Investigation exposes intentional animal cruelty at German pig farm
- Animal Equality’s most extensive investigation to- date unveils rampant and intentional animal abuse at one of Germany’s largest pig farms.
- Many of Animal Equality’s findings violate European Union Law.
- These revelations, broadcasted on Germany’s leading television news channel, have reached tens of thousands of viewers.
- Animal Equality has filed a complaint with the appropriate authorities.
An undercover investigator with Animal Equality spent four months inside one of Germany’s largest pig farms. Inside the facility, which houses around 25,000 pigs, the investigator documented routine violence and neglect. At 120 days, this is Animal Equality’s longest undercover investigation.
The footage aired live on Germany’s leading national television channel – Das Erste – during a program called Kontraste. The press coverage is ongoing.
Disturbing findings
The investigation reveals several instances of animal cruelty, some of which violate European Union law:
- A worker twists and breaks the necks of piglets with his bare hands, a practice banned in Germany.
- Another worker throws a piglet head first onto the concrete floor, killing them.
- An injured pig is chased and unsuccessfully stunned with a captive bolt gun. The bolt becomes lodged in the animal’s skull.The worker then strikes the pig to the ground with a wooden beam and slits their throat.
- A worker stands with his boot on a piglet’s neck, cutting their throat without effective prior stunning.
- A piglet, who is cut at the so-called ‘killing table’, is later found still breathing under a pile of dead bodies.
- A worker pushes a piglet to the floor as punishment for not moving, then sits on the piglet and punches them several times in the face.
- Workers are seen painting a squirming piglet’s body for amusement.
Alarmingly, older piglets are castrated by a veterinarian who hangs them from a ladder and makes an abdominal incision. Some pigs are not properly disinfected before the incision is made. One piglet showed signs of pain, despite attempts to sedate them.
This is clearly brutal mistreatment and torture of the animals. This behaviour can in no way be explained by misconduct due to ignorance or excessive demands, but is a deliberate, repeated and brutal cruelty to animals.
Dr Claudia Preuß-Ueberschär and Dr Jochen Weins, Veterinarians for Responsible Agriculture
Other routine findings
The investigation also uncovers the confinement of mother pigs inside ‘farrowing crates’ – a controversial practice that is also legally permitted in UK pig farms. Shortly before giving birth, mother pigs are housed inside these tiny cages; they are then kept in the cage for five weeks, until their piglets are weaned. The small space prevents them from turning around. Many mother pigs suffer from severe, untreated injuries from rubbing against the bars – as was also the case in Animal Equality’s UK’s latest pig exposé.
Additional evidence shows piglets’ tails being amputated at just a few days old, a potential violation of European Union regulations. Similarly, the majority of piglets on UK farms are also mutilated in this way, typically without pain relief, despite it being illegal to routinely cut the tails off of piglets.
Animals on this German farm are found to be routinely kicked, beaten, chased through stalls, or thrown around the facility by employees.
Legal action and global response
Animal Equality has submitted extensive evidence to the authorities. Criminal charges have been filed against the pig farming company and individual employees.
Our undercover investigation proves once again that these conditions are not exceptional situations or isolated cases. Our footage clearly shows that the abuse, neglect and illegal killings are an integral part of the system
Vanessa Raith, Executive Director, Animal Equality in Germany
Taking action for pigs
Animal Equality is at the forefront of exposing cruelty inflicted on pigs worldwide. While the disturbing footage from Germany – garnering tens of thousands of video views – highlights severe abuse, our investigations show that such scenes are not isolated. Similar instances of cruelty and neglect are seen on factory farms in Spain, Italy, Mexico, and even on accredited farms in the UK.
In the UK, we have investigated several Red Tractor-accredited pig farms over the years, including most recently Cross Farm in Holsworthy, Devon, which confines an estimated 12,000 pigs and supplies pig-meat to Tesco. Across six visits to this farm between 2023-2024, we gathered over 100 hours of evidence and documented a series of abuses, both legal and illegal. We discovered piglets being ‘thumped’ and killed against concrete walls, having their tails cut off without anaesthetic, and being crushed alive as their mothers attempted to turn around in cages.
Our global investigations reveal a number of alarming and widespread issues on both certified and uncertified pig farms. The pig-meat industry is built on a foundation of suffering, simply for profit. Mother pigs are cruelly caged and forcibly impregnated over and over again, before being slaughtered at a young age. Their young are often painfully mutilated – their teeth and tails cut – and ‘fattened’ before eventually being sent to slaughter. The majority of pigs in the UK are confined in crowded factory farms, with little to occupy their intelligent minds.
Our teams worldwide are dedicated to ending this cruelty. In Germany, we are pursuing legal action against abusive farms and urging the country to switch to plant-based alternatives. In the US, we have launched a petition to end factory farming and are targeting corporations like Denny’s, which still uses cruel cages to confine mother pigs during pregnancy, despite committing to ending this practice within their supply chain over a decade ago. In the UK, we are leveraging our footage to call on the Government to hold animal abusers accountable. We are highlighting that industry-funded certification schemes cannot self-regulate effectively and are advocating for a stricter Government regulatory framework, including unannounced inspections and a licensing system, while also pushing for Government subsidies to be offered to farmers to transition to arable farming instead.
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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.
