HBO Cruelty Doc Makes Pork Industry Squeamish

A documentary on animal cruelty at an Ohio hog farm has the pork industry considering how to better represent its “commitment to animal care,” Reuters reports. The footage in Death on a Factory Farm, taken secretly, led to animal-cruelty prosecutions, though the charged workers were acquitted. HBO airs the film beginning March 16. “What happened on this farm is not common practice,” an industry rep says of the documentary footage.

With consumers already facing high pork prices, producers at an annual gathering vowed to counter the bad publicity. “It's not as much about what the animal-rights activists are saying about how we are raising pigs,” one board member said, “as opposed to us demonstrating that we do care and we are giving the best possible care.”
(More animal cruelty stories.)