PETA on the Scene When Truck Carrying 180 Hogs to Slaughter Crashed

April 2004

PETA’s Community Animal Project (CAP) responded to a call of an overturned truck carrying 180 pigs to slaughter at the Smithfield, Virginia, packing plant. When we arrived, nearly two dozen animals were severely injured, dying, or already dead. The packing plant workers shuffled the stunned live pigs who were suffering from road scrapes, broken and severed limbs, and internal injuries into another truck and sent them on their way to be killed at the plant. Others left on the scene were hit with a faulty captive-bolt gun that severely injured but didn’t kill several pigs, who had to linger for nearly two hours until a functional gun was provided. The Smithfield official declined PETA’s offer to humanely euthanize the suffering animals, stating that the meat would not be able to be used for consumption. CAP staff mobilized slaughterhouse workers to expedite the slaughter of the injured animals and took photos and video footage.