I’m not a big fan of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), as I’ve noted before. It is certainly wrong to abuse animals, but at times PETA puts animals before humans. When one counts cockroaches on a movie set to make sure none of them got hurt, something is wrong. But the core truth is that, even though animals don’t have the same rights or value as humans, they are still creatures of God, and are not to be mistreated.

The headline reads Video shows workers abusing pigs. The article begins:

An undercover video shot at an Iowa pig farm shows workers hitting sows with metal rods, slamming piglets on a concrete floor and bragging about jamming rods up into sows’ hindquarters. On the video, obtained by The Associated Press, a supervisor tells an undercover investigator for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals that when he gets angry or a sow won’t move, “I grab one of these rods and jam it in her (anus).” The farm, located outside of Bayard, Iowa, about 60 miles west of Des Moines, is a supplier to Hormel Foods of Austin, Minn. PETA wants to use the results of the investigation to pressure Hormel, the maker of Spam and other food products, to demand that its suppliers ensure humane treatment of pigs.

The fact that a Hormel spokeswoman calls the abuse “completely unacceptable” is an indication that what happened here went far beyond herding uncooperative pigs.

The world isn’t what it ought to be.

I’ll still eat ham and bacon, but hope that my pork comes from farms with much higher standards for the treatment of animals.

PETA link: Undercover Investigation Reveals Hormel Supplier’s Abuse of Mother Pigs and Piglets

Grace and Peace