Times, Foodland say no to imported live pigs

The two biggest kamaaina supermarket chains in Hawaii have agreed to cease selling pork from pigs shipped live to the state from the mainland, after three years of campaigning by an international animal protection organization that called such shipping inhumane.

Foodland Super Market and Times Supermarkets have instead begun shipping butchered pork to stores from the mainland in chilled containers.

The companies said the change will support more humane treatment of hogs processed for food and won’t result in higher pork prices. However, the change also will reduce the availability of the freshest pork in stores.

The World Society for the Protection of Animals hailed the moves by Foodland and Times as a campaign success, and encouraged other retailers to take similar action that would help end the annual importing of 10,000 to 12,000 live pigs.

"We are proud and excited that some of Hawaii’s leading supermarkets are taking a stand against the live trade of pigs," Sharanya Prasad, U.S. programs manager for WSPA, said in a statement. "Their actions will not only have a significant impact on the lives of thousands of animals, but also set important precedents for other retailers to follow."

The Boston-based nonprofit launched a campaign in 2008 that proclaimed pig shipments from the mainland to Hawaii as one of four animal trade routes worldwide constituting animal cruelty.

The campaign said pigs shipped to Hawaii for slaughter are not regulated by U.S. animal welfare laws and that the one-week ocean voyage, often in cramped and filthy conditions, causes suffering as well as relatively high illness and death rates.

A 2008 report by the group said 218 pigs died en route to Hawaii between Sept. 1, 2006, and Aug. 31, 2007, representing a 1.4 percent mortality rate, based on public records.

State officials countered that 0.4 percent of pigs died during shipment to Hawaii between 2002 and 2007.

The mortality rate for pigs shipped nationwide, which primarily involves transportation by truck, is 0.2 percent, the nonprofit said.

WSPA, with support from the Humane Society, Animal Rights Hawaii and the Animal Protection Institute, urged Hawaii retailers to either sell locally raised pigs or import chilled or frozen meat from the mainland.

The coalition produced a public awareness campaign that included posters displayed in more than 500 Honolulu buses in 2009 imploring consumers to stop "unnecessary suffering" of imported pigs.

WSPA also asked the state Department of Agriculture to crack down on retailers labeling pork shipped to Hawaii for slaughter as "Island Produced Pork" and urged consumers to demand the fair treatment of animals and accurate food labeling.

A WSPA report this year said the campaign helped lead one major importer to quit shipping pigs and reduce shipments to Hawaii by 19 percent from 2008 to 2010. Retailers also changed labels on pork shipped to Hawaii for slaughter.

The report, dubbed "No Paradise for Pigs," noted that shipping cost increases could make it uneconomical to import live pigs to Hawaii, and said many retailers in Hawaii import chilled and frozen carcasses from the mainland.

WSPA didn’t identify which retailers sell pork from pigs imported live for slaughter.

California-based Safeway didn’t respond yesterday to a request for information about pork sold in its Hawaii stores. A spokesman for Washington-based Costco said the chain’s Hawaii stores sell pork slaughtered on the mainland and shipped chilled.

Times, which acquired Honolulu-based Star Markets in 2009 and Big Save Value Centers on Kauai earlier this year, switched to chilled pork shipments last month.

"Just because something is legal and approved by the appropriate agencies, doesn’t necessarily make it right," Bob Stout, Times president, said in a statement.

"We have an obligation as a retailer to do the right thing while servicing our customers. In this case, we are doing precisely that — changing to a more humane method of procuring pork and, at the same time, providing our customers with what they want."

Foodland spokeswoman Sheryl Toda said the chain has been gradually phasing out locally slaughtered pork from the mainland and will complete the shift to chilled pork shipments by Oct. 1.

"It is something that we were working on for a while," she said. "We couldn’t change overnight."