PETA Posts Video Alleging Cruelty

January 2, 2008 — 

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is accusing workers at a contract production facility supplying Smithfield Foods, Inc. of animal cruelty.

PeTA has posted a video on its website purportedly taken by a PeTA staffer using a hidden camera. The staffer reportedly worked at the contract farm owned by Murphy Family Ventures, an independent contract grower for Murphy-Brown LLC, after applying for a job without revealing a connection to PeTA.

In a statement read by Murphy-Brown spokesman Don Butler, all contract growers are required to abide by an animal welfare management program. "Murphy-Brown has no higher priority than the well-being of animals we produce and that's why we have developed and implemented a comprehensive animal welfare management system designed to ensure the well-being of our animals," Butler said.

PeTA has asked local prosecutor G. Dewey Hudson to file charges under North Carolina's anticruelty statute.