Investigation: Pigs bound, bagged, illegally slaughtered
- Animal Equality’s investigation found violations of animal protection laws at six pig farms and three slaughter sites across four Indian states.
- Pigs resisting transport were beaten into submission. Those taken from the streets were tied, bagged, and transported on rickshaws and scooters.
- Investigators found pigs illegally slaughtered in meat shops and markets, bypassing legal requirements for licensed facilities.
- Despite the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960, regulations were ignored at every facility visited.
- Animal Equality has urged the Indian government to strengthen protections for pigs, similar to those for hens and chickens.
Between February and July 2024, Animal Equality in India investigated pig farms, markets, and slaughter sites across Maharashtra, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, and Jharkhand. The team visited six farms and three slaughter sites.
Every location showed clear violations of animal protection laws.
Inside India’s pig farming industry
In India, one may assume that stray pigs roaming the streets will die of natural causes. However, many are slaughtered and sold in low-income communities.
On farms, proper feed is scarce. Farmers collect food waste from restaurants instead. One admitted it was a way to cut costs.
Workers beat pigs with sticks to force them from pens, leaving bruises across their bodies. In cramped, filthy conditions, the animals stand in their own waste, vulnerable to disease. Pigs naturally avoid soiling their surroundings, but here, excrement pools around them with nowhere to go.
Tied, beaten, and hauled away
Pigs resisting transport to slaughter are beaten into submission. Those taken from the streets are tied by their legs, screaming as they are shoved in bags.
Still struggling, they are loaded onto rickshaws or scooters, their cries continuing as they are transported.
Slaughtered in plain sight
By law, animals must be slaughtered in licensed facilities. Yet, investigators found pigs illegally killed in meat shops and open markets.
In 2015, Animal Equality documented pigs in Kerala bludgeoned with hammers. During this investigation, pigs were repeatedly stabbed in the heart as workers held their wounds open, forcing them to bleed out.
India’s laws ignored
These practices violate the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960 and the rules established under it. Yet, investigators found these laws ignored at every facility they visited.
Animal Equality has submitted recommendations to the government, urging protections for pigs similar to those in place for hens and chickens. A petition calling on the Government of India to adopt these measures is now underway.
Global patterns of abuse
Cruelty in factory farming extends beyond India. Animal Equality investigations have exposed suffering in pig farms and slaughterhouses worldwide.
In Italy, investigators found piglet remains strewn across a farm, with buckets overflowing. At a slaughterhouse, a piglet with a slit throat tried to climb a conveyor belt but collapsed in a pool of blood.
Meanwhile, in Germany, workers painted a writhing piglet for amusement. Another, too weak to move, was shoved down, sat on, and repeatedly punched in the face. In the UK, undercover footage showed workers killing small or weak piglets with hammers.
Across the Atlantic, cruelty was also rampant. Conscious pigs in Hidalgo, Mexico, were thrown into scalding tanks meant to remove their hair.
In the U.S., Animal Equality is campaigning against corporate practices that lock pregnant pigs in metal crates too small to turn around in. These pigs endure repeated pregnancies in cages barely larger than their bodies.
These investigations and campaigns prove that factory farming is a global issue–and only a united response can stop animals’ suffering.
{firstname}, do your loved ones know the cruelty farmed animals face every day?
Support our investigations, campaigns, and legal work to demand this doesn’t happen anymore.
{firstname}, mother pigs like her spend their lives in cages.
And now, her most basic protections are at risk in the proposed Farm Bill. You can stop it from happening.
He was separated from his mother and led to slaughter for the dairy industry to keep his milk.
Share this campaign to raise awareness and make it stop.
Your signature will support the message calling for the end of factory farming in the United States.
How you can help
By sharing Animal Equality’s investigations, you help expose industry cruelty, raise public awareness, and push policy makers to act for animals.
Choosing compassion: A better way to eat
You can also make a difference with your food choices. Love Veg is growing across India, helping more people embrace plant-based eating. Now, you can join the movement in the U.S.
With countless delicious options, choosing kinder foods has never been easier.
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.
