Carlyle, IL — On May 25, The Maschhoffs became aware of an undercover video released by the Animal Legal Defense Fund that was taken at one of its sow farms in Nebraska.
"As animal caregivers with a long-standing history of excellent animal welfare, we are appalled by the level of animal care depicted in the video at this sow farm," says President Bradley Wolter. "We are aggressively implementing improvements that will help to ensure excellent animal care every day and on every farm, and prove our ongoing commitment to the responsible and humane care of our animals."
The Maschhoffs has zero tolerance for any abuse or intentional mistreatment of its pigs, and is dedicated to achieving high standards of care consistently and without exception at its farms.
To that end, The Maschhoffs has taken swift action to address this situation and ensure all standards of animal care are being met across its network of sow farms. Specifically, the company:
- Has terminated the farm manager at the sow farm in the video;
- Is conducting a series of independent audits at its Nebraska sow farms to ensure all animal care standards are being met;
- Is immediately conducting extensive re-training on proper animal care and handling practices across the company's entire farm network, with specific focus on the Nebraska area;
- Is launching an intense, internal communications effort to ensure all employees fully understand their obligations to adhere to as well as report any instances of animal abuse and neglect; and
- Has done an exhaustive review of the video and its animal welfare records from the facility to identify issues and critical improvements.
Combined, the company believes these efforts will help ensure that its high standards of animal care are being met on every site across its network of farms. The company is concurrently increasing internal control measures and third-party audits to validate its high standards of care.
"We are committed to achieving high standards of animal care consistently and without exception at our farms–for the benefit of our animals and customers," says Wolter.
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About The Maschhoffs – Progressive Farming. Family Style.
The Maschhoffs, LLC is a hog production company headquartered in Carlyle, IL. The company has over 100 years of experience in hog production, and is the largest family-owned hog producer network in North America, with about 218,000 sows and associated market hog production in 10 states. The company, which has approximately 1,300 employees, focuses on creating environmentally and economically sustainable hog production systems by networking with nearly 550 other independent farm operations. It is able to provide enough pork for more than 16 million consumers annually. The company, through a wholly owned subsidiary, also sells branded pork products to retailers, processors and foodservice operators. Visit www.TheMaschhoffs.com for more information.
Source: The Maschhoffs