Demand Prosecuting Attorney Press Charges and Prosecute Pel-Freez Rabbit Slaughterhouse
Action Alert from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Rabbit Cruelty / Last Chance for Animals
May 2015

ACTION

Demand that Benton County Prosecuting Attorney bring animal cruelty charges against Pel-Freeze rabbit slaughterhouse.

Sign an online petition here

AND/OR better yet, make direct contact:

Prosecuting Attorney
Benton County Arkansas
102 NE 'A' Street
Bentonville AR 72712
phone (479) 271-1030

Find and contact your U.S. Representative 

INFORMATION / TALKING POINTS

Pel-Freez, The Largest Rabbit Slaughterhouse in the US Exposed!

Watch the video and read the investigator's diary here...

Some of the findings of our investigation include...

INEFFECTIVE STUNNING

Before slaughter, a worker known as the "killer" hits the rabbit on the forehead with the dull edge of a knife to try to knock them unconscious. This method is often ineffective, as the video above clearly shows. Many rabbits are struck multiple times, yet never lose consciousness; they remain fully awake throughout the torturous slaughter process.

HANGING AND BREAKING BONES

After the attempted stunning, the killer hangs the rabbit upside down, breaks one of their hind legs, and hangs them from a shackle. The bone may pierce through the skin. Rabbits who are still conscious scream loudly as their leg is snapped in two – rabbits are naturally silent animals, so these cries indicate severe pain and trauma.

DECAPITATION

Broken and shackled, the rabbit will finally be killed. To do this, the killer cuts from the back of the neck to the front with his knife, beheading the animal. As the blade grows dull, more cuts are needed, slowing the process and increasing the agony. Workers must sometimes use a sawing motion and vigorous effort. Rabbits who are still awake continue to scream until the knife finally slices through their vocal cords.

STATEMENT from John Webster, MA, Vet MB (Cantab), PhD, DVM (Hon, London), MRCVS, Professor Emeritus, University of Bristol, UK:

...Rabbits that have their ankles dislocated and are hung on hooks while clearly conscious and in great distress are clearly being subjected to unnecessary and unacceptable suffering. It is clear that some of the personnel are making no attempt to follow good, humane practice.

SAMPLE LETTER:

Dear Prosecuting Attorney Nathan Smith,

I was shocked to learn that you found nothing wrong with the cruel treatment of rabbits at Pel-Freez Arkansas LLC. Your decision not to charge Pel-Freez, claiming they did not "knowingly" subject these rabbits to animal cruelty, is appalling to me.

Last Chance for Animals (LCA) investigated Pel-Freez, the largest rabbit processing plant in the United States, and found great suffering at their slaughterhouse. You can clearly see the cruelty in the video posted at Rabbitcruelty.com. Pel-Freez workers strike rabbits in the face with the dull edge of a blade, making no attempt to ensure that rabbits are properly stunned. Workers then break the legs of and decapitate conscious rabbits, all under the eye of Pel-Freez management. LCA filmed terrified rabbits screaming loudly as broken bones protruded through their skin and their heads were cut off. When the blade went dull, workers had to use a sawing motion get through the neck. Some rabbits continued to scream until their vocal cords were finally sliced in two.

In light of the evidence that Last Chance for Animals has uncovered, revealing rabbits suffering on a massive scale, I request that you prosecute Pel-Freez for subjecting rabbits at their facility to cruel mistreatment. There is more than enough evidence to conclude that Pel-Freez is aware that breaking the limbs and cutting off the heads of fully conscious rabbits causes unjustifiable pain to these animals. In a commercial facility as large as Pel-Freez, it is simply illogical to conclude that this systemic mistreatment is occurring unknowingly.
As you know, you are responsible for criminal prosecutions of state crimes in Benton County. It is not too late to send a clear message that animal abuse will not be tolerated in Arkansas.

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Thank you for everything you do for animals!

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