This comes via the Humane Society, not PETA or any “extremist” organization.

This should not come as a surprise. Blogging dozens of such videos and stories over the last years is what turned me from a “mindful meat eater” to a vegetarian, and now vegan. Veganism, however, may not be the answer for all y’all. In any case, please boycott factory farmed “products.”

This is factory farming. This is what happens when we treat sentient beings as “products,” when their health is not factored into our health, and when we shut away how our food gets to our plates from the light of day.

For shame, Tyson.

And shame to any of us who supports factory farming.

If you can’t watch this, don’t eat this. Please share.

“Undercover video exposing animal cruelty and abuse at a Tyson Foods facility.”

I made it through two minutes and nine seconds. Okay, second try, made it through the rest, and nearly crying by the time the mother pig is nudging her baby.

Every time we eat a burger or bacon & don’t know where it came from, we’re voting for factory farming with our $$$s.

Comment via Reddit (where just about all the comments, from this anti-PETA crowd, are amazing):

“Sad thing is this stuff doesn’t get the exposure it deserves because people don’t want to see it.”

Comment via Youtube:

“Towards the end, when the videographer pet the pig and gave her water, was one of the most beautiful things I have seen in a video. It was kind of nice to know that, before she died, that sow had experienced love from a human, perhaps for the first time in her life. You could see the compassion in the way that person pet her, trying to give her all of the love and compassion she could possibly muster. Though sad, this video also conveys a very profound message; the love and humanity of people.”

Response via Tyson:

We do have a small, but separate hog buying business that buys aged sows; however, these animals are subsequently sold to other companies and are not used in Tyson’s pork processing business.

We’ve seen the video and we are appalled by the apparent mistreatment of the animals. We do not condone for any reason this kind of mistreatment of animals shown in the video.

Virtually all of the hogs Tyson buys for our processing plants come from thousands of independent farm families who use both individual and group housing. We require all hog farmers who supply us to be certified in the pork industry’s Pork Quality Assurance Plus program, which incorporates rigid animal well-being standards and is part of the industry’s ‘We Care’ responsible pork initiative. We validate enrollment and audit conformance to these standards. Farms that do not conform will be eliminated from our supply chain.

For information on the pork industry’s ‘We Care’ responsible pork initiative, go to www.porkcares.com.