San Francisco -- To illustrate the immense suffering and routine cruelty that pigs endure before they are made into ham and bacon, two pig sculptures--confined to metal stalls just as pigs on factory farms are--will be displayed in Union Square on Monday. This "Think Before You Eat" protest comes on the heels of PETA's new undercover exposé of a Midwestern pig farm that supplies Hormel. The investigation uncovered routine, intentional abuse: Investigators documented that workers kicked injured pigs, beat pigs with metal rods, and shocked pigs with electric prods--sometimes in the face. Workers killed piglets by slamming their heads against the floor. One worker shoved a cane into a pig's vagina.

Where:  Union Square, Corner of Powell and Geary streets, San Francisco
When:   Monday, October 13, 12 noon

PETA protesters will also be screening footage from that investigation and urging people to forgo factory-farmed meat.

On today's factory farms, sows used for breeding are kept virtually immobilized for months at a time in cramped, concrete stalls with metal bars. They are given drugs to make them grow quickly, which frequently results in lameness. Workers cut off piglets' tails, clip their teeth with pliers, and castrate male piglets--all without anesthetics. Finally, at the slaughterhouse, pigs are hung upside-down and bled to death, often while they are still conscious.