SUMMER IMPACT REPORT: APRIL-JUNE 2021
Friends, supporters, and allies,
Our Animal Equality teams have been hard at work and as we look back on the major milestones of the last three months there is so much to celebrate about what we have made happen for animals!
So far this year, Animal Equality has released eight new undercover investigations into factory farms and slaughterhouses in the United Kingdom, Mexico, Brazil, Italy, and Spain. After more than a year of campaigning to ban so-called ‘wet markets’ – where live animals are sold and slaughtered – Animal Equality delivered more than half a million of your signatures to world leaders at the United Nations. Additionally, we secured 10 animal welfare commitments from companies, which will impact more than 10.6 million hens and chickens each year. All of this has happened because of generous support from people like you.
You are impacting the lives of hundreds of millions of farmed animals worldwide and together we will continue to make progress in the months to come. Thank you for your ongoing support of our work to protect farmed animals!
In gratitude,
Sharon Núñez
President, Animal Equality
End the Cage Age
EU Announces Historic Ban On Cages
In a historic move driven forward by the End the Cage Age campaign, on 30th June the European Commission committed to phase out cages for farmed animals across the European Union, with the aim of banning them completely by 2027.
Animal Equality joined the campaign in 2018, alongside more than 170 other animal protection organisations. In the following years, we helped generate the 1.4 million validated signatures on the official petition, and our teams in Germany, Italy, and Spain released a number of investigations into the use of cages in factory farms in the EU.
This groundbreaking commitment from the European Commission should set a strong precedent for other countries around the world to follow, including the UK. Once the ban is put in place, it will affect around 300 million animals every year.
UK Pig Farm Investigation
Welfare Chief Quits After Abuse on His Farm Is Exposed
In April, Animal Equality released an investigation into an intensive pig farm in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, linked to one of the UK’s largest meat producers, Pilgrim’s Pride UK. The farm, P&G Sleigh Pig Unit, is owned by senior industry figure Philip Sleigh, who was a board member of the public body Quality Meat Scotland, a farm welfare assurance scheme. Responsible for setting industry standards, he had been appointed to his position by the Scottish Government.
Our footage revealed:
- Piglets being hammered to death.
- Pigs gasping and showing signs of consciousness after multiple blows to the head.
- Sick and underweight piglets killed by being slammed on the concrete floor.
- Mother pigs with severe prolapses after years of forced impregnation, causing their internal organs to painfully hang outside of their bodies.
The investigation achieved major media attention, with the news reported in The Times, The Independent, the Scottish Daily Mail, and on the front page of Scotland’s most widely-read newspaper. Our petition calling on governments to increase legal protections for pigs also received widespread support, including from Hollywood actor Karen Gillan. As a result of our findings, Philip Sleigh resigned from his position on the Quality Meat Scotland board, the farm lost its welfare accreditation, and major supermarkets Tesco and Lidl dropped the farm as one of its suppliers. A formal criminal investigation is now underway.
Brazil
Slaughtered Pregnant Cows Show Industry’s Cruelty Has No Limits
In June, Animal Equality released a shocking investigation into Brazil’s meat industry and the common practice of slaughtering pregnant cows. The disturbing footage shows an unborn calf struggling inside his mother’s womb as she is killed, as well as calves cut from their mothers’ bodies and dumped on the slaughterhouse floor.
Approximately 650,000 cows are slaughtered every year in Brazil while they are carrying unborn babies, despite the practice being widely condemned by animal specialists and organisations. We have urged the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture to ban the cruel slaughter of pregnant cows and issue fines to offenders.
We publicised this investigation in the UK and people were dismayed to learn that this practice is also legally permitted in the UK.
Morrisons Misery
Online Activists Urge Morrisons To Sign The Better Chicken Commitment
Since March, Animal Equality UK has been working alongside fellow animal charities to call on the UK’s major supermarkets to sign the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC), a set of welfare standards which eliminate some of the worst suffering for chickens raised for meat.
In April, we began focusing campaigning efforts on Morrisons, following its misleading announcement that it would launch a new range of chicken meat which met BCC standards, instead of meeting the BCC across all chicken meat products that it sells. Animal Equality’s online activists have been relentlessly contacting Morrisons and raising awareness on social media about the suffering chickens face and the urgent need for change.
