Three farm workers employed by El Escobar Farm in Murcia, Spain were sentenced to one year in prison for animal cruelty and banned from working with animals for three years. Video footage of the indicted workers, recorded in 2012 by a fellow employee, revealed the routine practice of stabbing pregnant sows in the heart with iron swords and letting them bleed out—a process that takes 2-3 minutes, according to one worker captured in the video, who reported this fact as he continued to beat the downed sow while mocking her suffering, finally cutting out live piglets from the conscious sow’s body. Animal-rights organization Animal Equality partnered with the whistleblower to release the video footage to local authorities, who detained the three workers in question within 48 hours. “This is the highest penalty for abuse to farm animals in the history of Spain and we are glad that the animal abusers were found guilty,” International Director of Animal Equality Javier Moreno said.

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