The monsters you didn’t see – until now

Image by Michael Hicks/ licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

For generations, Scotland has claimed a monster – Nessie, the mysterious beast said to haunt Loch Ness.

A creature of myth, wonder, and folklore.

But the real monster in Scotland isn’t hiding in the deep.

It’s not ancient or legendary.

It’s here. It’s real.

And it’s being fed.

The monster I am talking about is the Scottish salmon industry.

Behind the rolling hills and pristine lochs lies another world – one of suffering so vast and so routine, yet almost invisible.

Thanks to Animal Equality and our allies, we’re making that monster known.

We’ve seen salmon crammed into filthy underwater cages, their bodies eaten alive by parasitic sea lice.

Thousands packed together in stagnant water, they swim in endless circles, crashing into each other, their fins torn and their bodies wounded or deformed.

Stressed by the unnatural conditions, some become aggressive – others simply drift.

And then… there are the ones who give up.

I remember one.

They drifted near the cage’s edge, just beneath the water’s surface, hanging limp.

A gaping sore had opened along their side – raw, red, and oozing – the flesh eaten away by parasites that had gnawed through their skin down to the bone.

Their eye was clouded, glazed over with pain or infection – I couldn’t tell which.

They didn’t move. Not really. Their fins twitched faintly now and then, like they were trying to remember what it felt like to swim.

But there was no fight left in them.

They didn’t flee. Didn’t react. Just floated there, barely alive.

It looked like they were waiting for the end.

There was no vet.

No emergency care.

Nowhere to escape.

Later that day, they will have taken their last breath in a cage packed with tens of thousands of others just like them.

To the industry, this fish was nothing – just one more death, one more body to be scooped out and discarded like trash.

But to the salmon… this was their life, their everything.

I wish I could tell you something reassuring at this point…

That this is just one farm, one case, one bad company.

But it’s not.

And it’s not just about salmon.

This is a crisis spreading across all animal farming.

Each year, millions of individuals are born into farms – not to live, but to suffer until the day they are killed, cut apart, and packed into sterile plastic-wrapped packages.

Beyond fish trapped in underwater cages, there are piglets being slammed against walls in stinking sheds, and chickens languishing on urine soaked floors.

Trust me when I say: there are monsters lurking all around us, hiding behind factory farm walls. 

But who feeds these monsters with its money? 

Yes, it’s the people we vote for: the Government.

Even after the Scottish Government’s own Rural Affairs and Islands Committee released a damning report exposing severe animal welfare failures on salmon farms, over £50,000 of taxpayer money was handed over – not to clean up the cruelty, but to help the industry increase its share of salmon in France.

They know the suffering, they have read the findings, yet STILL choose to feed the monster – with PUBLIC MONEY.

And when Animal Equality and others expose the cruelty?

The monsters bite back.

They call us “extreme”.

Not because we’re wrong – but because if people believe us, then the industry will have to face up to the fact that it has no place in modern society. 

Most people would never intentionally hurt an animal.

Yet every time someone buys ‘products’ that are not plant-based, they unknowingly support animal cruelty and further feed into this system and these monsters.

If someone neglected a dog or a cat to the point they had a blind eye or an open sore, there would be outrage. Headlines. Public fury.

But no fish farm in the UK has ever been charged with animal welfare violations.

And on average between 2018-2021, just 0.33% of complaints relating to land-based farmed animals led to prosecutions.

At Animal Equality, we’re diving into the murky depths and shining a light in the darkness – exposing cruelty, challenging corporations, demanding change.

Now, we need you.

Monsters don’t disappear on their own.

They grow bigger when we look away.

They become more powerful when we stay silent.

They depend on our distance – on our compassion being just far enough removed that we do nothing.

But you’ve read this far.

You see it now.

And that means you matter more than you know.

This monster won’t fall with facts alone.

It will only fall because people like you decide to act.

Now, we need you.

Help us slay it.

STAND WITH US: DONATE NOW

In solidarity,

Lex Rigby

Campaigns and Public Affairs Manager
Animal Equality UK