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Pigs boiled alive at Swedish meat plants

TT/The Local
TT/The Local - [email protected]
Pigs boiled alive at Swedish meat plants

Living pigs have been scalded to death at four large Swedish meat processing plants, according to the National Food Administration (Livsmedelsverket).

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Veterinarian Christer Lindberg discovered two pigs which woke up while in a vat of boiling water.

“It’s rather easy to understand that being boiled alive is probably not something someone wants to experience,” he told Sveriges Radio (SR).

Last summer, too may pigs were taken through a shaft where the animals are sedated to the point of unconsciousness at the Nyhlén and Hugosson slaughterhouse in Luleå.

Because there were too many animals, however, the sedative didn’t take and the pigs woke up as they were boiled, according to SR.

“That can’t happen. That just can never happen,” said Michael Hugosson, head and partial owner of the slaughterhouse, to SR.

The plant is also owned in part by Swedish meat products giant Scan.

Despite the incident, no procedures were changed and one week later veterinarian Lindberg saw the same thing happen again.

Hugosson had no excuse but said he is convinced that increases in efficiency and the pace of the processing likely contributed to the accidents.

According to SR, citing Food Administration documents, the same thing has happened at other Scan-owned slaughterhouses in Visby on Gotland, in Rättvik in central Sweden, and Kristianstad in the south of the country.

Scan spokesperson Margaretha Thorgren said that efficiency improvements should never result in worse treatment for animals.

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