After animal rights activists protested at a San Francisco Costco store Wednesday and showed a video of pigs dying at a Southern California slaughterhouse, an executive at a Virginia slaughterhouse denied the activists' claims that the pork processing company is violating federal laws on the humane treatment of livestock.
Activists, with Direct Action Everywhere, are calling on Costco to drop Smithfield Foods as a supplier, where an activist secretly recorded video by placing faces inside a pit at the Smithfield Foods-owned Farmer John slaughterhouse in Vernon, where dozens of pigs can be seen writhing as they are gassed with carbon dioxide.
In response, Jim Monroe, vice president of corporate affairs for Smithfield Foods in Smithfield, Virginia, issued a five-sentence statement Thursday morning refuting Direct Action Everywhere's claims.