Up to $5,000 to Catch Men Filmed Violently Beating Pigs, Says PETA

For Immediate Release:
May 4, 2021

Contact:
Nicole Meyer 202-483-7382

PETA is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of two men recorded kicking pigs in the face, beating them with a wooden plank, and lifting them off the ground by their tails. According to the concerned citizen who documented the abuse, the incident occurred on Jensen-Fowers Farm on State Route 39 on March 15.

An investigation by the Weber County Sheriff’s Office has not yet resulted in arrests, so PETA is urging the public to help law enforcement catch the abusers—and asking the Utah Pork Producers Association, whose executive director has condemned the abuse, to walk the talk by matching the reward.

“These men viciously kicked, beat, and tormented pigs in plain view for over an hour,” says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “It’s up to the public to help catch these violent individuals in order to stop them from abusing other animals.”

PETA notes that violence is common in the pork industry. Because the terrible stress of severely crowded conditions can cause pigs to fight and bite each other on the tail, workers cut off piglets’ tails at between 4 and 14 days old. Male piglets are also castrated then. These extremely painful procedures are performed by laypeople, without pain relief. PETA’s undercover exposés of pig farms have resulted in felony cruelty charges against workers who threw, beat, and kicked pigs, among other abuse.

Tipsters should contact Detective Tyrell Hebdon of the Weber County Sheriff’s Office at 801-778-6646.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.