About this website
The purpose of this website is to provide information/news about Veganism and animal abuse/welfare/rights. It is hoped this information will be used for research and prompt a consideration of why Veganism is so important, particularly at this time. While Veganism is concerned with diet and the environment, it must always be animal-centered. Veganism, which is not animal-centered, is not Veganism...
"Veganism is a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of animals, humans and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals."
(Vegan Society)
The Future is Vegan...
Animal abuse and the violence/harm it causes
(1)The link between animal abuse and violence to humans
Firstly, evidence for the link between animal abuse and violence against humans is now overwhelming and no rational person disputes the link.
The FBI says: “Historically, animal cruelty has been considered an isolated issue, but recent research shows a well-documented link that it is a predictive or co-occurring crime with violence against humans (including intimate partners, children, and elders) and is associated with other types of violent offenses. Increased awareness of this linkage and a collaborative approach to these investigations strengthens the identification and reduction of such crimes”.
Source: https://leb.fbi.gov/
The link is also present in domestic situations and therefore becomes a health issue. As noted by the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, "Violence towards animals and violence towards people are often interconnected problems, and as such, this phenomenon has been termed the Link. Violence towards animals is a strong predictor that the abuser may inflict violence on people."
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
Others also remark on this fact, e.g., Biometrica states: "Studies of serial killers, mass killers, and school shooters have demonstrated that animal abuse is often a forerunner to these more heinous crimes, the Department of Justice’s Community Oriented Policing Services and the National Sheriffs’ Association said in a report published in 2018.”
Source: https://www.biometrica.com/
The Justice Clearing House comments: "When animals are abused, people are at risk; When people are abused, animals are at risk.' This is the message that this webinar wants to get across. People often think that animal cruelty cases are isolated from crimes committed to humans. Various researchers, however, prove that animal abuse is correlated to child abuse, domestic violence, and elderly abuse, and that cruelty to animals is the childhood training ground for some of the most heinous crimes the country has witnessed.”
Source: https://www.justiceclearinghouse.com/
(Various newspapers have also confirmed the link, e.g., the Independent of 2 August 2019.)
As noted by The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, children who are involved in animal abuse are likely to manifest behavioural disorders: “A history of animal cruelty during childhood was significantly associated with APD, antisocial personality traits, and polysubstance abuse. Mental retardation, psychotic disorders, and alcohol abuse showed no such association.”
Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
The aforementioned article in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health also observed: "In a 2011 literature review conducted about animal abuse in the context of other violent and antisocial behaviors Gullone concluded that animal abuse is a marker of other potentially sinister experiences in children’s lives and that the relationship between animal abuse and aggression in childhood can extend into adulthood".
This is confirmed elsewhere, e.g., in Psychology Today: “Since the 1970s, research has consistently reported childhood cruelty to animals as the first warning sign of later delinquency, violence, and criminal behavior. In fact, nearly all violent crime perpetrators have a history of animal cruelty in their profiles.”
Source: https://www.psychologytoday.com/
The International Journal of Law and Psychiatry notes how: "In the 1960s, the psychiatric community took notice of childhood animal cruelty as a potential risk factor for violent acts against humans. Since that time, there has been increasing evidence that children who engage in animal cruelty may be at increased risk of interpersonal offenses in adulthood.”
Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
On 5 December 2023, the HSUS reported that "the United Nations’ Committee on the Rights of the Child has formally recognized the damage that witnessing violence, including violence to animals, can cause to children." It further stated 'The damage violence to animals can cause for children who witness it has long been flagged by psychologists. A recent review in the Journal of Adolescent Trauma concluded that “[w]itnessing violence predicts and increases a child’s engagement in maladaptive behaviors, including the perpetration of violence towards humans and animals...These processes are believed to be very similar, regardless of whether the child witnesses violence toward humans or toward animals; thus, both potentially lead to violence against animals/or people'.”
Source: https://www.humanesociety.org/
Some States in the USA have been publishing publicly-accessible registers of animal abusers, complete with their details in a similar way to the SORA National Sex Offenders Register, thus indicating the danger presented to society by animal abusers. An article, published in the Independent, reported: "A growing number of US states and counties are taking action against people who abuse animals by listing their names on an official registry, similar to the way sex offenders’ details are stored...A wider law enforcement motivation is also behind the registries, as studies have shown people who are cruel to animals are more likely to enact violent crime against people."
Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/
The building up of registers is an ongoing process: in May 2023, it was reported that in the state of Michigan, a new animal abuse registry was being created to help keep track of those accused of animal abuse. And later, according to nbc-2.com, yet another area in the U.S., decided to create a register of convicted animal abusers: this would "work similarly to the sex offender registry [and] people who are convicted of animal abuse crimes will be added to the registry, alerting others not to allow them to adopt or buy animals."
Source: https://www.clickondetroit.com/
On 30 August 2024, Patch.com reported that a 10-year firearms ban would be imposed on "anyone convicted of extreme acts of animal cruelty on or after January 1, 2025 - including maliciously and intentionally maiming, mutilating, torturing or wounding an animal, or maliciously or intentionally killing an animal."
Source: https://patch.com/
In September 2024, it was reported that an animal abuse registry had been created in Columbia County, and shelters and pet stores will have to consult this before an animal is released.
Source: https://www.news10.com/
The BBC has also reported that the idea of a public registry of animal abusers has been discussed in the UK.
Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/
(2)The harm caused to human beings by animal farming
Animal farming is not only linked with cruelty to, and serious illnesses in animals, but harm to human beings.
An article by NAVS comments that "The entire human population is also threatened by animal-derived viruses (e.g., bird flu, swine flu, SARS, tuberculosis) and factory farms are prime incubators of many of these, says the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production." The Pew report states: "Four large epidemiological studies have demonstrated strong and consistent associations between ifap [industrial farm animal production] air pollution and asthma. Merchant and colleagues, in a countywide prospective study of 1,000 Iowa families, reported a high prevalence of asthma among farm children living on farms that raise swine (44.1%) and, of those, on the farms that add antibiotics to feed (55.8%) (Merchant et al., 2005). Most of the children lived on family-owned ifap facilities, and many either did chores or were exposed as bystanders to occupational levels of ifap air pollution."
Sources: https://navs-online.org/; https://www.pewtrusts.org/
The Report went on to refer to a study regarding "North Carolina schools ranging from 0.2 to 42 miles from the nearest ifap facility", and how "children living within three miles of an ifap facility had significantly higher rates of doctor-diagnosed asthma, used more asthma medication, and had more asthma-related emergency room visits and /or hospitalizations than children who lived more than three miles from an ifap facility."
In the article 'Industrialized meat production and land degradation: 3 reasons to shift to a plant-based diet', by Rafael Woldeab, it is stated: "In the U.S., industrialized livestock production is directly responsible for 85% of all soil erosion. (Although soil erosion is a naturally occurring process, it has accelerated due to unsustainable livestock over-grazing.) Soil erosion occurs when grasslands are subject to extensive grazing without sufficient recovery periods. In addition, if too many animals are grazing the same land area, the damage their hooves cause to the soil is devastating. As vegetation is removed from the land by livestock activity, the soil becomes exposed to water and wind and is easily swept away. As highlighted by World Wildlife Fund, 'The effects of soil erosion go beyond the loss of fertile land. It has led to increased pollution and sedimentation in streams and rivers, clogging these waterways and causing declines in fish and other species. Degraded lands are also often less able to hold onto water, which can worsen flooding.'"
Source: https://populationeducation.org/
Pollution in the UK by animal farming is discussed by Surgeactivism, i.e.,
"England’s cherished waterways are awash with animal faeces, microplastics and chemicals according to the findings of a report by the Environmental Audit Committee - and intensive chicken and livestock farming is one of the leading causes...'Intensive livestock and poultry farming is putting enormous pressure on particular catchments, such as the one feeding the River Wye. As many as twenty million chickens are being reared there and their waste may be raising the river’s phosphorus levels,' said the report. “New poultry farms should not be granted planning permission in catchments exceeding their nutrient budgets'...Intensive livestock and poultry farming were blamed as the leading cause with calls to block planning permission for new farms in problem areas. 'We believe that [the farming] industry remains the greatest threat to the future health of riverine ecology throughout England,' said Salmon and Trout Conservation, quoted in the report...The Food, Farming and Countryside Commission (FFCC), which submitted evidence for the report, condemned animal agriculture, arguing that “intensive livestock operations have been allowed to proliferate with little regard to the cumulative impacts generated from the associated volumes of manure. 'The intensive livestock industry should no longer be allowed to avoid responsibility for its waste outputs and should be required to contribute to the public costs,' the FFCC added."
