A new Mercy For Animals investigation provides a shocking look into a Walmart pork supplier—Christensen Farms—where mother pigs and their piglets are forced to suffer unrelenting abuse and lives of extreme confinement and misery.
Between December of 2011 and March of 2012, an MFA investigator documented egregious cruelty and neglect at a Christensen Farms facility in Hanska, Minnesota, including:
- Thousands of mother pigs confined to filthy, metal gestation crates so small they are unable to even turn around or lie down comfortably for nearly their entire lives;
- Pigs suffering from large, open wounds and pressure sores from rubbing against the bars of their tiny cages or lying on the hard concrete flooring;
- Workers slamming piglets into the ground and leaving them to slowly suffer and die;
- Workers ripping out the testicles and slicing off the tails of fully conscious piglets without the use of any painkillers;
- Sick and injured pigs with severe, bleeding wounds or infections left to suffer without veterinary care;
- A mother pig—physically taxed from constant birthing—with an inflamed and bleeding prolapse; and
- Workers preparing to force-feed sows diarrhea and dead piglets.
For more information, go directly to the MFA site.