A North Carolina worker at a farm that supplies hog meat to Smithfield Foods Inc. has been charged with six counts of cruelty to animals, Maj. Kemely Pickett of the Sampson County Detention Center confirmed Tuesday.
Elio Miguel Marrero, who worked on a farm owned by Murphy Family Ventures LLC, was charged in Clinton, N.C., in connection with pig abuse alleged to have occurred last fall.
The charges stemmed from an undercover investigation by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The Norfolk-based animal-rights group sent a worker to the Murphy facility in Garland, N.C., from September through November of 2007.
PETA provided video footage and other evidence to the Sampson County district attorney.
A second man also will face cruelty-to-animals charges if he returns to North Carolina, PETA said in announcing the charges.
"We applaud the district attorney for taking this case seriously and enforcing North Carolina's anti-cruelty laws," PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk said in a statement.
PETA has been campaigning to change the treatment of hogs by Smithfield Foods, which is the world's largest hog producer and pork processor.
Jennifer Jiggetts, (757) 446-2033, jennifer.jiggetts@pilotonline.com
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