Source: https://www.surgeactivism.org/
The BBC also reported: "Livestock farms in England polluted rivers 300 times last year, causing 20 major incidents, according to the latest government figures. Yet only six farms were prosecuted in 2021, with the Environment Agency giving out warning letters instead...The dairy industry - mostly thanks to the waste its millions of cows produce - is the worst environmental offender, linked to half of all farm pollution...Much of the environmental threat to rivers from farming comes from cow waste called slurry - a mix of manure and water that farmers store and spread as fertiliser. Each of the UK's 2.6m dairy cows produces up to 53 litres of manure a day. That's approximately 50 billion litres of manure a year - enough to fill Wembley stadium more than 12 times."
Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/
And the Guardian reported: "The number of documented violations of legislation designed to reduce water pollution caused by agriculture in England has hit record levels as the rules remain largely unenforced. Last year had the highest number of recorded violations of the farming rules for water since the legislation was introduced in April 2018, and environmental groups estimate tens of thousands of English farms continue to commit undocumented violations."
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/
The FFAC says: "In order to compensate for the unhealthy conditions inside factory farms, animals are routinely fed low doses of antibiotics. When used to treat infections, antibiotics can save the lives of both people and animals, but the misuse of these medicines in animal agriculture can create drug-resistant bacteria. The farming industry uses 65 percent of antibiotics sold in the U.S."
Source: https://ffacoalition.org/
The damage caused to the environment is discussed elsewhere on this site. i.e., Home and 'Veganism and the environment', but the observations by Ken Swensen in 'Animal factory farms: an environmental catastrophe', serve as a valuable reminder: "Clean and abundant water: Our lakes, rivers, and groundwater are being poisoned by pesticide and fertilizer run-off from animal-feed crops and by the mismanagement of the vast amounts of manure produced by factory farmed animals. Thousands of multi-acre manure lagoons leach chemicals, bacteria and antibiotics into groundwater and waterways. Over-spraying of excess manure on nearby fields poisons streams and drinking water. In addition, factory farms are often the largest users of water in drought-susceptible areas. The irrigation of crops fed to animals, especially water-thirsty corn, is a primary cause of the rapid depletion of our groundwater and aquifers...
Climate change: Meat production is one of the primary drivers of global warming. If current trends continue, worldwide consumption is projected to grow more than 70 percent between 2010 and 2050, enabled primarily by the growth of factory farming. This would further accelerate global warming, the greatest challenge to life on earth...
Oceans and fisheries: Immense ocean dead zones (hypoxic areas, where dissolved oxygen levels drop so low that most higher forms of aquatic life vanish), like the one measuring 6,500 square miles in the Gulf of Mexico, are in large part created by the pesticide, herbicide, and fertilizer-laced runoff from monoculture-based farms growing animal feed..."
Source: https://www.britannica.com/
(3)The damage caused by the abattoir
It has been demonstrated that the violence associated with abattoirs, in which animals are slaughtered, has a profound and continuing effect. An article in MotherJones described how an employee, Kenny Dobbins, sustained numerous injuries while employed by a meat company and goes on to say: "What happened to Kenny Dobbins is now being repeated, in various forms, at slaughterhouses throughout the United States. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, meatpacking is the nation’s most dangerous occupation. In 1999, more than one-quarter of America’s nearly 150,000 meatpacking workers suffered a job-related injury or illness. The meatpacking industry not only has the highest injury rate, but also has by far the highest rate of serious injury—more than five times the national average, as measured in lost workdays."
Source: https://www.motherjones.com/
On 19 July 2023, the Guardian reported that: "A 16-year-old from Guatemala died on Friday after sustaining a workplace injury at a poultry plant in Mississippi, authorities confirm. The child, identified as Duvan Tomas Perez, died at Mar-Jac Poultry plant in Hattiesburg, Mississippi...The teenager’s death was caused by workplace equipment...Minors in Mississippi are not allowed to be employed in poultry plants. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha) and the labor department have launched investigations into the boy’s death, NBC reported."
Soutce: https://www.theguardian.com/
A BBC article dealt with an individual who was employed in a UK abattoir, and recalled: "'Whether they eat meat or not, most people in the UK have never been inside an abattoir - and for good reason. They are filthy, dirty places. There's animal faeces on the floor, you see and smell the guts, and the walls are covered in blood. And the smell... It hits you like a wall when you first enter, and then hangs thick in the air around you. The odour of dying animals surrounds you like a vapour.' He continued: 'One skill that you master while working at an abattoir is disassociation. You learn to become numb to death and to suffering. Instead of thinking about cows as entire beings, you separate them into their saleable, edible body parts. It doesn't just make the job easier - it's necessary for survival...At the end of the slaughter line there was a huge skip, and it was filled with hundreds of cows' heads. Each one of them had been flayed, with all of the saleable flesh removed. But one thing was still attached - their eyeballs. It was disgusting, terrifying and heart-breaking, all at the same time. It made me feel guilty. The first time I saw those heads, it took all of my strength not to vomit.' He went on to report: 'A lot of the men I was working with were also moonlighting elsewhere...exhaustion often took its toll. Some developed alcohol problems, often coming into work smelling strongly of drink. Others became addicted to energy drinks, and more than one had a heart attack. These drinks were then removed from the abattoir vending machines, but people would still bring them in from home and drink them secretly in their cars.'"
Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/
News.com.au published an article which reported: "Meatworkers are more prone to violence – and women are the worst, according to a new study. People who work in abattoirs are more likely to be desensitised to suffering, which in turn could make them more likely to be violent towards humans, the research published in the Society and Animals journal found. Overseas research has found that towns with abattoirs have higher rates of domestic violence and violent crimes including murder and rape, which prompted the Australian team to investigate the situation here. Flinders University senior sociology lecturer Dr Nik Taylor said it had been established that the more positive a person's attitude to animals, the lower their aggression levels, and that the reverse is also true – if you're cruel to animals, you're more likely to be violent to humans."
Source: https://www.news.com.au/
Writing in Vice, journalist James McMahon described a protest he attended outside an Essex abattoir: "It’s clear what’s taking place in the buildings in the distance because you can hear the animals. It’s no exaggeration to say that it sounds like actual screaming...Nothing prepares you for the first time you see one of the lorries. Three decks of animals, writhing on top of each other, clanging against each other and the metal walls, their legs bent backwards, covered in excrement. Cheale Meats slaughter 6,000 pigs per week. More at Christmas. The screaming in the distance continues all morning."
Source: https://www.vice.com/
The Canadian Toronto Star reported: "Criminology professor Amy Fitzgerald says statistics show the link between slaughterhouses and brutal crime is empirical fact. In a recent study, Fitzgerald crunched numbers from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report database, census data, and arrest and offence reports from 581 U.S. counties from 1994 to 2002. 'I have a graph that shows that as the number of slaughterhouse workers in a community increases, the crime rate also increases,” she says...It’s a case of science catching up to what has been folk knowledge since industrialized slaughterhouses began to appear in the 19th century: workers exposed to the killing of large numbers of animals on a regular basis become disturbed and appear to lose empathy.'"
Source: https://www.thestar.com/
And in Euronews, it was stated: "For sociologist Catherine Rémy of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), violence is inherent to slaughterhouses, but the industrialisation process makes it worse. 'Industrialised killing means we have forgotten all about the living. We thought we could treat animals like any other object on a production chain. There are people whose job it is to bleed animals 100, 200, 300 times a day, that’s huge, it’s very, very powerful, and increases the question of violence tenfold,' she said."
Source: https://www.euronews.com/
SurgeActivism reported: “Apart from the physically dangerous employment conditions, the underlying violent nature of working in a slaughterhouse also poses a risk to the psychological well-being of employees and cases of cumulative trauma disorder have been reported. Slaughterhouse employees, furthermore, often lack adequate resources to cope with the strenuous environment. This is mostly due to their poor socio-economic background, lack of training, and the shortage of safety equipment at the site. In addition, violence against animals has been linked to psychological health problems in humans. Consequently, deviant behaviour patterns of slaughterhouse employees have been reported in and outside of the work setting with specific reference to social dilemmas such as substance abuse, intimate partner violence, and an increase in crime rates."
Source: https://www.surgeactivism.org/
In 'How abattoirs violate human rights', PETA said: "The investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission also found that some workers were forced to work 90 hours a week and pregnant women were made to stand for long hours and perform heavy lifting and were denied the right to go to the toilet. A research survey of migrant workers on UK fishing boats found that they were working 20-hour shifts. These workers are typically some of the poorest and most exploited people – because they’re doing jobs that nobody wants to do."
Source: https://www.peta.org.uk/
One article related that: "Chief executive of British Meat Processors Association has described soaring staff shortages in abattoirs over the past couple of years. He stated 10-15% of the 75,000 jobs in the UK’s meat processing industry are now unfulfilled. Some may see this shortfall as a consequence of Brexit as the UK recruits many abattoir workers from the EU. Crucially, however, the report highlights that it’s merely because 'people simply do not want to do this work anymore'...But the research is clear. There is harsh suffering of both animals and humans who have fallen victim to this industry and there seems to be a willful ignorance and disassociation among society to these harsh truths, and the grim reality of what it’s like to work in an abattoir."
