Much like the way I feel about Oprah, lol, pretty much
anything with PETA in it makes me much less receptive to it.
With that though, the whole shoving rods in innappropriate places is out of line and obviously the person that did that is very very sick. Unfortunately you do find people like that everywhere, not just on factory farms, but in everyday life. This kind of sickness isn't limited to *gasp* meat producers.
About the kicking and zapping, hitting etc, unless you have ever lived on a hog farm or worked on one, or have any experience with feeder pigs other than reading Charlotts Web, most people don't understand how difficult they are to handle. Granted, the claims in the PITA, oops I mean PETA
report are that the people were using these methods out of anger and aggression, but in day to day handling of pigs, prods and rods must be used at all times. Pigs are very intelligent, but can be very aggressive, and that is part of the reason why. They are intelligent, and heavier and stronger than people, so they can (and do) a lot of damage. Most of people's efforts to contain them leave them unphased as they are thick skinned and it takes much effort to get them to move. Mass produced cattle are treated no different, hence the name "cattle prod". If you don't like the way that animals are treated that are consumed, grow your own or don't eat meat. There is really no cutesy way to move them. Simply asking them to go to the next pen over, even if you say pretty please, just doesn't work. Leading them one by one individually is impossible.
Again, I do not condone the alleged actions of the individual with the insertive issues, but you would be a fool to believe that enormous animals that are mass produced for consumption are treated the way that you would treat a pet.