Pig Hauler Found Guilty of Cruelty in Historic Ruling; PETA Tells Pork Board to Yank His Certification

For Immediate Release:
July 6, 2026

Contact:
Andrew Grant 202-483-7382

After truck driver Jerith Dville Kane Ellis of Janesville, Minnesota, was found guilty on June 30 under Wisconsin law of cruelly transporting animals—marking the first time in U.S. history that anyone has been held accountable under state law for hauling farmed animals in cruel conditions—PETA today sent a letter to National Pork Board CEO David Newman urging him to terminate Ellis’s Transport Quality Assurance (TQA) certification. Ellis was charged after PETA alerted authorities to a January 18–19, 2024, incident in which he hauled pigs on a roughly 432-mile trip from South Dakota to a Wisconsin slaughterhouse in subzero temperatures with virtually no protection from the elements.

During transport, the animals suffered through windchills as low as -27 degrees, and when Ellis arrived, the local temperature was -4 degrees. A U.S. Department of Agriculture inspector found seven pigs had died in the truck, five more were in such poor condition that they had to be killed, and another three died after they were unloaded. Several pigs had “extensive” frost bite, according to the inspector’s report. Only half of the truck’s sides were covered and the bedding inside was “wet and sloppy.” Photos are available here.

“Ten pigs froze to death and many more suffered because this driver failed to protect them from subzero temperatures during what was already a terrifying journey to slaughter,” says PETA Vice President of Legal Advocacy Daniel Paden. “PETA is calling on the National Pork Board to revoke Ellis’s certification so that no more pigs suffer with him at the wheel and urging everyone to go vegan to keep animals out of slaughterhouses.”

Experts at the University of Wisconsin–River Falls’ Humane Handling Institute concluded that “actions to mitigate the impact of the conditions on the pigs were possible and should have been taken by the transporter.” PETA points out that Ellis’s actions—and lack thereof—failed to meet the TQA program’s guidance for transporting pigs in extreme cold.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—points out that when it comes to the ability to feel pain, hunger, and fear, a pig is a dog is a boy. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.

PETA’s letter to Newman follows.

July 6, 2026

David Newman, Ph.D.

Chief Executive Officer

National Pork Board

Dear Dr. Newman:

I’m writing to request that the National Pork Board immediately terminate the Transport Quality Assurance (TQA) certification of Jerith Dville Kane Ellis (certification ID # 6408380004), who was found guilty of cruelly transporting pigs to Abbyland Pork Pack Inc. in Curtiss, Wisconsin.

In January 2024, a Food Safety and Inspection Service inspector at Abbyland found several pigs unloaded from a truck with “extensive” frost bite. Seven pigs died while being hauled there, five more were in such poor condition that they had to be killed, and another three died after they were unloaded and placed in a pen. Only half of the sides of the truck hauling the animals were covered, and the bedding inside was “wet and sloppy.”

Subsequent investigations by the Clark County Sheriff’s Department and PETA revealed that Ellis had hauled these animals more than 400 miles from a Lynch Livestock location in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Along the possible routes taken by Ellis, the temperature never exceeded 12 degrees F, with windchills as low as -27 degrees F.

Photographs of the truck Ellis used to haul these animals show little to no bedding and standing liquid in the trailer, open slats at the pigs’ level, several dead pigs, and red, blotchy skin on the survivors’ ears and sides. As experts at the University of Wisconsin–River Falls’ Humane Handling Institute concluded, “[I]t is reasonably likely that pigs experienced pain and suffering resultant of the described conditions. It is important to note that actions to mitigate the impact of the conditions on the pigs were possible and should have been taken by the transporter.”

On June 30, Ellis was found guilty of cruelly transporting animals in violation of Wisconsin law. Given that—and how starkly opposed his acts and omissions were to the TQA program’s guidance for transporting pigs in such cold—we urge you to immediately terminate his certification and disqualify him from consideration for reinstatement. No more pigs can be made to suffer in this man’s hands. We hope you will agree and help ensure that.

Sincerely,

Daniel Paden

Vice President of Legal Advocacy

Cruelty Investigations Department