Undercover video footage exposing animal abuse and suffering inside Hawkeye Sow Centers (HSC), a pig breeding factory farm in Leland, Iowa, is being released on February 15 by animal protection organization Compassion Over Killing (COK). The video was filmed by a COK investigator who worked at the facility in December 2011 and wore a hidden camera to document the day-to-day miseries forced upon thousands of female pigs and their piglets.

Iowa is the largest pork-producing state in the U.S., and agribusiness interests are currently trying to pass an “ag-gag” law (HR-589/SF-431) in the state to effectively make whistleblowing exposes on factory farms, like this investigation, illegal.  COK’s video exposes standard industry practices that the industry is desperately trying to hide, including:

• Pregnant and nursing pigs nearly immobilized in tiny crates, unable to even turn around
• Piglets screaming while workers slice off their tails and cut out the males’ genitals without any pain relief
• Poorly performed castrations that resulted in herniated intestines
• Workers pushing the herniated intestines back inside the piglets, then wrapping the area with tape
• Countless sick or injured piglets left to suffer without veterinary care, many of whom later died
• Forced cannibalism: intestines from dead piglets are turned into “gruel” to feed back to pigs
• Layers of feces caked on the floor of crates and  filthy, fly-infested conditions

As our investigator was told, many of the piglets born at this facility will end up on store shelves under the brand name, Hormel. While Hormel recently issued a statement that its company-owned facilities will be phasing out gestation crates, it did not commit to extending this welfare policy to the hundreds of independently-run facilities that ultimately supply Hormel, like HSC, which comprise the majority of Hormel’s pork.

With the news this week that McDonald’s—one of the biggest buyers of pork in the U.S.—is moving to end gestation crate confinement of pigs in its U.S. supply chain, the writing for this inhumane practice is on the wall. It’s time for Hormel for end the use of cruel gestation crates in its entire supply chain.

There’s also no disputing that without anesthesia, male piglets endure immense pain when their testicles are ripped from their bodies. Welfare concerns have prompted Switzerland and Norway to ban this barbaric process, and many other countries have implemented alternatives—alternatives which are also available in the U.S. and should immediately implemented by the pork industry here as well.

“When it comes to the meat industry, animal cruelty is standard practice,” says COK’s executive director Erica Meier. “And rather than try to prevent the worst abuses, Big Agribusiness is trying to prevent Americans from finding out about them with ag-gag bills designed to ban these exposes.

The most effective way consumers can stand up for animals and help stop the cruelty is to simply leave pigs, and all animals, off our plates.

For more information, including investigative footage and photos, visit http://www.cok.net/camp/inv/iowapigs.

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Dutch artist Katinka Simonse is known for killing and brutalizing animals for her performance art. Simonse, 31, goes by the name “Tinkerbell” and gives live presentations of animal abuse and mutilation. She claims she is drawing awareness to animal abuse and rejects the idea that her work is repulsive.

During one exhibition, she made 100 hamsters roll about in little balls around the gallery. She has also mutilated and dismembered dogs, put day-old baby chicks in a shredder, and has killed chicks and put hooks through their bodies, so she could hang them up. Simonse has said that she does this “to use an animal that is close to you in order to show what we do with the ones that are far from sight. I wanted people to think about that.”

Her acts has caused an outcry amongst animal rights groups, like the Dutch animal welfare party called Partij Voor de Dieren (Party for the Animals), and questions of why the Dutch government does not have stricter animal abuse laws. In a statement, the animal welfare group described the Dutch artist as disturbed and obsessive and that she used her shocking “art” as a way to get attention. They have petitioned the Houses of Parliament in the Netherlands to have stricter laws and harsher sentences for animal abusers.

Not only has Simonse abused animals in her performance art, she also brutalized her own pet cat, Pinkeltjie. When it became sick, she was not interested in paying for a veterinarian, so she broke her pet’s neck. Simonse then had the cat skinned and used its skin for a handbag.

During an interview on a television show called De Wereld Draait Door (The Turning World), Simonse laughingly showed the interviewer how she broke her cat’s neck and showed no regret for her actions. She described the killing of her three-year-old cat as a “mercy-killing”.

In a joint project with artist Coralie Vogelaar, Simonse published a book in 2009 of all the hate mail that people have sent her. It is entitled “Dearest Tinkerbell”. Not only was the actual hate mail included in the books, but also the names, addresses, and other personal information (like what is on their Amazon wishlists) of the people who sent the hate mail, a very controversial move on behalf of the artist and her publicist.

She has received over 100,000 hate emails from all around the world. Eighty percent of the hate mail was from America, and some of the other countries included the Netherlands, France, Russia, and the UK. There are currently two petitions aimed at at the Dutch government to stop Simonse and bring her to justice.

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The Kiev Zoo in the Ukraine has seen dozens of otherwise healthy animals die in recent years.  Animal welfare groups suggest that malnutrition, a lack of medical care and mistreatment are to blame for the widespread deaths.

The Kiev Zoo has been described as an unkempt warehouse for those with fur and feathers.  Some animal advocates suspect that corruption is the main problem at the zoo which recently saw an elephant drop dead, perhaps from a poor died, Maya the camel died of a digestive illness that could have been prevented and Theo the zebra was killed after crashing into a metal fence trying to reach his female companions that he had been separated from.

Naturewatch, a British-based animal welfare group, is among the organizations calling for the 100-year-old zoo to be closed and its animals sent elsewhere in Europe.  “The Kiev Zoo will never attain any basic standards, it’s so far removed from any zoo in Europe,” said John Ruane of Naturewatch. “The conditions have been absolutely horrendous and no matter how many more directors were appointed the situation still remained the same.”

New managers that took over last October have said that nearly half of the zoo’s animals either died or mysteriously disappeared over two years under their predecessors.  A recent government audit found that thousands of dollars were misspent as animals were illegally sold and funds earmarked for their food and care disappeared. Ukrainian prosecutors have also opened an investigation.

Even with the management change, animals are still dying.  The Kiev zoo was once a favorite tourist attraction for families but began to deteriorate after the collapse of the Soviet Union.  Animals were kept in cramped, poorly lit and poorly heated enclosures, fed improperly and left unattended, according to watchdogs.  The zoo then gained international notoriety in 2007 when it was expelled from the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria after the tragic death of a female bear.

Officials are having a hard time determining exactly how many animals died or disappeared under the previous management. The zoo now has 2,600 animals from 328 species.  Oleksandr Mazurchak, deputy head of the Kiev city administration, said about 250 animals died due to “problems” during two years under Berzina. The government audit last year also found that 131 other animals were missing.

Tamara Tarnavska of the Kiev-based SOS animal rights group believes the zoo must be closed to protect its animals from further abuse.  “The zoo is in such a condition that it’s no longer a zoo, it’s a concentration camp,” Tarnavska said. “When I look those animals in the eyes, I am ashamed to be a human being.”

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