Hanging Pigs IS Torture! Stop ALL Pig Cruelties!

sarahgarst@mchsi.com, aduffy@kirkwood.cc.ia.us, lchdvm@frontiernet.net, smoline@ag.state.ia.us, david.schmitt@idals.state.ia.us, ginny.eason@idals.state.ia.us

Iowa Board of Veterinary Medicine
Wallace Building, 2nd Floor * East 9th and Grand
Des Moines, IA 50319

BOARD MEMBERS
Sarah Garst, D.V.M., Chair, Garst West Veterinary Hospital
Anne M. Duffy, Kirkwood Community College
Dean B. Upton, D.V.M., Urban Pet Hospital and Resort
Tom Colvin
Leslie C. Hemmingson, D.V.M., Le Mars Veterinary Clinic

BOARD STAFF ATTORNEY
Steve Moline

BOARD STAFF
Dr. David Schmitt, Acting State Veterinarian
Ginny Eason


Dear Iowa Board Of Veterinary Medicine:

At the 2007 trial for Wiles Farm of Wayne County, Ohio, Iowa veterinarian Paul Armbrecht was paid to testify on behalf of the defense. Dr. Armbrecht claimed, under oath, that images in Humane Farming Association's explicit investigative videos, photos and notes did not represent animal cruelty.

Evidence accessible to Dr. Armbrecht included: Starvation and veterinary neglect of pigs with prolapsed vaginas, leg fractures and broken backs; overcrowded pigs wallowing in filth and excrement; pigs bashed with hammers and forcibly flung into transport carts. Dr. Armbrecht also viewed the videotaped hanging of neck-chained pigs -- the slaughter technique used at Wile Farms.

In the video, a pig is dragged down a corridor and flipped off a four-foot ledge. A chain is looped around his neck and then clipped to a front-end loader. Once hoisted above the ground, the pig's legs flail against the rigid clamp at his neck. After four or five minutes, the pig dies.

Dr. Armbrecht, who never actually visited Wiles Farm or spoke to its staff, testified that hanging pigs is an adequate slaughter method, even though the American Veterinary Medical Association, the American Association of Swine Veterinarians, and the National Pork Board do not sanction asphyxiation by strangulation as humane euthanasia.

"Using asphyxia via strangulation...that's not torture," Dr. Armbrecht said during the trial. This was not the first time he'd observed slaughterers chain the neck of a pig and utilize a forklift to hang the animal. When Prosecutor Frank Forchione asked him if other choked pigs struggled in the same manner as Wiles Farm pigs, Dr. Armbrecht answered "Yes, sir." Dr. Armbrecht has never reported any incidence of strangling pigs to death.

Dr. Armbrecht is a disgrace and a fraud with no respect for veterinary principles or animal cruelty laws. As an expert witness for the defense, Dr. Armbrecht's trial testimony seems to violate the Iowa Veterinary Practice Act, which forbids "knowingly making misleading, deceptive, untrue, or fraudulent representation in the practice of the profession."

I ask the Iowa Board of Veterinary Medicine to thoroughly investigate Dr. Armbrecht and pursue commensurate punitive action. I urge you to rescind his license to practice veterinary medicine.

Sincerely,