Animal Partisan pursues criminal charges against Ohio trucking company over animal cruelty caused by pig truck crash
January 14, 2026
On June 11, 2024, a truck carrying 180-200 pigs flipped over and crashed on a highway on-ramp in Ohio, causing the death of 80-100 of the pigs and the intense suffering of the rest. Using public records laws, Animal Partisan obtained bodycam footage showing the gruesome aftermath of the crash. The footage depicts a bloody scene where the animals’ guttural screams can be heard over the course of several hours. Now, Animal Partisan has used a novel Ohio legal procedure to file a citizen affidavit with a municipal court in Ohio alleging that the company transporting the pigs, Billenstein Family Farms, LLC, violated the state’s animal cruelty law. According to the Bill of Lading in the truck, JBS was the listed Packer for the shipment.
Based on the Ohio Department of Public Safety’s crash report, the company’s driver was speeding as he entered the on-ramp, which contributed to the crash. The driver was charged with failure to maintain reasonable control of the vehicle. When Animal Partisan researched the driver’s history, it uncovered scores of concerning traffic violations spanning the past 25 years. In fact, the driver had caused a nearly identical crash about 20 years earlier, leading to the deaths of 16 pigs.
Animal Partisan’s affidavit alleges that the company committed criminal animal cruelty by its driver’s actions and its own actions in allowing a driver with such a long and terrible history of poor driving to transport the pigs. This procedure, R.C. 2935.09(D), is a lesser-known avenue in Ohio law that allows a private citizen to argue to a judge that a crime was committed. The judge can take that information and issue a summons or warrant to initiate criminal charges. This same procedure has been used to pursue criminal charges in several high-profile matters in Ohio in recent years. Notably, it was used to seek justice for 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was shot and killed by police in 2015, and to request charges against President Trump and Vice President Vance after their inflammatory comments about the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio, during their 2024 campaign.
Animal Partisan is committed to holding animal agriculture companies accountable for the suffering caused by truck crashes during transportation. In 2023, approximately 20.3 million animals died en route to slaughter. Crashes are not the only causes of suffering during transportation; federal agencies’ failure to enforce the (already minimal) 28 Hour Law standards, transport of unfit animals, and poor conditions, including extreme temperatures, result in suffering and death consistently. For example, in 2023, 800,000 pigs were unable to walk after transport.
This is not Animal Partisan’s first legal action related to this horrific crash. In December, we filed a complaint with the Ohio Office of the Inspector General, asking for an investigation into alleged misconduct by the Ohio State Highway Patrol at this crash, and another crash which occurred in 2023. This crash, and Animal Partisan’s work on this issue, was featured in an article by Sentient Media in October 2025.
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