Mercy For Animals Hidden Camera Investigation Exposes Horrific Animal Abuse At Tyson Pork Factory Farm

LITTLE ROCK, Ariz., Nov. 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Shocking hidden-camera video of animal abuse secretly recorded at a farm that supplies pork to Tyson Foods that is sold in Walmart stores nationwide will be released this morning by the national animal protection organization Mercy For Animals. The video shows sadistic and egregious cruelty, including workers throwing a bowling ball at a pig's head, and kicking, throwing, hitting, body slamming, and otherwise torturing pregnant pigs and piglets.

The disturbing undercover video, recorded at West Coast Farms in Okfuskee County, Oklahoma, reveals a culture of cruelty and abuse at this Tyson pork producer, including the following:

• Workers viciously punching, kicking, beating, and violently shaking animals and pulling out their hair
• Piglets having their tails hacked off and their testicles ripped out of their bodies without painkillers
• Workers slamming conscious piglets headfirst against the ground and spiking them like footballs
• Pregnant pigs confined to tiny, maggot-infested gestation crates barely able to move for their entire lives
• Workers shoving their fingers into pigs' eyes and hitting them with wooden boards
• Piglets left to suffer and slowly die on dead piles without proper veterinary care
• A worker throwing a heavy bowling ball at a pig's head

Mercy For Animals is calling for criminal charges against the workers involved in extreme animal abuse at this Tyson factory farm. The group is also calling on Walmart to immediately adopt new animal welfare guidelines, including prohibiting Tyson and its other pork suppliers from confining pigs in crates so small they cannot even turn around—something nearly every other major food provider has already done.

The use of gestation crates has been widely denounced as one of the cruelest factory farming practices in the world. In fact, gestation crates are so inhumane they have been banned in nine U.S. states, as well as in the entire European Union. Recognizing their inherent cruelty, over 60 major food providers, including McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Chipotle, Safeway, Kroger, Costco and Kmart, have all demanded their suppliers do away with these cruel crates. Major pork producers like Smithfield and Hormel have committed to phasing out gestation crates, and Cargill is already 50 percent crate-free.

But Tyson continues to condemn intelligent and social animals to a lifetime of misery and deprivation in gestation crates, and Walmart continues to support this blatant animal abuse by purchasing pork from Tyson. This is the fourth Mercy For Animals undercover investigation at a Walmart pork supplier that has uncovered gruesome animal cruelty.

"Keeping highly intelligent and social animals confined in cages so small they can't even turn around for nearly their entire lives is blatant cruelty," said MFA's executive director, Nathan Runkle. "The time for Walmart to act is now. As the country's largest retailer, Walmart has the power and the ethical responsibility to help stop one of the cruelest factory farming practices by ending the sale of crated pork."

To view the undercover video, visit www.WalmartCruelty.com.

SOURCE Mercy For Animals