Source: https://www.lifewithoutmeat.com/
The International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being published an article dealing with an investigation into how work in an abattoir (in South Africa) affected the employees: this reported: "Slaughterhouse work is characterised by high staff turnover, absenteeism, and disciplinary actions (Broadway, 2007; Dalla, Ellis, & Cramer, 2005). This is due to the physically demanding and often monotonous nature of the work (Van Holland et al., 2015). Workers have to contend with an inherently hazardous work context since they handle dangerous cutting tools at extreme production speeds (Fitzgerald, 2010; Human Rights Watch, 2004). Slaughterhouses have some of the highest reported injury rates in the manufacturing industry (Beirne, 2004; Broadway & Stull, 2006). Injury rates have been reported to be as high as 20–36% per annum (Dalla et al., 2005; Dillard, 2008; Human Rights Watch, 2004; Olsson, 2002)."
One employee remarked: “As time passes, you get used to it. You feel nothing. You can imagine, if you kill a thing a 1000 times over and over, you wouldn't have feelings after a while. It kills you on the inside, an abattoir, it kills you. You can be full of blood, it will not bother you.”
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
Apart from the complaints about the effects on the abattoir workers (who are there by choice, something the animals are not), the abuse of the animals is deeply disturbing. An ITV report detailed how a hidden camera in a North Yorkshire abattoir, carrying out "religious slaughter," recorded:
* An animal having its throats hacked and sawed and five attempts being necessary to sever blood vessels.
* "Sheep being kicked in the face and head, lifted by their ears, fleeces or legs, and hurled into solid structures.
* A worker standing on the neck of a conscious sheep and bouncing up and down.
* Staff erupting into laughter over a sheep bleeding to death with spectacles drawn around her eyes in green paint.
* Staff taunting and frightening animals by waving knives, smacking them on the head and shouting at them."
Source: https://www.itv.com/
Such barbarity is certainly not limited to the UK. The Age reported of an Australian abattoir in Victoria: "More than 170 hours of vision from inside the Riverside Meats Abattoir shows calves being beaten and stabbed with metal prongs, as well as a pig being repeatedly shot, before taking six minutes to die." The disturbing footage also shows animals being prodded with electric stunning devices on the neck, face and head, instead of on the side of the head. It is the second time in three years the regulator overseeing abattoirs, PrimeSafe, has taken action against the company."
And:
"The footage contained shocking instances of animal cruelty, including:
* Calves and sheep being repeatedly stabbed in the neck, face and head with the metal prongs of an electric stunning device;
* The routine misplacement of stunning equipment, likely resulting in many animals being paralysed but fully conscious and feeling pain while slaughtered;
* Dairy calves and sheep escaping from restraint boxes and falling onto the kill floor, scrambling over dead and dying animals;
* Workers beating confused baby dairy calves to move them to slaughter;
* Workers responding to fearful and panicked animals by beating them, swearing at them, laughing at them and roughly throwing them back onto the kill table...
* A pig in a cattle restraint box suffered multiple shots from a captive bolt gun, before being shot twice with a rifle. The ordeal lasted more than six minutes..."
Source: https://www.theage.com.au/
In a report by a UK newspaper, it was shown how even a method defended by the pork industry was the stuff of nightmares:
"New undercover footage showing British pigs being gassed prior to slaughter has led to renewed calls to investigate the use of CO2...Campaigners say the pictures – the first of their kind to be obtained in a UK abattoir – show the “utterly inhumane” nature of using CO2 to stun pigs before being killed...The images published today were obtained, say campaigners, using hidden cameras at Pilgrim’s Pride abattoir in Ashton-under-Lyne in north-west England in February 2021. They show pigs in groups of five or six being mechanically herded into a cage and then lowered into a Butina gas chamber in a ferris wheel-like system. The pigs appear to be in distress as the gas concentration increases, with one still kicking after more than three minutes...A new scientific opinion by the European Food Safety Authority published in June 2020 stated: 'Exposure to CO2 at high concentrations is considered a serious welfare concern by the panel because it is highly aversive and causes pain, fear and respiratory distress.'”
