In October, a federal inspector at Clemens Food Group's pork processing plant in Coldwater, Michigan documented an employee forcefully striking a hog on the head with a rattle paddle while unloading animals from a truck. Federal regulations require that hogs be moved with minimal excitement and discomfort — and that tools like paddles be used as sparingly as possible to reduce stress and injury.

This is not the first time this has happened at Clemens. In 2023, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) filed a nearly identical complaint after a federal report found that an employee had struck around 10 hogs during unloading at the same plant. At the time, the Branch County Prosecutor declined to act.

Now PETA has filed a second complaint, urging acting Branch County Prosecutor Nora Geiger to file criminal animal cruelty charges under Michigan law. Federal enforcement under the Food Safety and Inspection Service carries no criminal or civil penalties — which means the only path to accountability runs through state prosecutors.

Clemens Food Group has not responded to press inquiries about either incident. The company is currently in the middle of a major expansion that will increase the Coldwater plant's daily capacity by 50%, to roughly 12,000 hogs per day. Without meaningful consequences, there is little reason to expect the behavior to stop.

We urge Prosecutor Geiger to review the federal report and file criminal charges against the employee responsible. And we call on Clemens Food Group to publicly acknowledge this pattern and commit to real accountability — not just internal reprimands — before that expansion is complete.

Animals cannot speak for themselves. We can.