Workers filmed beating pigs on Fir Tree Farm in Lincolnshire

The investigation, which came on the back of an anonymous tip-off, revealed serious and repeated violent abuse of the animals by several members of staff, including: •    Kicking pigs in the face and head, often violently and repeatedly, with over 100 incidents of kicking recorded in 10 days •    Jabbing pigs repeatedly with the tines of a mucking out fork •    Transporting an injured pig in the bucket of a tractor and hitting it repeatedly (by kicking and with a gate) when it couldn’t move into a pen •    Spraying marker paint directly up a pig’s nose •    Slamming gates on pigs’ heads •    Hitting pigs in the face and head with heavy plastic boards (pig boards) •    Workers laughing about the abuse and swearing at pigs •    Leaving a ‘downed’ pig without veterinary care for 48 hours before shooting it

Investigators made multiple visits to Fir Tree Farm – which holds 10,000 pigs – between 1st- 27th April, 2018, and placed hidden cameras in the buildings where violence had been reported. They also documented dozens of pigs with severe tail biting wounds, some critically infected, as well as many heavily scarred pigs and several with hernias.

Animal Equality has passed all of the evidence to the RSPCA, which is investigating. We understand that several workers have been dismissed and we expect them to face the full force of the law for this sickening abuse which, without the courage of the whistleblower and our investigators, would still be happening today.

Consumers can help end this cruelty by trying the increasing variety of plant-based foods available in shops and restaurants – which are often healthier than meat as well as cruelty-free. Check out www.loveveg.uk to get started! This is the third time that Animal Equality has filmed workers violently abusing animals on British farms. In 2016 a worker on Pyrland dairy farm in Somerset was filmed slamming newborn calves to the floor and kicking cows in the face just hours after they had given birth. He pled guilty to two cruelty charges in April 2017. In 2012 two workers were filmed beating piglets to death with a metal bar on Harling Farm in Norfolk. Both men pled guilty to cruelty charges and one was sent to prison for 18 weeks.