Agricultural News
Tyson Disputes HSUS Claims of a Connection to the Wyoming Sow Operation Spotlighted by the Animal Rights Group
Tue, 08 May 2012 19:36:55 CDT
Tyson Foods issued the following statement on Tuesday afternoon in response to the News Conference held by HSUS President Wayne Pacelle, who called Tyson to task over their alledged connection to the Wyoming pork operation where they placed an employeeof HSUS as an undercover informant and found abuse that was video recorded.
During the News Conference, Pacelle called on Tyson to "get with the program" and get on board with others who are denouncing gestation crates as one method to house sows in a group setting. HSUS attempted to tie the abuse seen in their video that was unexcusable with the separate issue of gestration stalls as a practice that HSUS believes is bad for the well being of the animals.
Here is the Tyson response:
"Contrary to the impression left by HSUS, there is no connection between this Wyoming farm and the pork that we process. Tyson Foods does not buy any of the hogs raised on this farm for our pork processing plants.
"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."
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