Sept. 8 — The former manager of a large Oklahoma pig farm has been charged with felony animal cruelty for his role in beating and smashing to death pigs being fattened for slaughter. The unusual prosecution was brought against a manager for Seaboard Farms Inc., in Texas County, Okla., which in the past decade has become a center for the nation’s growing pork industry.
ACCORDING TO District Attorney Donald E. Wood, four counts of cruelty to animals, a felony, were filed against Alejo Pena based on videotapes supplied by an undercover investigator for the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).
“There are ways to treat and slaughter farm animals in Oklahoma, and I think the videos showed the way they did it violated the statute,” Wood said.
Animal rights activists have charged that large factory farms like Seaboard encourage animal cruelty, while pork producers say they set and maintain high standards for the treatment of their animals.
PIGS BRUTALLY BEATEN TO DEATH
In a complaint filed in May with Wood’s office, an attorney for PETA outlined the contents of the video, which was made late last year. Among the charges were that Pena and other Seaboard workers beat pigs with the hooked end of a metal gate rod and a hammer, that they left fatally sick pigs alone to die, and that they killed some young pigs weighing up to 40 pounds by raising them above their heads and slamming them against the floor.
“I know some people don’t think animals raised for slaughter are worthy of any particular kind of good treatment,” said attorney Mort Welch, who handled the case for PETA. “But I think it would be very hard for most people to look at those videos and say what those men were doing was okay.”
Each charge carries a maximum punishment of five years in prison and a $500 fine.
Welch said criminal charges involving abuse of farm animals were unusual, and that Oklahoma was one of only a few states that even allowed them to be brought.
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ACCORDING TO District Attorney Donald E. Wood, four counts of cruelty to animals, a felony, were filed against Alejo Pena based on videotapes supplied by an undercover investigator for the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).
“There are ways to treat and slaughter farm animals in Oklahoma, and I think the videos showed the way they did it violated the statute,” Wood said.
Animal rights activists have charged that large factory farms like Seaboard encourage animal cruelty, while pork producers say they set and maintain high standards for the treatment of their animals.
PIGS BRUTALLY BEATEN TO DEATH
In a complaint filed in May with Wood’s office, an attorney for PETA outlined the contents of the video, which was made late last year. Among the charges were that Pena and other Seaboard workers beat pigs with the hooked end of a metal gate rod and a hammer, that they left fatally sick pigs alone to die, and that they killed some young pigs weighing up to 40 pounds by raising them above their heads and slamming them against the floor.
“I know some people don’t think animals raised for slaughter are worthy of any particular kind of good treatment,” said attorney Mort Welch, who handled the case for PETA. “But I think it would be very hard for most people to look at those videos and say what those men were doing was okay.”
Each charge carries a maximum punishment of five years in prison and a $500 fine.
Welch said criminal charges involving abuse of farm animals were unusual, and that Oklahoma was one of only a few states that even allowed them to be brought.
Want to learn more?