Child Rapist Gets Life in Prison, but Group Points to Video Evidence That Eating Meat Can Support Sexual Abuse
For
Immediate Release:
August
10, 2011
Contact:
David
Perle 202-483-7382
San Angelo, Texas — Following the life sentence meted out to Warren Jeffs, who was convicted of aggravated sexual assault and sexual assault of a child, PETA is negotiating with San Angelo–area outdoor advertisers to run a billboard that shows the image of a baby pig and reads, "Not all victims of sexual abuse get justice. See the video at PETA.org." PETA's undercover investigations of factory farms and slaughterhouses have revealed a shocking form of cruelty: the sexual abuse of animals at facilities where animals are bred, raised, and slaughtered for the table. The investigations took place at several facilities, including an Iowa pig farm that supplied meat giant Hormel, a Butterball turkey slaughterhouse in Arkansas, and multiple West Virginia turkey farms owned by Aviagen Turkeys, Inc., which bills itself as the "world's leading poultry breeding company." A PETA video contains footage from all three investigations and includes the following incidents:
- At a Hormel supplier's farm in Iowa, a supervisor (who was later convicted of livestock abuse) rammed a cane into a pig's vagina and boasted that he had thrust gate rods into the anuses of pigs who frustrated him. A worker (who was also later convicted of livestock abuse) urged an investigator to beat a pig as if she had scared away a "voluptuous little f---ing girl." The employee also urged a supervisor to beat pigs and to expose his genitals to get them to move.
- At an Aviagen Turkeys, Inc., farm in West Virginia, a worker whom video footage showed had pinned a female turkey to the ground and mimicked raping her was indicted for cruelty to animals. He was later convicted of related acts.
- At a Butterball slaughterhouse in Arkansas, a worker inserted his finger into a turkey's cloaca (vagina) repeatedly. Another worker "humped" a bird whose legs and head he had crammed into a shackle.
"Sexual abuse is wrong no matter who the victims are," says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. "There may be little that we can do to prevent people like Warren Jeffs from committing acts of sexual violence, but each of us can help stop the routine sexual abuse of vulnerable animals on factory farms by choosing vegan meals."
For more information, please visit PETA.org or click here.