U.K. pig farm scandal leads to jail sentence for worker
Update August 17, 2012: According to the BBC, two workers were sentenced for animal cruelty. One was jailed for 18 weeks and banned from animal farming for 10 years. The other received a suspended sentence. The judge called it one of the worst cases of deliberate cruelty he had ever seen.
Update February 15, 2012: The farm’s owner was later found dead from a gunshot wound to the head. A coroner ruled it a suicide, noting his troubled state of mind, according to the BBC.
Animal Equality has released findings from a two-month undercover investigation, carried out in 2011 at a pig farm in Norfolk, U.K.
The facility was certified by Red Tractor, which markets its facilities as “farmed with care.” Findings were reported by The Sunday Times, The Independent, and the BBC.
Hidden cameras recorded more than 200 hours of footage. It showed:
- Newborn piglets thrown by their legs and ears and kicked across the floor.
- Workers scraping knives across pigs’ backs to force them to move.
- One pig beaten with a metal bar that lodged in their head, left convulsing until death.
- Another struck the same way, then dragged by the bar.
- Bleeding pigs tossed into a “dead bin” while still alive, convulsing on top of corpses.
- Dead animals dumped into shallow, uncovered pits to cut costs.
- Dead piglets left in pens and feed troughs.
In one clip, a worker holds a young pig and says, “I don’t think he’s quite dead.” He then slams the animal’s head against the ground, adding, “He is now.”
“The images in my head of this hell-hole will stay with me always.” — Undercover investigator
A culture of cruelty
Additional footage showed workers striking and swearing at pigs, leaving them bruised and bloodied. Pigs were hit with metal bars, boards, and rods—sometimes until their snouts bled.
Some were killed by blunt force, their heads slammed against concrete. Workers walked away as animals convulsed and died slowly. Piglets were beaten to death with pipes.
Left to rot: Injured animals die without treatment
Sick and injured pigs were denied even basic care. Some had severe prolapses that were left to rot and fall off before slaughter. Others had open sores, infected joints, or paralyzed legs.
Workers cut open wounds to drain pus but never treated them. One underfed pig had a large hernia hanging from their abdomen. Pigs unable to stand were forcibly inseminated.
Newborn piglets—only a day or two old—had their teeth clipped without pain relief.
“I found one of the newly weaned piglets with an ear that had swollen to the size of a football. It was literally the same size as the piglet’s head and was full of liquid. The piglet was in obvious agony… but nothing was done, and he was left to suffer.”
— Undercover investigator
Footage showed piglets screaming as their legs were crushed beneath their mothers, who were trapped for weeks in crates so small they couldn’t turn around. Sick and weak piglets lay dead beside them. Many mothers showed signs of distress, endlessly biting the metal bars in front of them.
Experts react
Veterinarians, professors, and animal behaviorists issued statements condemning the abuse.
Marc Bekoff–a former professor from the University of Colorado, Boulder–wrote about the footage in Psychology Today. He connected the abuse to an investigation released in Spain, where workers laughed as pigs were stabbed and disemboweled alive.
Bekoff said the evidence exposes deeper systemic cruelty, echoed across Animal Equality’s global investigations.
VIEW THE FULL INVESTIGATION LIBRARY
A broken system and a global solution
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