Investigations
Image: aussiepigs.com
This page provides information on a sample of undercover investigations of piggeries and abattoirs.
To prevent the type of treatment seen here, it seems the most effective action is to take pigs and other animals off your shopping list. You, the animals and the planet will be much better for it.
Warning: Contains Graphic Footage. Viewer discretion required.
To prevent the type of treatment seen here, it seems the most effective action is to take pigs and other animals off your shopping list. You, the animals and the planet will be much better for it.
Warning: Contains Graphic Footage. Viewer discretion required.
Rivalea Piggery and Abattoir, Corowa, NSW, Australia
"A clearly disabled pig - unable to walk into a gas chamber - is repeatedly prodded with an electric goad before a frustrated abattoir worker jumps into the run and kicks it twice."
"The shocking footage is not from Indonesia or some other third-world slaughterhouse but from Australia’s largest pork producer, Rivalea, behind consumer brands including Riverview Farms, Murray Valley Pork, Family Chef and High Country Pork."
Daily Telegraph (Sydney, Australia), 2nd May, 2014.
The second video shows horrific conditions in other sheds at Rivalea's Corowa operation. All this from a fully accredited operator, producing household name products.
"A clearly disabled pig - unable to walk into a gas chamber - is repeatedly prodded with an electric goad before a frustrated abattoir worker jumps into the run and kicks it twice."
"The shocking footage is not from Indonesia or some other third-world slaughterhouse but from Australia’s largest pork producer, Rivalea, behind consumer brands including Riverview Farms, Murray Valley Pork, Family Chef and High Country Pork."
Daily Telegraph (Sydney, Australia), 2nd May, 2014.
The second video shows horrific conditions in other sheds at Rivalea's Corowa operation. All this from a fully accredited operator, producing household name products.
Aussie Farms
Here's an incredibly powerful video from Aussie Farms, highlighting the horrific findings of fourteen undercover investigations from 2012 and 2013.
Here's an incredibly powerful video from Aussie Farms, highlighting the horrific findings of fourteen undercover investigations from 2012 and 2013.
Oliver's Piggery, Tasmania, Australia, 2009
Magistrate's comments: " . . . if that is the cost of intensive farming, that animals will be neglected and get to the sort of situation that these animals were in, then I would have thought that the community would expect that intensive farming would not be a viable option in our society."
Gary Oliver had appeared in brochures as one of Woolworths "fresh food people". According to Animal Liberation, the business supplied 20% of the fresh pork sold in Tasmania's Woolworths Supermarkets.
A shareholder and director of the company operating the piggery was also a director of the peak industry body, Australian Pork Ltd.
Extract from Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes program “The Hidden Truth”, posted online 30th November, 2009:
“LIAM BARTLETT: It turns out that a shareholder and director of the company operating that filthy piggery is Dr Ian Parish, who also sits on the board running the pork industry. Dr Parish declined our request for an interview. So the industry, the pork industry, is run by people who are happy to keep their animals in that sort of condition?”
Magistrate's comments: " . . . if that is the cost of intensive farming, that animals will be neglected and get to the sort of situation that these animals were in, then I would have thought that the community would expect that intensive farming would not be a viable option in our society."
Gary Oliver had appeared in brochures as one of Woolworths "fresh food people". According to Animal Liberation, the business supplied 20% of the fresh pork sold in Tasmania's Woolworths Supermarkets.
A shareholder and director of the company operating the piggery was also a director of the peak industry body, Australian Pork Ltd.
Extract from Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes program “The Hidden Truth”, posted online 30th November, 2009:
“LIAM BARTLETT: It turns out that a shareholder and director of the company operating that filthy piggery is Dr Ian Parish, who also sits on the board running the pork industry. Dr Parish declined our request for an interview. So the industry, the pork industry, is run by people who are happy to keep their animals in that sort of condition?”
L.E. Giles Abbatoir, Gipplsland, Victoria, Nov, 2011
ABC News, 15 April, 2013 (Extracts):
"The Department of Environment and Primary Industries (DPI) has dropped animal cruelty charges against the owner and an employee of a Gippsland abattoir. . . . the DPI . . . has refused to explain why."
"The L.E. Giles Abattoir in Trafalgar was shut down for animal cruelty in 2011."
"Last year, three abattoir employees received a 12-month [good] behaviour bond after pleading guilty to animal cruelty charges."
ABC News, 15 April, 2013 (Extracts):
"The Department of Environment and Primary Industries (DPI) has dropped animal cruelty charges against the owner and an employee of a Gippsland abattoir. . . . the DPI . . . has refused to explain why."
"The L.E. Giles Abattoir in Trafalgar was shut down for animal cruelty in 2011."
