- WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
Tesco has suspended one of its pork suppliers and launched an investigation into the farm after footage emerged of piglets being raised in ‘wretched’ conditions.
Videos obtained with hidden cameras by Animal Equality activists in October last year and January and June this year revealed employees at Cross Farm in Holsworthy Beacon, Devon, murdering the piglets by swinging them against concrete walls.
The practice is a form of euthanasia known as ‘thumping’ and is legal in Britain as long as the pigs are under four weeks old and are suffering after all other treatments have failed.
The Cross Farm workers were also caught cutting the baby pig’s tails, allegedly without anaesthetic, which is legal to prevent tail biting only if all other methods have been exhausted.
It was also unveiled that dead piglets were being left to decompose just inches away from their mothers. Other clips showed workers rounding up baby pigs and throwing them around.
Pictures from another undercover investigation by Advocates for Animals of Cross Farm in March show piglets being kept in filthy flooded conditions
Another picture from the undercover investigation in March show pigs unable to move in their pen due to overcrowding
A farmhand was caught throwing straw into the face of a piglet’s mother after she became agitated.
Abigail Penny, the Animal Equality activist group’s executive director, said: ‘Pigs on Cross Farm struggle and suffer in the most abysmal conditions.
‘Our footage shows the wretched reality that so many mother pigs face on British farms today.’
Tesco said it has temporarily suspended supply from Cross Farm while it conducts an investigation after being sent the shocking footage.
Cross Farm is owned by WJ Watkins and Son and holds around 12,000 pigs.
An image from the investigation in March shows a mother pig being kept in a cage in a farrowing unit
The investigation in March revealed that pigs were suffering from untreated wounds. Pictured: a piglet with an untreated hernia
This is not the first instance of poor treatment on the farm, despite it being Red Tractor-certified.
In March, an undercover investigation found pigs cannibalising each other and suffering from untreated wounds.
Another exposé by Animal Equality in 2017, published by The Times, found animals living in dirty flooded buildings with no dry areas for them to rest.
A spokesman for Red Tractor, founded by the National Farmers’ Union in 2000 to certify food produced to a ‘high standard’, said it had temporarily suspended the farm’s certificate but a surprise spot check found ‘the farm had already implemented some measures to address issues raised in the footage’.
The spokesman told The Times: ‘The farm’s certificate has therefore been reinstated but the business will remain under close scrutiny.’
In a statement on behalf of Cross Farm, Lizzie Wilson, chief executive of the National Pig Association, said the farm had implemented ‘urgent remediate action’ to improve standards.
She added: ‘The welfare of our animals..is absolutely paramount.’
Tesco, Red Tractor, The National Pig Association and Cross Farm have been approached by MailOnline for further comment.