COK Exposes Pig Abuse

Today, animal-welfare group Compassion Over Killing announced the disturbing results of an undercover investigation of Hawkeye Sow Centers, an Iowa factory farm. During a late 2011 stint posing as a worker at the facility, a COK investigator witnessed and documented pigs confined to restrictive crates; workers castrating piglets without anesthetic or proper sanitation, sometimes botching the procedure and exposing their intestines; and the innards of dead piglets being cannibalistically added to the food supply for other pigs. HSC allegedly supplies for meat producer Hormel, which claimed recently that it will be phasing out the usage of gestation crates. Iowa produces more pork than any other state in the US, and an “ag-gag” anti-whistleblowing law—which would make exposés like COK’s illegal—is being circulated in the state right now.