Investigation: Pigs Get Hit to the Ground Until Dead in Farms
The well-known German supermarket chain Edeka advertises its own branded meat program “Gutfleisch” with words like transparency, local origin as well as high quality and hygiene levels which supposedly ensure the health of animals. “Gutfleisch” has won several awards and exceeds standards stipulated by industry according to their own statements. Their websites create transparency by allowing consumers to check which stable animals originate from that are sold on the shelves of Edeka branches.
What actually happens in farms that supply Edeka with “Gutfleisch” goes beyond imagination. In every farm visited by the investigating team of Animal Equality, they found major deficiencies in hygiene, alarming conditions and animal suffering. Photos of 5 pig fattening and piggery enterprises document the cruelties pigs and piglets are exposed to in this industry daily. Pigs are intelligent living beings that can enjoy their lives, play together for hours and explore their environment. They even recognize themselves in the mirror, are more teachable than dogs and more intelligent than three-year-old toddlers. They usually live in groups with a distinctive social structure consisting of female pigs and their children. In these farms, there is unbelievable suffering: enormous heat, caustic air loaded with ammonia, no chance to avoid their own excrements and the impossibility to live social structures or enjoy body contact. These are the results of the investigation:
- Dying, considerably suffering animals without veterinary treatment.
- Animals with extreme breathing difficulties, coughing heavily (too many animals crammed in confined spaces with inadequate ventilation often lead to deadly diseases).
- Untreated and extreme umbilical hernias with bowels protruding through wounds.
- Weeks animals that can no longer stand or sit upright and keep on falling in the attempt to get up.
- Injuries due to the conditions in which animals are kept, including abscesses, claw injuries, bloody wounds, untreated hematomas, etc.
- Cannibalism: bitten tails and ears with bleeding wounds.
- Extreme hygiene defects, no clean drinking water, often no clean spaces for the animals to lie down.
Furthermore investigation material of the organization Ariwa illustrates how two of the largest farms linked to “Gutfleisch” systematically treat piglets in the most brutal way. Newborn piglets are grabbed by their hind legs and roused headfirst and weaker animals get hit to the ground with their heads until dead – without anesthetization. Piglets are still alive and deliberately thrown into trash containers, where they die from slow suffocation, starvation or injuries. Animal Equality is requesting Edeka to stop the branded meat program “Gutfleisch” since the prevalent conditions mean obvious animal pain, disastrous hygienic standards and a deception of consumers. Furthermore, Animal Equality is calling upon Edeka to increase its assortment of plant-based alternatives to facilitate the consumption of more animal-friendly food.
Learn how you can spare a big amount of animal suffering in your daily life at EatWellEatVeg.com. Animals will thank you!
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