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Burning eyes. Breathless panic.

These are the last moments 90% of pigs in the UK experience.

Before slaughter, pigs are gassed with CO₂ in chambers the industry calls “gondolas.” It takes up to five minutes for them to lose consciousness.

Email your MP now

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Pigs gassed since you opened this page

Nearly 1 million pigs are stunned with CO₂ in UK slaughterhouses every month. Conscious and forced to breathe it in until they stop struggling. The last excruciating breath 90% of pigs will take in the UK.

Figure based on UK industry averages for CO₂ stunning of pigs prior to slaughter – not a live abattoir feed.

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The dire reality behind CO₂ pig gassing

90% of pigs

in England and Wales are stunned using high-concentration CO2 gas.

3-5 minutes

is the agonising time it typically takes for a pig to lose consciousness.

20+ years

‎‎‎that the Government’s expert advisers have condemned this practice.

Inside a gas chamber the industry calls a “gondola”

You can help make sure their suffering isn’t ignored.

Email your MP today and demand the Government finally acts for these animals.

Urge your MP to take action

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There have been calls to phase out the CO₂ gassing of pigs for decades. The extremely slow movement on this is hugely regrettable and concerning.
Jenny Mace
University of Winchester, Animal Welfare Researcher

Take Action – Email your MP today

Your MP has the power to raise this issue directly inside Parliament and put pressure on the Ministers responsible for animal protection and food standards.

Emails from constituents carry real political weight. MPs pay attention when people in their constituency speak up. Your message will call on your MP to:

Urge the Government to act on the evidence and set a clear timeline to phase out CO₂ gassing of pigs
Publicly support an end to this method of stunning
Press the Food Standards Agency and Animal Welfare Committee’s own findings to be acted on, not shelved

To send your email, use this Parliament tool to find your MP. After you search your postcode, you can find your MP’s constituency email. Then you can:

Add your address below and it will pre-fill in your email – letting your MP know you’re writing as their constituent.

Review and personalise the pre-written message if you wish – personal touches make all the difference. Please remember to keep it polite!

Hit ‘send email’ to open your ready-made draft. Don’t forget to add in your MP’s email. After you hit send, your email will go directly to their inbox.

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Email political rep

Email your MP now

Email body

Dear Member of Parliament,

I care deeply about animals, and I'm writing to you as a constituent about a practice I believe most people in the UK would be shocked to learn is still legal: the CO₂ gassing of pigs in UK slaughterhouses.

Nearly a million pigs are slaughtered in the UK every month. 90% are stunned using high-concentration CO₂ gas, a method that can take up to five minutes to render a pig unconscious. In that time, most pigs gasp, squeal, and try to escape, clear signs of pain and panic, not a swift or humane process. The Government's own Animal Welfare Committee has raised concerns about this method for over 20 years, yet nothing has changed.

The Government promised "the most significant boost to animal welfare in a generation." I don't see how that promise can be considered kept while this continues unaddressed.

Please raise this directly with the relevant Ministers, and push for a clear, public timeline to end high-concentration CO₂ gassing of pigs. I'd welcome hearing what you're willing to do. Animal Equality UK is closely engaged on this issue and can share evidence or arrange a briefing if useful, my contact there is Anastasios Chalas, Policy and Advocacy Specialist (anastasiosc@animalequality.org.uk).

Thank you for your time.

Address

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If you’re having any tech issues with the above tool, feel free to hit ‘copy to clipboard’, for each element and paste into an email manually! Or you can click here to open up the draft. You can still mark that you completed the action by clicking ‘I did this’. Thank you for your dedication to animals!

Their screams echo through the factory walls

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Protect pigs

Pigs are highly social animals who are often considered smarter than dogs. You can protect these intelligent animals by simply choosing plant-based alternatives.

Start Your Plant-Based Journey