Pork producer replies to animal activist's video

Saturday, January 31, 2015

Seaboard Foods has spoken out in response to an anti-gestation-stall video filmed on one of their farms, according to Meatingplace, an online community for North American beef, pork and poultry processors.

Seaboard Foods says that gestation stalls are the safest way to raise pigs in its pork production facilities. This comes after undercover footage from one of its production facilities surfaced last December in a video condemning gestation stalls for the physical and psychological harm they cause pigs. The video is part of a campaign by animal welfare organization Mercy for Animals to eliminate the use of gestation crates in the pork industry.

According to the Meatingplace article, Seaboard Foods gave a statement saying, "We recognize that sometimes even the best practices as determined by veterinarians and animal care experts can seem uncomfortable to those who don't spend their days with these animals, but at Seaboard Foods, we are committed to doing what is best for the pigs and the safety of our food."

In a report on the video by the Center For Food Integrity's Animal Care Review Panel, panelist Dr. Candace Croney of Purdue University said that, "it is difficult to draw conclusions in many areas of this video, given its brevity and that it contains many shots from different times and locations." BP