Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Hog farmer faces cruelty charges

A 27-year-old man now living in Tavistock faces eight animal cruelty charges after more than 1,200 pigs were found dead on his farm at Langton.

The Ontario Society for the Prevention of Crueltry to Animals laid the charges after receiving a complaint from a member of the public about conditions on the farm located 80 kilometres southeast of London.

Investigators found 1,265 dead pigs when they went to the farm Feb. 17.

The barn was dark and flooded in manure, the pigs had no food and The Ontario Pork marketing board was called in to help the surviving pigs in the barn, according to board chairman Eric Schwindt. 

He told the CBC he's shocked by what happened.

"It's something I've never come across in my 20 years in the pork industry," he told CBC London.

"This isn't the way farmers treat their livestock."

The pork board and Farm & Food Care Ontario have kept the scandalous situation secret.