public opposes the use of gestation crates, as does a host of animal welfare experts, who tell us what common sense should have told us all along: animals with legs should have room to move.”

Although the use of gestation crates has been banned in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Maine, Michigan and Oregon, it remains in use throughout much of the industry. Still, some producers, such as Smithfield Foods, are phasing out the crates. 

“There are multiple ways of housing sows, from loose housing to individual stalls to free access to stalls, and our position is that each one of those systems when managed correctly works very well,” Hill said.

Regardless, there are disadvantages to each one. Although gestation stalls allow sows to be fed and observed individually in addition to protecting them from aggressive sows, they do limit their movement.
Concerns over free housing range from cleanliness issues to protecting sows from summer heat and winter cold. “There’s not one system that’s better than others,” Hill said.

One argument he’s heard against gestation stalls is that sows can’t lie down without touching other sows. “But they always lie together in free housing. I never consider the fact that a sow touching another sow is all that objectionable,” Hill added.

The farm, located in Kamrar, Iowa, has 4,000 sows and no finishing facilities. Piglets are weaned at three weeks and moved offsite.

Iowa Select has retained Dr. Anna Johnson, associate professor of animal science at Iowa State University, to conduct an investigation into the alleged abuse. Hill told Meatingplace that she is on site today reviewing the video clip by clip and interviewing employees to verify the authenticity of the video.
All of Iowa Select’s employees are certified in the NPPC PQAPlus program, which trains producers and workers on proper care and handling. The program certifies about 58,000 of the 67,000 pork producers in the country that accounts for 85 percent of the pigs produced each year.

The company also has a zero-tolerance rule for animal abuse. “It will be dealt with,” Hill said. “The video does not depict what goes on day-to-day on our farm. Employees are screened and certified, and we have a toll-free number for anyone to report suspected animal abuse.” He said that one worker has been temporarily suspended without pay until the investigation complete. It’s expected to take 7 to 10 days.
The fourth largest pork producer in the nation, Iowa Select Farms houses up to 160,000 sows across Iowa and employs more than 900. It supplies pork to JBS Swift, which sells to retailers including Costco, Hy-Vee, Kroger and Safeway.

“We at JBS are shocked and disturbed by the video recently filmed by Mercy for Animals at a hog farm, and we are taking action with our hog-producer community to ensure that treatment that is inconsistent with National Pork Board standards is addressed immediately,” JBS reportedly said in a statement.

“Safeway does not tolerate animal abuse of any kind and finds the images and animal handling practices contained in the Mercy for Animals video to be extremely disturbing,” spokeswoman Teena Massingill also said in a statement. The company also has said that it has halted purchases from JBS Swift during an investigation of Iowa Select’s operations.

A Costco official was unavailable for comment.

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