PETA ask prosecutor to charge Clemens worker for alleged animal cruelty
COLDWATER — People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, better known as PETA, requested Branch County Prosecuting Attorney Zack Stempien to investigate and file appropriate criminal charges against a Clemens Food Group worker for alleged animal cruelty.
Daniel Paden, the PETA vice president of evidence analysis, referred the case to state authorities, “because federal officials haven’t prosecuted any inspected slaughterhouses for acts of abuse since at least 2007.”
The complaint comes after a recently released report from a U.S. Department of Agriculture inspector that on Jan. 20, they witnessed a worker “hitting hogs excessively … raising his arm with the paddle at shoulder height, with his elbow bent and hitting the pigs with force.”
The report documented other pigs had marks that resembled the paddle. “No regulatory control action was taken at this time due to what I saw were the last roughly 10 hogs of the trailer being moved into the pen,” the inspector wrote.
The inspector notified the plant manager and an unnamed employee of what he witnessed.
The federal code prohibits “electric prods, canvas slappers, or other implements employed to drive animals shall be used as little as possible in order to minimize excitement and injury.”
The code gives the inspector discretion on what is excessive.
Stempien had yet to receive the letter Monday morning. He said if and when he gets the complaint, he will forward the complaint to the appropriate local authority for investigation.
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PETA noted the USDA cited the Coldwater processing plant in 2018 twice for “egregious” violations of the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act.
There were two instances in which workers took multiple shots with bolt guns to stun pigs. One of those complaints led to temporarily suspending operations at the slaughterhouse.
The Hatfield, Pennsylvania, company opened the Coldwater facility in September 2017. Clemens processes about 12,000 hogs a day. The plant uses carbon dioxide to euthanize hogs before processing.
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Calls to the company communications manager were not immediately returned.
Animal rights groups picketed Clemens several times in 2018.
“These pigs were beaten by a worker who made the last moments of their lives even more agonizing and terrifying,” said Paden. “PETA is calling for a criminal investigation on these animals’ behalf and urges everyone to help prevent such violence by going vegan.”
-Contact Don Reid: dReid@Gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Coldwater Daily Reporter: PETA Clemens abuse complaint
