Horrific new undercover footage from Mercy For Animals reveals a pig repeatedly shot in the head with a defective captive-bolt gun, animals suffering from bloody prolapses, and more. These shocking findings reveal the dire conditions and inhumane treatment pigs endure, highlighting the urgent need for regulatory reform and better enforcement of animal welfare standards.
Currently, the National Pork Board oversees the Pork Quality Assurance (PQA) Plus certification program, which the pork industry uses to assure consumers that its certified meat is high-quality and safe. This recent undercover investigation shows that the pork industry and federal government’s reliance on PQA Plus potentially misleads consumers and that PQA Plus certification does not guarantee quality.
PQA Violations
Euthanasia: Our investigator documented a pig slated for euthanasia being repeatedly shot in the head with a captive-bolt gun, suffering extreme pain and fear as workers failed to perform the procedure correctly. The footage shows a mother pig jerk and writhe on the floor after being shot. This goes against PQA guidelines, which state that pigs must be euthanized in a “humane and timely manner.” Paula Tejeda-Moncrief, director of investigations at Mercy For Animals, explained:
A mother pig at the farm was shot in the head three times with a defective bolt gun before she was killed, suffering unimaginable fear and pain. This is not an isolated incident. When animals are hidden away in factory farms, the most devastating horrors become routine. Marketing labels designed to reassure the public are often just empty words.
Animal Mistreatment: Pigs were subjected to slapping, kneeing, hair pulling, and being hit with paddles until they stood and walked. This is despite PQA guidelines stating that “there will be zero tolerance for pig abuse or purposeful neglect.” Sick and injured piglets were thrown on top of one another, creating piles of dead and dying animals.
Thumping: The disturbing footage also shows thumping—killing piglets by slamming them headfirst into the ground when they won’t meet a size requirement or are sick and deemed a waste. PQA guidelines state that euthanasia methods should “minimize pain or distress on the animal,” but our investigator observed piglets enduring extreme and prolonged suffering.
Standard Procedures
On top of the glaring violations of PQA guidelines, our investigator documented the appalling conditions animals at pig farms endure. These include confinement in cages—gestation crates during pregnancy and farrowing crates after giving birth—that are barely larger than their bodies. The cycle of pregnancy and birth repeats until the mother pigs are slaughtered. Tiny piglets suffer routine mutilations, such as having their tails cut off, their testicles ripped out, and holes punched in their ears—all without pain relief.
Our investigator also documented pigs suffering from painful, bloody prolapses—when a pig’s rectum, vagina, or uterus slips out of place and hangs outside her body. In some cases, these pigs were sent to the kill room, and their piglets were tossed into farrowing crates with other mother pigs.
White Paper
In addition to the investigation, Mercy For Animals released a white paper analyzing 10 years of undercover footage from both Mercy For Animals and Animal Outlook. The report details PQA Plus violations in numerous PQA Plus-certified facilities, showing that the pork industry’s self-regulatory tool is unreliable, largely ineffective, and meaningless. This is a systemic issue in the pork industry.
Take Action
Pigs are playful, intelligent, unique individuals—yet they are routinely abused and deprived of basic freedoms at the industrial farms that are becoming the norm around the globe.
Help make a difference for pigs! Urge your representative to support the Pigs and Public Health Act, which would promote public health and create real, enforceable standards for the treatment of pigs in the United States.
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