Graphic leaked video shows 'appalling' pig slaughter

A slaughterhouse is being accused of illegal slaughtering methods after an animal rights group released undercover video this week.

Livestock slaughtered at Quality Pork Processors is used by Hormel, the company that makes Spam, along with other pork products.

The group Compassion Over Killing posted a video of pigs being dragged across factory floors and, allegedly, slaughtered while conscious. By law, the pigs are supposed to be unconscious.

WARNING: The following video is extremely graphic:

The Austin, Minnesota, slaughterhouse is part of the USDA's Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point Inspection Models Project, better known as HIMP. HIMP slaughterhouses are places where new practices are tested to make slaughterhouses more efficient.

But Compassion Over Killing says the factory forces workers to take "inhumane shortcuts" and "jeopardizes food safety."

"If you look at [the video] as a full sequence ... you will see those animals were handled according to acceptable regulations. ... I've got complete trust in the foods that we produce," a spokesperson for the slaughterhouse told The Huffington Post.

But a spokesperson for the USDA called the slaughterhouse's actions "appalling and completely unacceptable" and said the department will launch an investigation. In a press release, Hormel said it also plans to review procedures at the slaughterhouse.

RELATED: See a couple who would rather cherish the animals instead as they run a pig rescue in Calif.

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