Kroger Co., a national chain of grocery stores, has suspended its relationship with JBS Swift Pork Co. An undercover video shot by Mercy for Animals inside the pork supplier’s operation in Iowa shows pigs living in under cruel and inhumane conditions.

Progressive Grocer reports Kroger is calling for an investigation into the conditions alleged by Mercy for Animals.

The article also notes the video shows pigs “”confined in crates barely larger than their own bodies and piglets being thrown across rooms, slammed headfirst into the ground, Columbus Business First reported. It also reportedly shows animals having their testicles removed and tails cut off without painkillers.””

Gestation crates have been banned in seven states and should be banned everywhere. It is also noted that Ohio is going phase out this form of confinement by 2025. I understand that it will cost factory farms money and a bit of time to modify their facilities – but 14 YEARS???

I wonder if a driver was cited for having a headlight burned out, they’d be given years to correct it. Or if a restaurant was cited for having an unsafe structure in it’s seating area, would the owner be allowed even a few years to fix the problem?

Then why, when we all know gestation crates are horrible, would factory farms be allowed to go on with this cruel practice for even a year, much less 14 years?

Also – a Time.com article published Wednesday cites a 2008 report –

“” Reforms at the factory farm level are coming — but only slowly. A 2008 Pew Commission report, “Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America,” concluded that “the most intensive confinement systems, such as restrictive veal crates, hog gestation pens, restrictive farrowing [or pig-birthing] crates, and battery cages for poultry, all prevent the animal from a normal range of movement and constitute inhumane treatment.” “”