McRib Pigs Live In Horrendous Conditions, Complaint Filed By Humane Society
That McRib you like to run out and scarf down the minute it arrives for a limited time at McDonald’s has a dark and sad side. The Humane Society this week filed a complaint against McDonald’s meat supplier Smithfield Foods who they say have misled consumers about the treatment of their animals.
McDonald’s has recently given Smithfield a “supplier sustainability” award and the company calls their pigs living conditions “ideal” while claiming to be “100% committed” to their care however an undercover investigation by the Humane Society has found just the opposite to be true.
James McWilliams at the Atlantic offered some scary details about the company’s living conditions for pigs:
- Gestration crates were so small pigs couldn’t move.
- Some Crates were covered in blood as pigs chewed the bars.
- Pigs are routinely castrated without anesthesia.
- No Veterinarians were witnessed on site at any time.
According to a humane society representative:
“It doesn’t take a veterinarian to know that locking a 500-pound animal in a cage so cramped she can’t even turn around for months on end isn’t exactly ‘ideal.”
In the meantime rather than heeding the advice of their own animal welfare advisors and removing gestation crates from their supply chain McDonald’s is handing out awards to the very company’s that use them.
If that isn’t enough to gross you out the McRib is typically made from the parts of the pig that are left over from regular production, hence the fact it’s only made available for a “limited time.”
[Image via Bull’s-Eye Arts / Shutterstock.com]
