A Bipartisan group of 14 Senators led by Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa are urging indemnity support for pork producers who’ve had to euthanize animals due to the effects of the pandemic. National Pork Producers Council President Elect Jen Sorenson who raises hogs in Iowa says that assistance is desperately needed.

She says the costs of euthanizing, rendering and burying those animals ranges but the estimated cost is fairly high.

Sorenson says the pandemic has only added to the economic woes the pork industry has been suffering from.

The Senators note the crisis facing the pork industry is immediate as pork producers send to market over two million pigs each week. If twenty percent of that processing is idle that means somewhere around 400,000 animals per week must be disposed of in some manner other than processing.