END FACTORY FARMING
Thank you for signing this important petition.
Before you go, remember that we are up against a huge, multi-million-pound industry. That is why if you’re moved to do more, a donation to Animal Equality today will fund the investigations, campaigns, and advocacy work that turn public support into real legal change.
Abigail Penny
Executive Director Animal Equality UK
THANK YOU FOR DEFENDING FARMED ANIMALS!
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Help us end factory farming in the UK – SIGN NOW!
Every year, billions of animals suffer inside factory farms – including here in the UK. Factory farming is a cruel and unsustainable system of intensive animal agriculture, where animals are treated as mere commodities: crammed into unnatural sheds, deprived of their most basic needs, and subjected to painful mutilations.
Newborn calves are torn from their mothers in the dairy industry so their milk can be sold for human consumption. Millions of mother pigs are confined to metal crates barely bigger than their own bodies. Chickens are bred to grow so unnaturally fast that their legs break and collapse under their weight. Farmed fish are confined in underwater cages riddled with lice and disease, with no meaningful legal protections at slaughter.
Despite claims that the UK keeps animals to ‘high welfare standards’, our investigative exposés consistently uncover extreme cruelty, legal violations, and a failure of enforcement. Non-compliances go unnoticed and unpunished. The only way to truly protect animals is to end factory farming altogether.
The suffering of animals in factory farms
Factory farming affects animals at every stage of their short and miserable lives. Here’s how:
– They are selectively bred to grow unnaturally fast, sent to slaughter in just six weeks – a fraction of their natural lifespan.
– Many suffer broken bones, heart attacks, or are unable to stand because their bodies cannot support their rapid growth.
– Packed into overcrowded, filthy sheds, they are denied natural behaviours like foraging, dust-bathing, and proper rest.
– At slaughter, they are shackled upside down and many are electrocuted in water baths; some are still conscious.
– Millions are confined to cages every year – cages so small they cannot spread their wings, unable to engage in natural behaviours.
– Their beaks are often painfully cut off to prevent stress-induced pecking caused by their restrictive environment.
– Once their egg production declines, they are slaughtered at just 18 months old, despite their natural lifespan being 7 to 9 years.
– Their calves are taken away within hours of birth, causing immense distress for both mother and baby.
– Male calves, deemed ‘useless’ to the dairy industry, are often shot shortly after birth or exported for veal production.
– Cows used for dairy often suffer from lameness, mastitis (painful udder infections), and early exhaustion, leading to premature slaughter.
Photo: Animal Equality & Aitor Garmendia
– Mother pigs (often referred to as sows) are forced to live in farrowing crates where they can barely move, preventing them from properly nursing or bonding with their piglets.
– Piglets routinely endure painful mutilations including tooth-clipping and tail-docking – without anaesthetic.
– Many pigs develop stress-induced behaviours such as biting the metal bars of their cages out of frustration.
– At slaughter, pigs are gassed with CO₂, a method known to cause panic, distress, and immense suffering before they lose consciousness.
– They are kept in crowded sea cages, leading to high levels of disease, parasitic infections, stress, and predation.
– Many fish suffer painful wounds, deformities, and injuries from poor handling and rough farming treatments.
– At slaughter, without species-specific legal protections in place, millions are at risk of being left to suffocate, exposed to air for prolonged periods, or killed using methods that cause slow, painful deaths.
Sign the petition now to take action and help millions of animals across the UK:
The fight to end factory farming
Ending factory farming is a bold and ambitious goal, but Animal Equality UK is taking real, measurable steps to get there. Here are the campaigns we’re running right now:
Foie gras imports
Despite the UK’s ban on domestic foie gras production due to its inherent cruelty – force-feeding ducks and geese to enlarge their livers – the importation and sale of foie gras remains legal. Animal Equality is campaigning to end this hypocrisy by banning the import and sale of products made by force-feeding in the UK.
Dairy industry practices
Approximately 1.8 million cows are used for milk production annually in the UK, with a growing number never experiencing pasture. Through a series of investigative exposés inside the British dairy industry, Animal Equality is exposing the cruelty of dairy farms, calling for Government subsidies to support a transition away from dairy, and inspiring people to choose plant-based alternatives.
Stop illegal animal abuse
Over more than a decade, Animal Equality has released dozens of exposés capturing footage inside UK farms and slaughterhouses – consistently uncovering prolonged animal suffering, deliberate abuse, neglect, and legal violations. Laws matter and must be upheld. We are campaigning for increased scrutiny and transparency inside farms, centralised data monitoring by regulators, and stronger enforcement of existing animal protection laws. Non-compliances cannot continue to go undetected and undeterred.
Salmon farming accountability
The Scottish salmon industry faces a growing crisis, with millions of farmed fish dying on farms before ever reaching slaughter. Animal Equality is campaigning for the Scottish Government to hold the salmon industry accountable and cease granting planning permissions for new fish farming facilities in Scotland.
Farmed fish protections
Up to 77 million fish are farmed and killed each year in the UK, yet they lack specific, meaningful legal protections. Animal Equality is calling on the UK Government to implement new laws to protect fish at slaughter, make CCTV mandatory inside fish slaughterhouses and slaughterboats, and require unannounced inspections.
Join the movement: Sign the petition
Ending factory farming won’t happen overnight, but every voice counts. By signing, you are:
- Calling on the UK Government to phase out factory farming and support sustainable, humane alternatives that do not involve harming animals.
- Showing that public opinion is shifting – and sending a clear signal to policymakers and businesses that the time to act is now.
- Standing alongside a growing movement of people who refuse to accept that this level of cruelty is inevitable.
Factory farming is the biggest cause of animal suffering in the world. Together, we can end it.
save animals, eat plant based
As a consumer, you hold the power to protect animals from the meat industry. Every plant-based meal saves animals from a life of misery in factory farms and slaughterhouses.