"‘Sea Slaves’: The Human Misery That Feeds Pets And Livestock"

Men who have fled servitude on fishing boats recount beatings and worse as nets are cast for the catch that will become pet food and livestock feed... After watching his younger siblings go hungry because their family’s rice patch in Cambodia could not provide for everyone, [Lang Long] accepted a trafficker’s offer to travel across the Thai border...[then] was kept for days by armed men in a room near the port at Samut Prakan... He was then herded with six other migrants up a gangway onto a shoddy wooden ship. It was the start of three brutal years in captivity at sea... [He] was resold twice between fishing boats. After repeated escape attempts, one captain shackled him by the neck whenever other boats neared... 

Mr. Long’s crews trawled primarily for forage fish, which are small and cheaply priced. Much of this catch comes from the waters off Thailand...and is sold to the United States, typically for canned cat and dog food or feed for poultry, pigs and farm-raised fish that Americans consume... [Those] who fled recounted horrific violence: the sick cast overboard, the defiant beheaded, the insubordinate sealed for days below deck in a dark, fetid fishing hold... While forced labor exists throughout the world, nowhere is the problem more pronounced than here in the South China Sea, especially in the Thai fishing fleet...

Sasinan Allmand, the head of corporate communications for Thai Union Frozen Products, said that her company does routine audits of its canneries and boats in port to ensure against forced and child labor. The audits involve checking crew members’ contracts, passports, proof of payment and working conditions. “We will not tolerate any human trafficking or any human rights violation of any kind,” she said. Asked whether audits are conducted on the fishing boats that stay at sea, like the one where Mr. Long was captive, she declined to respond.

[Also refers to Songkla Canning Public Company (part of Thai Union); Iams (part of Mars); Meow Mix (part of J.M. Smucker); Fancy Feast and Purina (both part of Nestlé), with comments from Nestlé, Mars]