OPINION: Resident Asks Redding Grocer to Stop Selling Tyson Due to Abusive Treatment of Animals

The following is a letter to the editor sent in by Tiffany Paltauf. The letter is an opinion piece and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Patch or its editors.

"Dear Mr.Caraluzzi,

My family and I are frequent shoppers of your grocery store, in fact my mother practically shops there everyday. Caraluzzi’s is the place that we choose to shop at over any other supermarket, since it is close to our home and you have very reasonable prices!

I am writing to you because I want you to stop distributing Tyson pork products as your Butcher’s Best pork. Tyson is one of the world’s largest processors and marketers of many different types of meat, especially pork. But what it also is, is a meat production with a history of kicking, hitting, and throwing pigs and slamming piglets into the ground. Who in their right mind would want to support a business that is this unethical? I hope our family friendly local grocery store would not. It doesn’t even end there, they also have history of throwing piglets’ testicles at each other and feeding them back to the mother pigs for “fun”. If that’s not enough for you to stop supporting Tyson as one of your main pork distributors, then I guess you are no different than the workers for these farms.

I understand that you may not be aware of all of the terrors that Tyson is a part of, but that is why I am writing to you to let you become aware of the business that you have chosen to partake in. Instead of distributing Tyson as your main source of pork, perhaps consider supporting a local farm for their signature meats like the Hickories in Ridgefield, CT. I’m sure the extra dollars spent on farm fresh meats will be rewarding in the long run, if not for the ethical reasons, then to help support other local businesses like yourself.

Please consider unleashing Tyson as a distributor for one of your main sources of pork products.

Your frequent customer,

Tiffany Paltauf"

Image via flickr creative commons