Injured Pigs Suffer After Truck Crash

As
if a life of suffering on a factory farm that ends with a terrifying death in a
slaughterhouse weren’t enough, pigs killed for Smithfield Foods, Inc.’s, ham
and bacon also face being injured or killed in a traffic accident on
their way to slaughter. The latest wreck makes
at least the 11th by pork industry drivers since 2004 in southeastern Virginia
alone—many of them en route to Smithfield’s slaughterhouse.

On
April 19, David Earl Lambert was hauling 184 pigs from the Goldsboro Milling
Co. factory farm to slaughter when he flipped the truck, sending pigs hurtling
through the air. Fifty-five pigs died either on impact or in pain in the hours
that followed, as a result of their injuries. The survivors were hauled the rest
of the way to slaughter. After many crashes, pigs are dragged or electro-shocked to force them to their
feet. 

Lambert
has a deplorable driving record, which includes charges for speeding, operating
a vehicle without insurance, reckless driving, and attempting to evade federal
motor carrier safety regulations. And his latest accident occurred on a dry
road on a clear day. By putting known-dangerous drivers behind the wheel, some
meat industry giants show that they have no regard for the safety of animals or
other drivers on the road.

PETA
is asking Goldsboro Milling Co. to use common sense and hire only safe drivers,
just as we called on
Smithfield to do when one of its drivers flipped a truck carrying pigs just three months after he had crashed while
hauling cattle. And of course, the
safest and most responsible thing that all of us can do to protect animals and our own health is to go vegan.