TV conservationist Chris Packham has also been involved in the campaign, having launched a petition calling on all major UK supermarkets to sign the BCC. The petition currently has over 191,000 signatures. If all UK supermarkets implement the BCC it will impact an estimated 800 million chickens every year.
*Image representative of typical factory farm conditions
Wet Markets Campaign
Over 500,000 Signatures Delivered to the United Nations
On 17th June, we delivered more than 569,000 global petition signatures to senior UN officials, calling for a ban on the sale and slaughter of live animals at so-called ‘wet markets’ across the globe.
Within our work, we document the connection between animal exploitation, global health, and the environment. We find these links in factory farms and slaughterhouses all around the world, and it is also clear in the case of wet markets where live animals are transported, traded, and killed – often without protocols in place that could reduce their suffering or better protect the health of people involved.
Our signature delivery made sure that the concerns of hundreds of thousands of people like you, who want these abuses to end, are heard loud and clear. The petition hand-in came after a number of Animal Equality investigations into live animal markets. The World Health Organisation has also called for a worldwide ban on the sale of live wild mammals for consumption.
Italy
Severe Animal Cruelty Uncovered In Slaughterhouse In Cremona, Italy
In June, Animal Equality Italy released a shocking investigation inside an abattoir owned by the company Zema Srl, an industrial slaughterhouse near Cremona, where around 3,000 pigs are killed every week. The footage revealed systematic violations of animal welfare regulations and cases of cruel killing that were promptly reported to the relevant authorities by filing three complaints.
The investigation revealed terrible abuses including:
- Pigs being pushed out of vehicles with rods as well as being kicked and beaten. The animals were forced off trucks even in the absence of unloading ramps.
- Pigs arriving at the slaughterhouse already dead because of diseases or because of poor transport conditions. Others suffered from severe cysts, umbilical hernias and lameness related to accidents, infections or malformations.
- Severe mistreatment and extremely cruel killings: the footage shows one piglet being repeatedly shot before being killed by a worker.
- Ineffective or inadequate stunning: several animals were killed while still conscious and showed clear signs of breathing and movement for minutes before their throats were cut.
Mexico
Alarming Environmental Consequences of Industrial Farming
In May, Animal Equality released a report on the catastrophic environmental consequences of industrial farming. The report was a culmination of two years of investigations into numerous factory farms in Jalisco, a state which produces most of Mexico’s animal products. It was also a follow-up to the findings of our short documentary, ‘Enemy of the Planet’, which used drone footage to show the visible ecological damage that has been done to the region. During our extensive investigations, we discovered:
- High levels of greenhouse gas emissions from ponds filled with animal excrement.
- Wastewater spills that cause algal blooms and ‘dead zones’ in the region’s lakes.
- Toxic odours from poor management of infectious biological waste.
We reported a total of 44 farms to local authorities, calling for the farms to be shut down and held responsible to repair the environmental damage that they have caused.
United States
Landmark Animal Welfare Law Upheld Following Appeal
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a challenge brought by the North American Meat Institute (NAMI) against California’s Prop 12, which is one of the strongest animal welfare laws in history. The measure bans cages of any kind for hens, veal crates for calves, and tiny cages called gestation crates which are used to confine mother pigs. The measure also prohibits the sale of products coming from other US states that do not meet the same standards. The Court’s decision not to take up the case means the law will go into effect as scheduled on January 1, 2022. Animal Equality was among the groups that intervened in the case to help defend this important law against NAMI’s attack.
Also in June, Nevada became the ninth US state to ban the use of cages in the egg industry. Animal Equality actively worked on this campaign, mobilising our network of activists in Nevada to take strategic legislative actions supporting the bill. In addition to banning the use of cages, this new law will also ban the sale of eggs from caged hens, wherever they originate. While cage-free does not mean cruelty-free, this marks important progress and will impact roughly 3.5 million hens per year once the law comes into effect in 2024.
Our Impact Globally
Global Media Coverage
Our work in 2021 has been featured in major media outlets around the world.
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