Animal cruelty and mutilations found on pig farms in Mexico

Animal Equality has repeatedly denounced the cruelty that pigs experience in slaughterhouses. Now, we reveal the cruelty they experience from their first days of life on farms in Mexico, specifically in Jalisco, the main producing state, where they undergo extremely painful procedures such as tail mutilation and castration without anesthesia.

Industrial farming has developed the most egregious practices toward animals. What this investigation shows is intolerable and devoid of social conscience.

Dulce Ramírez, Vice President for Latin America, Animal Equality

Tail docking and castration without anesthesia

In Mexico, as in many countries, there are no protections for animals on farms. That is why practices as cruel as the ones our researchers witnessed are so common.

The images we uncovered show:

• Castration and tail mutilation without anesthesia and without veterinary care;
• Pigs covered in blood, showing signs of pain after castration and tail mutilation;
• Wounds and injuries that receive no treatment;
• Various diseases such as mastitis, conjunctivitis, and skin problems;
• Sick or injured pigs who are considered “waste,” according to one worker. They are not treated and are left to agonize for days.
• They do not have any type of stimulation or environmental enrichment throughout their lives;
• Several pigs in very confined spaces (overcrowding);
• Sows that cannot move freely because they are so confined, which sometimes causes them to crush their young;
• Repetitive behaviors due to stress, such as chewing on the bars;
• Unsafe living conditions and careless installations, such as deep cracks in the floor where pigs get stuck and result in fractures;
• Aggression between pigs, derived from the terrible conditions in which they live.

Pigs are as smart as dogs and dolphins

In a study conducted by experts in animal behavior and intelligence, it was found that pigs can experience emotions influenced by the state of other pigs (a basis for empathy), form memories, plan, and enjoy the world through games. This is a characteristic that they share with other animals, such as dolphins and dogs. Pigs should be able to enjoy their lives free from harm, yet factory farming and meat consumption deny them this.

Animals are treated as raw material for production, which they are not; they are living, sentient beings, which we are appropriating to produce.

Doctor Adriana Cossío Bayúgar, MVZ Animal Welfare Specialist

You can help end this abuse

At Animal Equality, we are determined to change the fate of animals used for food through investigations, corporate outreach, education, and legal advocacy. With your support, we will achieve important changes that bring us closer to a world in which all animals are respected and protected.

As we see time and time again during Animal Equality’s undercover investigations, animals suffer and die in factory farms and slaughterhouses. We must do our part in ending their suffering. It is up to each one of us to end the abuse. Please keep animals off your plate and visit LoveVeg for more information and delicious plant-based options.