After a Change.org petition by Meredith Slater pressured McDonalds (the number one purchaser of Smithfield Foods), Smithfield Foods, Inc. CEO C. Larry Pope promised to phase out this grotesque treatment of pigs in 2007. Two years later, claiming financial hardship, Smithfield reneged, but said when they recovered financially, it again promised to stop using gestation crates. That was in 2009. A few years later, a thousands of tortured pigs, the company had record breaking sales in 2011. The phasing out of gestation crates has not happened and the torture conditions to this day.

What is that torture? In December  2010, the Humane Society released the results of a one-month undercover inquiry into Smithfield Foods. In summation, "the investigation found live pigs and piglets thrown into carts or dumpsters, pigs slipping through grated floor panels into piles of manure pits, no veterinary care to help pigs with conditions such as abscesses, and pigs crammed inside the aforementioned gestation crates.* " From piglet to adult, these pigs grow into these crates until they are unable to move around at all. They live crammed inside for the life of the pig. Listed as the 4th smartest animal in the world with a four-year-old mentality, they eventually go crazy. Others just die as a direct result of how they "live."

*Quoted from all-creatures,org (http://www.all-creatures.org/articles/ar-fails.html)

For more information on pig farming, all-creatures.org recommends viewing a 2009 film called "Pig Business, an investigative documentary, which the IMDb descries as being "about the corporate takeover of pig farming and the devastating impacts this is having on our environment, local communities, small farmers, human health and animal welfare."

The original petition started four years ago by Meredith Slater to pressured McDonald's into not using Smithfield Foods, but it did not pass because it failed to get about 39,000 of the 150,000 signatures needed. We cannot let that happen with this one petition.

The Petition:

Headquarters for Smithfield Foods, Inc.
200 Commerce Street,
Smithfield, VA 23430

(757) 365-3000

Dear Smithfield Foods:

I ask that Smithfield Food CEO C. Larry Pope (or any current CEO that takes over Smithfield Foods) phase out completely the use of gestation crates in growing pigs for food consumption within four years of the date of the creation of this petition. In addition, all other cruelty toward these animals must stop immediately and a veterinarian must be on-hand at all times upon receipt of this petition.

Because Smithfield Foods CEO C. Larry Pope has made promises in the past to phase out the use of such cruel harvesting by use of gestation crates that barely fit around a grown pig, an affidavit much be drawn up that includes a penalty of $10,000 for each day the pigs continue to grow up in these gestation crates and treated cruelty. If there is another claim of SEVERE economic hardship by phasing out the gestation crates, the independent accounting firm of Price Waterhouse-Cooper must verify this at the expense of Smithfield Foods.

Signed and Dated

_____________________  

**Photo from a 2010 investigation of Murphy-Brown, the livestock production subsidiary of Smithfield Foods, Inc.