Animal Aid in Engeland eist onderzoek naar leefomstandigheden varkens in varkenshouderijen - Onderzoek toont schokkend beeld

Campaigners demand probe into pig farm

conditions

18-06-2008 Fenland Today, UK


An animal rights group has called for an investigation into the pig farming industry after it claimed to have discovered dead and diseased animals in squalid conditions in Lincolnshire. Animal Aid visited 10 farms in the county along with Cornwall and Somerset, North Yorkshire and East Yorkshire and took photographs and film footage of pigs, which it said were living and dying in overcrowded, filthy pens.

The investigation was carried out in response to an advertising campaign by the industry which showed healthy pigs in straw-filled stalls or being reared free-range in a field. Members of the group visited the farms unannounced during March and April this year to find out how the pigs were being treated in reality. Two of the farms have board members of the British Pig Executive (BPEX) as their company directors, while others are owned or directed by individuals with positions of influence within the industry.

BPEX and the National Pig Association were involved in the high-profile Pigs Are Worth It advertising campaign to promote the pig farming industry in Britain.

During its investigation, Animal Aid said it found dead and dying pigs and piglets in barren, overcrowded, dirty pens, illegal tail-docking, breeding sows kept in tiny crates in which they had no room to move and pigs with shoulder injuries.

On one farm, the group's members found a pile of 20 dead pigs, a spokeswoman said.

Kate Fowler-Reeves, head of campaigns at Animal Aid, described welfare standards on typical British pig farms as "abysmally poor" and criticised the industry's marketing campaign. She said: "Rarely has there been such a huge disparity between marketing hype and truth. "While the idealised vision is perpetuated through expensive PR offensives, and while 'celebrity' farmers plead for the future of 'high welfare' pig farms, the wretched truth is pushed aside: that welfare standards on typical British pig farms are abysmally poor."

(Bron: http://www.fenlandcitizen.co.uk/)

Note Kraaijer:
Text below is from the website http://www.animalaid.org.uk/:

The ten farms were visited between March and April 2008.
They are:
Sandhouse Farm, Ermine Farms Ltd, Appleby, Lincolnshire
Norway Farm, Melrose Pigs Ltd, Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire
Kilham Road & Slatherdale Units, Yorkwold Pigpro Ltd, Driffield, East Riding of Yorkshire
Edneys Farm, Rainbow Pigs Company Ltd, Mells, Somerset
Lower Egford Farm, Egford Bacon Ltd, Frome, Somerset
Penare Farm, St Columb, Cornwall
Crossbones Farm, Rhal Farms Ltd, Thirsk, North Yorkshire
Sandholme Farm, Thirsk, North Yorkshire
Trewethen Pig Farm, St Teath, Cornwall
Treburgett Piggery, St Teath, Cornwall
The full report will be available shortly.
See and download the photos