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/
An undercover investigation was undertaken by Animal Aid, and in its press release said: "National campaigning group Animal Aid has today released footage taken secretly at three randomly chosen abattoirs, which offers an unprecedented close-up of the true inner workings of typical British slaughterhouses that kill pigs, sheep and cattle. The film convincingly disposes of the myth of stress- and pain-free ‘humane slaughter’. The 40 hours of footage shows more than 1,500 animals being stunned and more than 1,000 being killed...Pigs and sheep are seen being kicked, shoved and – in one case – dragged into the stun room, which was packed with frightened animals. In the chaos, animals slip, fall and cry out. The electric tongs used to stun pigs and sheep frequently make contact for too short a time or do not span the brain, and deliver, instead, nothing more than painful electric shocks. Often, the suffering inflicted, the terror experienced and the indifference of the stun operator are shockingly apparent. The scenes filmed...included:
* Pigs and sheep going to the knife without adequate stunning;
* Pigs and sheep stunned and then allowed to come round again;
* Pigs, sheep and calves crying out and struggling to escape;
* Pigs being kicked in the face and sheep thrown to the floor;
* Pigs and sheep with illness or injury being slaughtered;
* A sheep too sick to stand – or possibly already dead – being brought to slaughter in a wheelbarrow;
* A ewe being stunned and killed while her young was suckling her;
* Ewes watching as their young are killed;
* Pigs falling from the slaughter line into the blood pit and being dragged out and re-shackled while other pigs look on;
* An inadequately stunned young calf lying kicking on the floor and the stun operator standing on him to keep him still."
Its report 'An Animal Aid Investigation into UK Slaughterhouses' is available here.
Source: https://www.animalaid.org.uk/
As an example of the widespread abuse of animals and the lax sentencing of any who are caught (invariably only through undercover monitoring by animal rights organisations), the Daily Mail detailed how "two slaughtermen...were filmed beating pigs [at Cheale Meats in Brentwood, Essex] and stubbing cigarettes out on their faces" and one was "seen pushing a lit cigarette onto the forehead and snout of three different pigs and forcing hot ash into one of the animals’ faces as it squirms to get away" He only received a six-week jail sentence. The other, "an experienced slaughterman of 14 years," was "seen beating the animals with the edge of a ‘slapper’ used to move the pigs around the pens before slaughter. He is later filmed hitting one pig 30 times in a minute - forcing the animal to sit down and pant heavily during the tirade of blows." He received a derisory sentence of just four weeks. The barrister defending one of the staff, made a telling comment, saying "the abuse was part of a wider culture".
Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/
On 14 August 2023, Vox published an article regarding the treatment of pigs:
"The animal welfare activist group Animal Outlook has been investigating the meat industry for over two decades, having documented chickens buried and roasted alive, thrashing pigs killed at a high-speed slaughterhouse, fish bludgeoned to death, and cows kicked and beaten, among many other cruelties. But at a pig breeding farm in Minnesota, 120 miles southeast of Minneapolis, between late 2019 and early 2020, an undercover investigator with the organization witnessed some of the worst cruelty they’d ever seen...
In one clip, a pregnant pig who got stuck between two pens and died is sawed in half. “Anyone want some ham?” one worker joked. “Ripped that bitch wide open,” another said. Animal Outlook’s investigator alleged that employees could’ve easily freed her before she died, but didn’t...
Sick and injured piglets on the farm are placed into a small black box to be euthanized with carbon dioxide poisoning, but some survive and are seen gasping for air amid a pile of dead piglets. In one instance captured on video, an injured piglet needed to be euthanized, but a supervisor appeared to say it wasn’t worth running a gassing cycle for just one animal, so he left the piglet to suffer overnight until there were more piglets that needed to be euthanized."
Source: https://www.vox.com/
In December 2023, the Newcastle Herald reported that a "major Tasmanian abattoir" company had received "a draft notice from the federal department of agriculture threatening an export ban." This followed filming inside by the Farm Transparency Project that it said "shows calves being slaughtered without being properly stunned and instances of workers kicking, whipping, beating and throwing calves and sheep." At the time of reporting, the video filming was available to view on the Project website.
Sources: https://www.newcastleherald.com.au/; https://www.farmtransparency.org
Also in December 2023, the Independent reported how "secret camera footage shows ducks swung by their necks, slammed into drawers and hurled to the ground at a farm supplying the UK’s largest duck meat producer, which sells to the UK’s biggest supermarkets. The video was shot when birds destined for Gressingham Duck, which supplies Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Co-op and, until recently, Waitrose, were being caught at a farm endorsed by farming standards project Red Tractor." The events observed included: "Forceful closure of crate doors onto ducks’ heads, wings, and limbs," "catchers violating Red Tractor rules by swinging ducks by their necks," and "injured and lame ducks being thrown aside, destined for on-site euthanasia by neck dislocation. Workers grab a duck by the neck, swing them around, breaking their necks, and toss them into a pile where they convulse."
Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/
On 22 January 2024 there was further reporting that followed the earlier publicity of animal abuse in Tasmania: "Animal rights campaigners from Farm Transparency Project have released new hidden camera footage from a northern Tasmanian slaughterhouse, Wal’s Bulk Meats in Stowport, which reveals extreme animal suffering as well as broken or ineffective machinery and injuries to workers. The footage, captured over August-September last year, shows the slaughter of pigs, cows, sheep and deer, who are stunned using a rifle or an electric stunner, which is revealed to be frequently broken and amateurly repaired by workers. Cows are seen to be shot in the head up to six times, while bellowing in pain, then jumped on by workers to force them into the kill room....The footage also shows sheep and pigs being stunned and slaughtered inside the kill room. Dozens of sheep are seen being electrocuted multiple times, or shot with a rifle when the electric stunner stops working, which happens a number of times. One sheep jumps into the kill room and attempts to run. They are dragged by the legs and sat on by a worker, before having their throat slit while fully conscious."
Source https://tasmaniantimes.com/
Later in January 2024, The Independent reported how secret filming by a Vegan activist showed "pigs apparently being beaten to death" on a Norfolk farm that supplied Morrisons and Tesco supermarkets. Also, "other animals were sick or paralysed, but left untreated". The filming also showed "a worker bludgeoning a pig with an iron bar for 23 seconds while the animal screams. The worker then apparently leaves it alive for nearly two minutes before returning and again attacking it". Moreover, "a female worker is filmed also using an iron bar to beat a pig."
Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/
Three further examples of violent abuse against animals were reported in March 2024. Firstly, undercover filming in a piggery in Victoria showed one of the workers who was "allegedly caught having sex with a pig." Footage of this was shown on ABC's 7.30 television programme.
Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/
The second instance was the prosecution in East Yorkshire of a lorry driver who picked up a pig by its ears. The driver pleaded guilty to using "violence likely to cause unnecessary fear, injury or suffering."
Source: https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/
Thirdly, an article reported that undercover filming in a broiler chick hatchery had revealed that "chicks were crushed under trolley wheels, trodden on and injured as they were thrown into crates."
Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/
In April 2024, Salon.com reported that Mercy For Animals had obtained undercover filming of Kentucky poultry factory farms which showed employees "kicking, stepping, throwing and stuffing chickens into cages for transport."
Source: https://www.salon.com/
The Independent detailed how undercover filming had shown how "a worker hit pigs in the face and on their backs with a paddle" before they entered gas chambers to die. The filming was taken at an abattoir that supplied meat to Tesco, Morrisons, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Aldi, and Marks and Spencer. The filming showed the pigs took up to a minute to die as they were suffocated.
Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/
In June 2024, the Irish Mirror reported on how an 'RTE Investigates' documentary had obtained footage of abuses of horses about to be slaughtered at a Kildare factory. The Irish Independent detailed how the "shocking secret footage of terrified horses being whipped and punched as they awaited slaughter at the country’s only abattoir licensed to slaughter horses." The Mail added that the filming "shows horses slipping over, collapsing and being hit with alkathene pipes in an abattoir." Moreover, the filming "also seems to show a man putting new microchips in horses' necks to change their 'identity', thought to be an effort to launder the identity of the animals and to 'clean' them up for human consumption in Europe."
Sources: https://www.irishmirror.ie; https://www.independent.ie; https://www.dailymail.co.uk
In July 2024, Devon Live reported on how Animal Equality had photos and over 100 hours of recordings taken between October 2023 and June 2024 of "piglets being thrown against walls, a bin full of rotting piglet corpses and pigs who had become trapped in cages," in Cross Farm in Devon. Despite this, the National Pig Association said it had found the farm was "compliant with all requirements". The farm, owned by WJ Watkins and Son, has about 12,000 pigs.
Source: https://www.devonlive.com/
The report by Animal Equality is here. This reports how the investigators found:
Piglets ‘thumped’ and killed against concrete walls;
Piglets having their tails cut off and their teeth ‘clipped’, without anaesthetic;
A piglet thrown by workers across the shed;
Dead piglets throughout the farm. Paperwork reported that piglets had died from starvation, sickness, or after being crushed;
A bin full of dead piglets and rotting corpses on the barn floor;
One pig, who had attempted to turn inside the cage, became caught beneath the metal bars, suffering deep, bloody wounds as a result;
Mother pigs suffering from red, raw leg sores and vulval prolapses;
And filthy conditions in the barns, with cobwebs and dust present throughout.
