PETA Video of Pig Abuse Triggers Investigation

A sow was sprayed with blue paint for more than 30 seconds, PETA said.

An Iowa sheriff said today he has launched an investigation into a videotape showing abuse of pigs at a farm.

The video, shot by PETA, shows farm workers hitting sows with metal rods, slamming piglets on a concrete floor and bragging about jamming rods into sows' hindquarters. Greene County Sheriff Tom Heater told The AP that he had met with PETA representatives Tuesday.

Asked if crimes had been committed, Heater responded, "It appears that there were, yes."

On the video, obtained by AP, a supervisor tells an undercover PETA investigator that when he gets angry or a sow won't move, "I grab one of these rods and jam it in her [anus]."

The farm outside Bayard, Iowa, about 60 miles west of Des Moines, is a supplier to Hormel Foods of Austin, Minnesota. PETA wants to use the results of the investigation to pressure Hormel, the maker of Spam and other food products, to demand that its suppliers ensure humane treatment of pigs. Hormel spokeswoman Julie Henderson Craven called the incidents "completely unacceptable."

PETA is seeking prosecution of 18 people on animal cruelty violations. According to PETA Vice President Bruce Friedrich, the video shows eight people directly abusing animals.

"Abuse on factory farms is the absolute norm, not the exception, and anyone eating factory-farmed meat is paying to support it," Friedrich said.

(Via CNN)