Federal reports expose abuse of pigs at major US sausage company

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According to US federal reports, workers at FB Purnell Sausage Co kick and beat pigs before they are sent to slaughter.

The Kentucky-based company makes more than $70 million in sales each year and is known for its Old Folks sausages. The sausage brand’s slogans are “It’s Goo-od!” and “The best country sausage money can buy.”

But People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) says operations at the company’s slaughterhouses are “anything but good”.

The world’s largest animal rights organization has written to FB Purnell Sausage President Fred Todd Purnell asking him to make “immediate changes” to prevent animal suffering.

PETA cited federal documents as evidence that company workers repeatedly beat, kicked and electrically shocked pigs.

The letter asked Purnell to release footage of the slaughterhouse processes. Or, “at the very least,” permanently reassign workers to “jobs that involve no contact with live animals.”

He argues that the workers are violating Kentucky’s animal cruelty law.

Abuse of pigs in the meat industry

This isn’t the first time PETA has called out FB Purnell Sausage Co for animal abuse. Last year, the association obtained the “disturbing report” of a pig receiving six electric shocks to the head and heart.

At the time, PETA called for an investigation.

Each year, the meat industry slaughters approximately 1.5 billion pigs. And FB Purnell Sausage Co is far from the only company in the industry that mistreats its animals.

In Aberdeenshire last year, workers on a farm supplying major UK supermarket chains Tesco and Lidl (who later cut ties) were filmed hitting piglets with hammers and swinging them around. Activists also found pigs in filthy conditions, and some had meningitis.

Animal Equality UK released the undercover footage, which it said depicted several breaches of the law.

Veterinarian and animal welfare professor Andrew Knight told the Independent at the time: “The suffering of these sick and injured pigs would have been very considerable, yet no signs of proper veterinary care were visible.”

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