On 24 August 2024, the Independent reported how the Animal Justice Project (AJP) had filmed employees "hitting suffering pigs at an RSPCA-backed slaughterhouse supplying pork to Tesco and other supermarkets." The article added that the cruelty was filmed at C&K Meats in Eye, Suffolk, "which kills up to 1,400 pigs a day in gas chambers." The AJP said that even though CCTV and auditors were present, they filmed: "Pigs being struck with instruments, causing pain and distress; Visible injuries, lameness, wounds, abnormal growths and other deformities; Unclean pens and poor hygiene practices." An employee was also "recorded saying: 'They [the pigs] do wind you up at times; anyone would think they didn’t want to die [laughs]'.”
Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/
In September 2024, it was reported that undercover filming at Stockton Grange Farm, near Newport, showed "animals being punched, slapped, kicked and beaten with objects by workers." Some of the filming is included in the newspaper report.
Source: https://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/
Also in September 2024, Animal Justice reported "an employee witnessed sentient fishes being violently abused and killed at Sustainable Blue, a...salmon farm in Burlington, Nova Scotia. A video of these shocking acts shows fishes being stomped to death and bashed against tanks. At Sustainable Blue, fishes are killed regularly if they are deemed sick or slow-growing. In the video, a worker is seen stomping on a salmon’s head twice to kill the fish. In another clip, a supervisor is seen killing two fishes—one who is pregnant—by brutally slamming them multiple times against the side of a tank."
Watch the video
Source: https://animaljustice.ca
On 9 October 2024, Axios reported how Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) had obtained undercover fillming at Superior Farms in Denver. The filming included:
"Lambs being improperly stunned, leaving them thrashing and appearing to breathe even after their throats were slit...In one instance, the video shows a lamb with a broken leg left on the slaughter line instead of being immediately euthanized, violating guidelines from the American Veterinary Medical Association. The video also shows workers...beating, kicking and throwing animals."
Source: https://www.axios.com/
On 11 October 2024, The Fresno Bee detailed how Animal Outlook obtained a video "shot during June and July [that] shows several workers with a chicken collecting crew wading through hundreds of birds, tossing some violently into a cage while another worker drives a forklift casually over several birds, crushing them." Animal Outlook contacted the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office asking for a prosecution of the employees and the Company.
Source: https://www.fresnobee.com/
On 17 October 2024, Radio Prague reported that filming had been released that showed "employees beating, kicking, hitting, and dragging animals behind a tractor by chains wrapped around their necks." Furthermore, the group responsible for the filming said the number of such incidents demonstrated they were "not isolated incidents or individual misconduct, but are a routine practice."
Source: https://english.radio.cz/
At the beginning of December 2024, the Independent reported how undercover filming of over 700 hours at a Norfolk farm had shown 'systemic' violence on boars. The filming showed how "workers repeatedly hit the animals with pitchforks and pipes," and "the boars enduring relentless mistreatment, including being kicked and beaten when they resisted mounting stools used for semen collection." The article quoted a former vet who said "The force used in handling these animals, who show no aggression towards workers, is beyond excessive, and employs inappropriate tools as weapons to inflict pain and fear.”
Source https://www.independent.co.uk
The matter was also reported by the Ecologist
Yet another investigation, this time in Spain, details of which were reported in December 2024, revealed:
"Pigs with large abscesses on their stomachs and genital areas, left without veterinary treatment, resulting in deformities.
Cannibalism among pigs, including a live pig who bit the open wounds of their peers. In one scene, a severely injured pig unable to move is filmed screaming and convulsing whilst being eaten alive.
Another pig suffering from ticks and bleeding ears was bitten by fellow pigs.
Piglets showing signs of severe malnutrition.
A convulsing pig left to suffer on a filthy floor."
Source: https://animalequality.org.uk/
Later in December 2024, the Kelownacap News reported that Animal Justice had obtained undercover filming at a pig-processing plant at Chilliwack in British Columbia, resulting in complaints being lodged with the B.C SPCA, the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture and Food, and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Animal Justice referred to "the horror of being slaughtered while fully conscious, being viscerally aware of everything that is happening in these terrifying final moments of your life.” The group also refered to improper use of the equipment for stunning, "with pigs left in agony, cut open while still alert and conscious at the slaughterhouse."
Source: https://www.kelownacapnews.com/
The above represents only a brief summary of the appalling cruelty and violence within and associated with animal farming and abattoirs, and the harm/violence they cause. It is now time to end this grotesque obscenity.
