PETA's Plea to New State Education Chief: Start Fresh by Breaking Ties With Law-Breaking Slaughterhouse
For Immediate Release:
November 14, 2013
Contact:
Shakira Croce 202-483-7382
Jackson, Miss. -- PETA has sent a formal request today to new State Superintendent of Education Dr. Carey Wright asking her to drop the Mississippi Department of Education's contract with Southern Quality Meats, Inc. (SQM), a Pontotoc pig slaughterhouse that supplies sausage to the state's schools, after newly released documents show longstanding problems that caused pigs not to be properly stunned at the plant.
The documents show that a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) official inspecting SQM in January 2013 found that 100 percent of the pigs observed "moved back and forth" in the facility's knock box, "complicating … stun efforts," and addressed the issue with SQM. Yet the facility was still failing to immobilize pigs effectively during stunning months later, as revealed in the video footage obtained by PETA that showed that an SQM worker repeatedly jabbed mother pigs with electric prongs and even shocked one sow's genitals for "fun." Although the USDA confirmed that this was "inhumane handling" in violation of federal law, SQM repeatedly failed to submit any satisfactory plan to correct the issues.
"It's clear that the Mississippi Department of Education should drop its contract with Southern Quality Meats for its failure to abide by the law and its illegal mistreatment of animals," says PETA Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations Daphna Nachminovitch. "PETA is calling on Mississippi to take a stand against feeding kids the flesh of animals who lived—and died—in a constant state of fear and suffering."
For more information, please visit PETA.org.
PETA's letter to Mississippi State Superintendent of Education Dr. Carey Wright follows.
November 14, 2013
Dr. Carey Wright
State Superintendent of Education
Mississippi Department of Education
Dear Dr. Wright:
Congratulations on your new position at the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE). We are writing with regard to Southern Quality Meats, Inc. (SQM), a Pontotoc pig slaughterhouse to which the MDE has awarded contracts worth more than $6 million since 2006 in order to provide Mississippi schools with sausage. Given SQM's illegal mistreatment of pigs, we respectfully ask that the MDE immediately terminate its contract with SQM, which requires SQM to comply with all applicable federal laws.
As you may know, earlier this year, PETA obtained video footage, which you can see by clicking here, of an SQM worker who repeatedly jabbed mother pigs with electric prongs and even applied the prongs to one mother pig's lower abdomen and/or genitals. In July, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) confirmed "inhumane handling" of mother pigs at SQM in violation of the Humane Methods of Livestock Slaughter Act.
Newly released FSIS documents show that 100 percent of pigs observed by an FSIS official who visited SQM in January "moved back and forth" in the facility's knock box, "complicating … stun efforts." Even though the FSIS addressed this issue with SQM representatives and advised SQM then that the use of the stunner to prod animals was "fraught with peril," SQM apparently did nothing to remedy these problems until it was caught breaking federal law months later. And even then, SQM repeatedly failed to submit a plan of corrective actions that satisfied the FSIS. In fact, the FSIS district manager wrote that SQM's first plan was "not acceptable" and "too general and vague." It provided "[n]o specifics" and "no charts to document the actions" as well as "[n]o answer as to why the other employees in [the] video at SQM did not bring [the illegal conduct] to [the] attention of [management]"—showing a "breakdown of training of all employees"―and included no training documents, no signed training logs, and no written animal-welfare program.
This new information shows, again, that SQM was long aware of—yet failed to remedy—its animal-handling problems and that it not only broke federal law but also was deficient in its responses to the FSIS after it had been cited. More than 81,000 people have already contacted the MDE asking that no more tax dollars be used to fund this suffering. Will the MDE please finally do the right thing and drop this contract? We look forward to your reply. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Overcash
Evidence Analyst