The animal rights group PETA has written to the Idaho state prosecutor asking him to investigate and file criminal charges against those responsible for the deaths of ten pigs that died in transport on their way to a slaughterhouse in January.
A recent federal report stated that 221 pigs made a 33-hour trip in a trailer to Independent Meat Co. in Twin Falls, Idaho, US, during which temperatures dropped to 4 degrees Celsius below zero. According to the report, the pigs were loaded into the semi-trailer at 6 a.m. on January 29 and unloaded at 4:50 p.m. on January 30 at the meat-processing plant. According to PETA, the pigs arrived at the longtime Magic Valley business in freezing temperatures without food and water.
Daniel Paden, a vice president of cruelty investigations for PETA, who signed the letter sent to the Twin Falls County Prosecutor Grant Loebs, wrote, “It took two hours for the last of the pigs to be unloaded. Two were found dead, seven were unable to walk, and eight more died overnight… A similar incident occurred in March 2022, when a driver admitted to depriving pigs of water for four hours while on a trailer at a slaughterhouse — in addition to their deprivation while in transport.”
PETA claims that the reason is pursuing charges under state law is because federal officials failed to prosecute any inspected slaughterhouses for acts of abuse since at least 2007.
The transport of live animals to slaughter is often done in rough conditions as the farmers and drivers know that the animals will soon be killed, so they do not care about what happens to them on the way to the slaughterhouse — which is just another reason of why animal agriculture should be phased out and replaced by plant-based agriculture.
