CNN's Nicole Lapin recently reported on the Humane Society's efforts to get downer pigs banned from the food supply. Downer pigs are classified as animals that are too injured or too sick to walk.

In Lapin’s report, Dr. Michael Greger, Humane Society’s Director of Public Health states, “You can’t tell just by looking at a pig whether the pig is down because of fatigue, because of injury, or because of sickness. Indeed the science is very clear that these pigs are at an increased risk of having disease. They’re more likely to contaminate their hide and some of that contamination can get into the plant. So there’s multiple reasons why animals too sick to even stand up, or for whatever reason, really should be excluded from the food supply.”

When asked by Lapin why regulations, other than farm safety checks, are not in place, Dr. Jennifer Greiner from the National Pork Producers Council replies, “We estimate that if all non ambulatory pigs were banned, all fatigued pigs were banned from the food supply we would lose approximately 41 million pounds of safe pork going into the food supply."  Follow me on Twitter

Watch the report. View discretion advised.