Investigation Sought After Pig, Cow Shot in the Face at Slaughterhouse

PETA Cites Federal Reports Showing That Scotts Hook & Cleaver Workers Repeatedly Failed to Stun Animals

For Immediate Release:
May 30, 2017

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Armed with damning U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports, PETA sent a letter this morning calling on the Kalamazoo County prosecuting attorney and the director of Animal Services and Enforcement to investigate Scotts Hook & Cleaver and, as appropriate, file criminal charges against the slaughterhouse workers who failed to stun a cow and a pig properly—causing the animals to stand back up even after they had been shot in the head.

According to USDA documents, operations at Scotts Hook & Cleaver have been suspended twice since April for violations of slaughter regulations. In one incident, a worker shot a pig in the snout with a shotgun, causing her to cry out and move about the holding pen. In the second, a worker shot a cow in the head, leaving him bleeding from the nostrils and mouth as he scrambled to stand. PETA notes that the incidents appear to violate Michigan’s cruelty statute, which prohibits knowingly or recklessly torturing, mutilating, maiming, or disfiguring an animal.

“PETA is calling for a criminal investigation into this facility, which allowed a pig to scream in agony and a cow to stagger around as blood poured from his face,” says PETA Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations Daphna Nachminovitch. “There’s no difference between the terror and pain that these animals felt and how dogs or cats would feel if they were left to suffer from a gunshot wound to the head.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—notes that animals have the same central nervous system and sense of self-preservation as humans and that the only way to prevent cows, pigs, and other gentle creatures from suffering in this and other slaughterhouses is to go vegan.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.