Investigation Exposing Cruelty at Tyson Pig Supplier Stirs Outrage, Response

This week, we announced our latest agribusiness undercover investigation—the fourth factory farm investigation The HSUS has released in 2012 alone. The response to the sickening cruelty we documented and exposed at a Tyson pig supplier was visceral and overwhelming.

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More than 100,000 people so far have taken action by contacting Tyson Foods and urging the company to stop lagging behind its competitors on the gestation crate issue. Thank you to every single one of you who’s spoken up for pigs by contacting the company. In addition to TV broadcasts of this story all across the country, in the days since the investigation broke, about 200,000 people have watched the video on YouTube. I just returned to my office a few minutes ago from CNN where I taped a segment for tonight’s Jane Velez Mitchell’s show on Headline News.

At first, Tyson misleadingly claimed that it had no connection with Wyoming Premium Farms, the facility we investigated. However, the information we assembled proved that a wholly controlled subsidiary of Tyson Foods did indeed buy pigs from this factory farm―which Tyson admitted. The company then pledged to temporarily suspend purchases while its own investigation goes forward.

Tyson temporarily suspending purchases from one factory farm in Wyoming is a start, but not nearly enough. Rather than defending gestation crates and allowing its suppliers to cruelly confine animals in them, Tyson should announce an end to its support for these torturous and archaic devices. On Monday, prior to our investigation, Safeway announced it is the latest company to commit to purging its supply chain of pork from operations that rely on gestation crates. With this week’s investigation, Tyson has no excuse to delay any longer in making a similar announcement.