Animals forced to walk on broken legs at Brazilian pig farms
Key takeaways
- 1 Animal Equality documents pigs with broken legs forced to walk, mother pigs confined to cages, and animals shocked with electric prods.
- 2 A recorded conversation captures a farmer connected to Aurora, one of Brazil’s largest pig producers, admitting to using antibiotics that Aurora itself has banned.
- 3 Animal Equality has filed a lawsuit against the companies and individuals responsible.
An Animal Equality investigation documents conditions inside pig farms in Santa Catarina, Brazil’s top pig-producing state.
Investigators visited six farms: two supplying Aurora Coop, Brazil’s third-largest pig producer; one supplying Coperaguas, another Brazilian pig producer; and three independent farms, one affiliated with the Cooperativa Agroindustrial dos Suinocultores Catarinenses, a regional pig farming cooperative in Santa Catarina.
Broken legs, confinement, tumors, and no veterinary care
Investigators documented mother pigs locked in cages, many with untreated tumors, hernias, and other injuries. In one instance, a pig was found with her decomposing piglets still attached to her body. She had miscarried and still had not been seen by a veterinarian.
On another farm, workers forced an animal with broken legs to walk. Workers were filmed kicking animals and shocking them with electric prods to move them onto trucks headed for slaughter. Newborn piglets were mutilated—their teeth and tails were cut off without pain relief.
Animal Equality documented these same practices in a 2020 investigation of pig farms and slaughterhouses in Minas Gerais, Brazil.
This investigation shows that animal suffering is not the result of isolated failures, but of a system that systematically compromises their well-being. Animals cannot continue to pay the price for a system that places productivity over ethics,” Dulce Ramirez, Vice President for Latin America, Animal Equality
Awareness is just the beginning
Learning about what farmed animals face can change the way we see them. But change takes more than awareness—it takes people like you willing to keep showing up.
This September, for Farmed Animal Awareness Month, become a monthly donor with Animal Equality and turn your concern for farmed animals into action all year long.
Aurora pig farmer admits to using banned antibiotics
Investigators recorded a conversation with an Aurora farmer admitting he gives animals antibiotics that Aurora itself has banned.
“You can’t give preventive antibiotics [to the animals] through their food. But that’s what happens. There are people who do it. I go buy [the antibiotics] secretly and treat them myself,” the farmer said.
This evidence comes as the European Union suspends Brazil from exporting meat to the EU over antibiotic use, part of a broader global concern about antibiotic resistance in animal agriculture.
Brazil exports meat from pigs to the United States, making this a concern for American consumers as well.
Animal Equality files lawsuit against pig producers
Brazil has guidelines on pig welfare, but compliance is voluntary.
Still, other Brazilian laws protect animals. The Federal Constitution prohibits cruelty to animals, and the Environmental Crimes Law makes mistreatment a punishable offense.
Based on these laws and the evidence collected, Animal Equality has filed a legal case against the companies involved. The lawsuit seeks to hold them and those responsible for the farms legally accountable for the documented abuse.
Save Animals from Abuse
Pigs, cows, and other animals feel pain and deserve to be protected from abuse.
You can protect these intelligent animals by simply choosing plant‑based alternatives.