Smithfield Hams is a terribly cruel company and its products should be avoided like the plague. Smithfield Hams or "Farms" is an atrociously abusive and immoral company. I know Smithfield Hams well, as I am the nephew of an assistant manager of a Smithfield Hams "farms". Smithfield Hams castrates and removes the tails of baby male pigs without anesthesia. Smithfield Foods confines mother pigs in metal crates for the entire time of their pregnancies. Each of these Smithfield crates is so tiny, just barely larger than the mother pig herself. After the pigs are born, the mother is forcibly held down by metal bars until the pigs are weaned. Immediately upon being weaned, the Smithfield Hams' pigs and mother are separated, the mother is immediately re-impregnated and returned to the sow crate, while the piglets are castrated, ears mutilated, tails chopped off, all without any painkillers. They are then fed growth hormones and confined to tiny pens. As soon as they are fully grown, achieved by Smithfield Foods growth hormones in around six months (a pig has a natural lifespan of many years) they are shipped by truck to be slaughtered. Their ride on the Smithfield Ham transport truck is the only time the pigs are outdoors or even have direct sunlight on their skin. Stunning before slaughter is done either by shooting a metal slug bolt into their cranium or electrically shocking them, neither of which is completely effective in killing or even removing consciousness completely. Sometimes the bolt misses and sometimes the electric stunning machine fails to work at all. Most Smithfield Hams pigs are partly conscious and some are fully conscious as they are eviscerated and processed by large factory cutting and dismembering machines. Smithfield Hams does this to tens of millions of pigs each year. And, the facts speak for themselves - its plant in La Gloria, Mexico is suspected to be the source of the 2009 swine flu outbreak. Please educate yourself of this horrible travesty of a company called Smithfield Hams a.k.a., Smithfield Farms, Smithfield Packing Company, Butterball, John Morrell, Gwaltney, Patrick Cudahy, Krakus Ham, Cook's Ham, and Stefano’s.