Five former employees of a hog farm in Wheatland have been convicted of multiple counts of animal cruelty and sentenced to probation and fines.
Four of the five were fined $530.
The charges were filed as a result of an undercover investigation last spring by The Humane Society of the United States, which disclosed employee abuse of pigs and piglets. The organization posted video of workers kicking live piglets like soccer balls, striking pigs with their fists and kicking them when they showed reluctance to leave their offspring.
A total of nine former employees at the Wheatland hog processing farm were charged in late December. All had been terminated from their jobs by the time charges were filed.
The four remaining cases are pending in court.