"Last year, three abattoir employees received a 12-month [good] behaviour bond after pleading guilty to animal cruelty charges."
Hawkesbury Valley Abbatoir, NSW, Australia, Feb, 2012
ABC Lateline report (not included in the video below)
The Australian, 31 May, 2013: "In Windsor Local Court on Thursday, magistrate Margot Stubbs ordered the company to pay a $60,000 fine, telling the court the acts of cruelty were 'sickening' and at the 'gross end of inhumane conduct'."
ABC Lateline report (not included in the video below)
The Australian, 31 May, 2013: "In Windsor Local Court on Thursday, magistrate Margot Stubbs ordered the company to pay a $60,000 fine, telling the court the acts of cruelty were 'sickening' and at the 'gross end of inhumane conduct'."
Wally's Piggery, NSW, Australia, May-July, 2012
This video and the next are from Animal Liberation NSW and Animal Liberation ACT (www.aussiepigs.com.au).
Here's an extract from the aussiepigs website: "The piggery was found to be in breach of many state laws; additionally, the farm was in complete filth and disrepair, with many piglets and sows (mother pigs) suffering injuries or death due to beatings by employees, the crumbling structure, and a high prevalence of disease. The practices used by the employees, such as cutting the tails and teeth of all piglets without the use of anaesthetic, are accepted by the industry and are standard across Australia. The process is often carried out ineffectively, leaving painful and bloody stumps, and tails were found in the stalls. The equipment, including needles for iron injection, are not cleaned or sterilised between uses."
Allain’s Piggery, Blakney Creek, NSW, Australia, August 2012
This video was recorded at Allain’s Piggery at Blakney Creek, NSW, about an hour north of Wally's Piggery.
The piggery appears to represent a scene of utter despair for the pigs. Here’s some text from the Youtube page:
"Following the release of footage taken inside Wally's Piggery NSW, activists from Animal Liberation ACT and NSW captured footage at two additional piggeries in August 2012, proving that the atrocities at Wally's are not a one-off but are in fact the industry standard. Allain's and Tennessee [refer below] are considered ‘good’, legal piggeries by this industry."
Tennessee Piggery, Kingsvale Rd, near Young, NSW, Australia, August 2012
Feral cats share stalls with piglets. In one section of the Tennessee Piggery, the heat lamps for the piglets are off or broken, leaving them shivering in the darkness.
Wyoming Premium Farms, USA, a supplier to Tyson Foods, April 2012
Human Society USA page
“The video . . . shows workers kicking living piglets like soccer balls, swinging sick piglets in circles by their hind legs, striking mother pigs with their fists and repeatedly and forcefully kicking them as they resisted leaving their young.”
“In one case, a mother pig with a broken back leg endured a very heavy worker sitting and bouncing on top of her hindquarters as the pig screamed in pain. The investigator also found pigs with untreated abscesses and severe rectal and uterine prolapses, mummified piglet corpses, and baby piglets who had fallen through floor slats to either hang to death or drown in manure pits.”
The website also contains a slideshow of still images
Lansdowne Piggery (Westmill Products) in Young, NSW, Australia, June, 2013
Eight minutes watching this footage of row upon row of sows trapped in their prisons, displaying what appears to be stereotypical behaviour, feels like an eternity. We endure 8 minutes, but they can be forced to endure up to 4 months of this confinement. Animal Liberation ACT have published this footage of Lansdowne Piggery in Young, NSW, which they have indicated is owned by the Chairman of the NSW Farmers Pork Committee, Ean Pollard.
Here's what the CEO of peak industry body Australian Pork Ltd, Andrew Spencer, said on Channel Nine's "Sixty Minutes" program in 2009 ("The Hidden Truth"):
"It's a big, pregnant animal that's not looking to frolic around. It wants to eat and sleep - THAT'S PIG HEAVEN. Sow stalls are good for sows, the research shows it."
Thank you Mr Spencer. We thought from this clip that it was a living hell, but now we know it's heaven. (By referring to her as "it" rather than "she", Mr Spencer seems to regard a sow as an object.)
To our knowledge, no-one has suggested that any laws have been breached at Lansdowne Piggery. What you see in the video appears to be accepted industry practice.
Sweden
This video is narrated in Swedish, but the images show what can happen even if sow stalls are not used. Horrendous treatment is horrendous treatment in any language and regardless of the form of production used. The page (accessed via the heading above) can be translated to English by clicking on the Union Jack in the top right corner.
This video is narrated in Swedish, but the images show what can happen even if sow stalls are not used. Horrendous treatment is horrendous treatment in any language and regardless of the form of production used. The page (accessed via the heading above) can be translated to English by clicking on the Union Jack in the top right corner.