For Rapid Liberate:
September 21, 2023
Touch:
Nicole Perreira 202-483-7382
Craig, Colo. – Following a whistleblower tip that animals had been struggling at Fitch Ranch Artisan Meat Co. in Craig, PETA has received a “Letter of Fear” that the U.S. Division of Agriculture (USDA) despatched to the slaughterhouse following six contemporary botched makes an attempt to stun animals—together with a steer, who remained status and crying out after a employee shot him within the head. In reaction, PETA fired off a letter nowadays to proprietor Deborah Fitch calling on her to document the workers concerned within the incidents to native law-enforcement officers for imaginable violations of the state’s anti-cruelty statute and to reassign them to positions that don’t contain touch with are living animals. The crowd may be asking Fitch to butcher simplest wild animals killed via hunters or no less than to livestream video photos from the slaughterhouse with the intention to lend a hand save you further violations of the legislation.
On June 14, 2023, a employee electrocuted a pig close to the shoulder blades as an alternative of the top. The pig cried out, ran round, and attempted to climb out of the “stun field” sooner than some other worker in any case rendered the animal subconscious. Equivalent incidents on the facility this 12 months come with the next:
- On June 28, a pig was once electrocuted, remained mindful, and cried out after {the electrical} tongs slipped off her ears.
- On June 26, a steer persevered status, taking a look round, crying out, and bleeding after he was once shot within the head.
- On June 21, a employee shot a lamb two times after the primary shot did not stun the animal.
- On June 20, a cow persevered to face and go searching after being shot within the head.
- On March 1, a steer remained mindful after he was once shot within the head.
“Animals have persevered extended, agonizing deaths after being shot and electrocuted again and again in a stressful development at Fitch Ranch,” says PETA Vice President Daniel Paden. “PETA is looking in this facility to make quick adjustments to prevent this horrific cruelty and reminds everybody that the one humane meal is a vegan one.”
PETA—whose motto reads, partially, that “animals don’t seem to be ours to devour”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview, and gives a unfastened vegan starter package on its website online. For more info, please consult with PETA.org, concentrate to The PETA Podcast, or observe the crowd on X (previously Twitter), Fb, or Instagram.
PETA’s letter to Fitch follows.
September 21, 2023
Deborah Fitch
Proprietor
Fitch Ranch Artisan Meat Co.
Expensive Ms. Fitch:
Given the U.S. Division of Agriculture’s contemporary “Letter of Fear” and noncompliance data detailing the circumstances of no less than six animals who remained mindful after your staff shot or electrocuted them all the way through a up to date four-month duration at Fitch Ranch Artisan Meat Co., we ask that you just in an instant alternate operations there within the hope of lowering—if now not finishing—animal struggling for your slaughterhouse.
In mild of the egregious ache and terror that your group of workers have brought about cows, pigs, and sheep, in violation of federal legislation, received’t you please prevent slaughtering them? Somewhat than risking additional, identical violations, you need to center of attention on only processing the our bodies of untamed animals dropped at you via hunters.
If you’re feeling you should proceed to slaughter farmed animals, will you please publicly livestream video from all spaces of your facility the place are living animals are treated? Staff would take their responsibility to deal with animals lawfully extra severely in the event that they knew that being concerned folks had been staring at. As the sector’s main professional on farm animals welfare, Dr. Temple Grandin, writes, “Crops [t]hat are doing a excellent task must display what they’re doing.” Your business ceaselessly complains that nowadays’s shoppers don’t know the way animals are raised and killed for meals. It’s essential lend a hand via enabling us to watch your staff shifting numerous particular person animals—who worth their lives as we worth ours—off crowded vans in all climate, making an attempt to stun them, slashing or sticking their throats, and bleeding them to demise.
On the very least, will you reassign your group of workers referenced within the federal reviews to jobs that don’t contain having touch with any are living animals—equivalent to evisceration, butchering, and packaging—and document the concerned staff in your native law-enforcement company for investigation for imaginable violations of the state’s anti-cruelty statute?
Thank you in your attention.
Sincerely,
Colin Henstock
Investigations Undertaking Supervisor