Slaughterhouse Footage Revealed: Graphic Undercover Footage Shows Pigs Being Beaten To Death By Cheering Workers [Video]

Horrific footage from a slaughterhouse has emerged online. Although most slaughterhouse videos capture the gruesome conditions often seen inside foreign facilities, this one is a bit different because it’s actually a United States facility.

According to the Daily Mail, Quality Pork Processors (QPP) in Austin, Minnesota, has come under fire following the release of a hidden video. It has been reported that the video was filmed by an undercover investigator for Compassion Over Killing, a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring the rights of animals.

Quality Pork Processors operates the Minnesota slaughterhouse to provide “fresh pork raw material needs” for Hormel Food Corporation, famous for popular consumer products such as Spam and Hormel Chili. Of course, many Americans know there is a gruesome “preparation” process prior to the delicacy you end up with on a plate. However, most people haven’t actually seen the gruesome process. This particular video captures the horrific process and much more.

Undercover video appears to show pigs conscious, shaking in pain as they face slaughterhouse death.https://t.co/4nEhvk7WF4

— HuffPost Green (@HuffPostGreen) November 12, 2015

Totally ignoring the federal Humane Slaughter Act, which requires factory workers to sedate animals so they’re rendered “insensible to pain,” thousands of pigs are being gruesomely slaughtered as workers cheer. Throughout the horrific video, a number of pigs, visibly riddled with pus-filled sores all over their bodies, appear to be conscious during the brutal beating and slaughtering process. One slaughterhouse worker could even be heard confirming one of the tortured pigs on the production line was, indeed, alive at the time it was slaughtered. One pig was even caught on camera shaking in excruciating pain.

Due to the extremely graphic nature of the video, you can opt to watch the footage by clicking here.

Compassion Over Killing released a statement shortly after the slaughterhouse video began circulating online, echoing sentiments to Tarr’s opinion. The organization offered a brief description about the footage and the problems such slaughtering could cause.

“That means this facility operates at faster line speeds than almost any other facility in the U.S.,” Compassion Over Killing said in a statement describing the video. “The excessive slaughter line speed forces workers to take inhumane shortcuts that lead to extreme suffering for millions of pigs. It also jeopardizes food safety for consumers.”

During an interview with the Huffington Post, Nate Jansen, QPP’s vice president of human resources and quality services, addressed the situation, admitting that certain parts of the Compassion Over Killing video had also been captured by the slaughterhouse’s surveillance system. Jansen also confirmed that the employee in question had been reprimanded. However, that’s not all. Jansen also insists the animals were “handled according to acceptable regulations.”

“We had already taken disciplinary action,” Jansen said. “If you look at them as a full sequence, with the handling, you will see those animals were handled according to acceptable regulations and policies and our own internal procedures. I’ve got complete trust in the foods that we produce.”

How are the regulations for the slaughterhouse acceptable? Apparently, QPP participates in Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point-Based Inspection Models Project, also referred to as HIMP. The federal pilot program, developed by the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, is designed to focus more on food and environmental safety to protect consumers, which is why the gruesome slaughtering process tends to go unnoticed. Since the focus has shifted, Compassion Over Killing insists meat processing factories are now able to kill approximately 1,300 pigs per hour.

Shocking food safety violations in MN by supplier for Hormel – who also has plants in Nebraska. @USDAFoodSafety https://t.co/7WLSVowg0J

— Nebraska Appleseed (@neappleseed) November 12, 2015

However, USDA spokesman Adam Tarr argues otherwise. Tarr also agrees that the slaughterhouse workers’ actions and procedures documented in the footage are “completely unacceptable.”

“The actions depicted in the video under review are completely unacceptable, and if we can verify the video’s authenticity, we will aggressively investigate the case and take appropriate action,” Tarr said. “Had these actions been observed by the inspectors, they would have resulted in immediate regulatory action against the plant.”

[Photo by Taylor Weidman/Getty Images]