PETA to Protest State’s Contract With Pork Supplier Outside Elementary School

Video Reveals Mother Pigs Calling Out as They’re Repeatedly and Illegally Jabbed With Electric Prongs; Group Asks Schools to Plan Field Trips to See How Factory-Farmed Pigs Fare

For Immediate Release:
February 26, 2014

Contact:
Sophia Charchuk 202-483-7382

Led by a supporter dressed as a sad pig, a group of PETA members will gather outside Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School on Thursday to protest the Alabama State Department of Education’s contract to feed kids sausage from Southern Quality Meats, Inc. (SQM), a pig slaughterhouse in Pontotoc, Miss. The state Department of Education has reportedly chosen to maintain its contract with SQM even after the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed “inhumane handling” of pigs—a violation of the federal Humane Methods of Livestock Slaughter Act—at SQM, where video footage obtained by PETA revealed that an employee jabbed sows with electric prongs and used the device on one apparently stunned mother pig’s lower abdomen and/or genitals for no apparent reason.

When:   Thursday, February 27, 2 p.m.

Where:  Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School, near the intersection of Delaware Boulevard N.S. and Meridian Street N., Huntsville

“By contracting with Southern Quality Meats, the Alabama State Department of Education is sending students a message that it’s OK to mistreat animals and break the law,” says PETA Executive Vice President (and mother) Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on Alabama’s school authorities to sever all ties with this despicable slaughterhouse and asking every principal to take children on a field trip to see how pigs are raised on the farms that supply Alabama schools.”

For more information, please visit PETA.org.