A farm business which supplies free range pork to major supermarket chains is facing animal cruelty charges including an allegation workers were allowed to bludgeon pigs to death.
Norfolk Free Range, which is accredited by an RSPCA welfare scheme, provides meat to Waitrose, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Co-op, Aldi and Lidl.
But it is due to take part in a trial next year following the release of covert footage taken by animal activists at Harford Farm in Caistor St Edmund, one of the 40 sites it operates across East Anglia.
The footage, which was taken over an eight-day period, allegedly caught workers attacking pigs with a long metal fencing pole, known as a hurdle pin, in two separate incidents.
A pig appeared to be left for dead in one of the attacks, which appeared in a documentary, Pignorant, produced by vegan animal activist Joey Carbstrong in 2022.
Two farm workers – a man and a woman – were subsequently sacked.
Norfolk Free Range faces six charges including permitting the ‘repeated striking of a pig with a hurdle pin’ causing the animal to suffer in that it failed to take steps to prevent it.
There are also two counts of failing in its duty to ensure animal welfare by not taking adequate steps to meet the needs of caring for injured pigs.
Covert footage allegedly caught workers attacking pigs with a long metal fencing pole, known as a hurdle pin, in two separate incidents
Other charges include allowing the killing of pigs without a licence, killing animals without the proper restraint and allowing workers to inflict blows and kicks on animals.
The firm, which denies all the charges, is owned by millionaire farming entrepreneurs Steve and Sally Ann Hart, who have not been accused of any offences personally.
Mr Hart was a grain trader who used his last £500 to switch to pig rearing in the 1990s.
He went on to win Farmers Weekly’s Pig Farmer of the Year award in 2016 on the strength of his championing of animal welfare.
Norfolk Free Range, which made a profit of almost £4 million on a turnover of £9.2 million in the year to July 2024, is a member of the RSPCA’s Assured programme, which requires members to adhere to ‘higher welfare’ standards.
Harford Farm was not RSPCA Assured when the covert footage was taken but has been certified since.
A manager at one of the firm’s pig units won an RSPCA award for ‘excellence in higher farm animal welfare’ in 2021.
Speaking when the Pignorant documentary was unveiled, Norfolk Free Range said: ‘We have been disgusted and distressed by the actions of our employees depicted in the footage.
Two farm workers – a man and a woman – were sacked after the footage came to light
The company behind the farm is owned by Steve Hart, pictured, who was previously crowned pig farmer of the year, and his wife Sally Ann. Neither face charges personally
‘It is not acceptable and not representative of the way in which we look after our animals.’
The company will stand trial at Norwich Magistrates Court in June next year.