Media Release
23 November 2009
Investigation exposes factory-farmed cruelty
An investigation by Animals Australia has revealed the cruel conditions endured by breeding pigs in factory
farms in Australia. The footage obtained in a major commercial piggery shows rows of mother pigs
imprisoned in metal and concrete crates barely bigger than their bodies. The footage which aired on 60
Minutes last night shocked viewers who witnessed for the first time the origins of the pork products on
supermarket shelves.
Animals Australia undertook this unprecedented investigation knowing that consumers, many who care
deeply about animal welfare, were unknowingly financially supporting animal cruelty every time they
purchased factory farmed products on supermarket shelves.
Animals Australia Executive Director, Glenys Oogjes said,
"The animal abuse that this industry is responsible for desperately needed to be exposed. The pig industry
has made Australian consumers complicit in animal cruelty without their knowledge or permission.
Politicians and pig producers may think it acceptable to treat animals this way, but an informed community
will not."
In Australia it is legal to keep breeding pigs in individual metal and concrete crates for their entire 4 month
pregnancy despite these cruel devices having been banned in the UK for a decade. Animals are so tightly
confined that they cannot turn around or stretch their legs out when lying. Mother pigs have no choice but
to give birth on a hard metal or concrete floor in the same area that they toilet. Pig producers are shielded
from cruelty prosecutions by an industry Code of Practice.
"Women, especially mothers will be appalled to learn that these intelligent animals are being treated as
nothing more than breeding machines. There is no excuse, no possible justification for confining an animal
for weeks on end so that it can barely move. It is animal abuse.
"These intelligent animals are denied the legal protection from acts of cruelty afforded to companion
animals. Just because they are destined to end up on a plate, doesn't lessen our ethical obligation to treat
them humanely.
"Major supermarkets including Coles and Woolworths have been financial supporters of factory farming in
Australia through marketing the products. With agriculture ministers failing to ban cruel practices, hope for
these animals rests with retailers and consumers using their purchasing power to take a stand against
animal cruelty.
"Factory farms may produce cheaper meat - but until now consumers haven't realised that cheaper equals
crueller - and that it has been the animals that have been paying a dreadful 'price', Ms Oogjes concluded.
Further comment: Glenys Oogjes, Executive Director, Animals Australia – 041 431 2552
High resolution photographs of female pigs in crates (during pregnancy and after farrowing) attached.
Video footage of confined sows and piglets on the factory farm available by calling Animals Australia
Fact sheet on factory farming of pigs follows (page 2)
Animals Australia Inc. 37 O’Connell Street, North Melbourne Ph. 03 9329 6333
Factory Farming of Pigs in Australia
The facts
Many routine practices that occur in pig factory farms – the intense confinement of breeding pigs
and surgical procedures performed on piglets without pain relief – would be cruelty offences if the
animal were a dog or a cat. Despite the fact that the ability of pigs to suffer is no different pig
producers are protected from prosecutions by an industry 'code of practice'.
Over 225,000 mother pigs in Australian factory farms will spend all or part of their 16 week
pregnancy in a metal and concrete crate not much bigger than their bodies. The industry code of
practice makes it legal to keep a pregnant pig in a metal crate that is only one centimetre longer and
wider than her body.
With their movement limited to standing up or lying on a hard floor these animals suffer leg injuries,
lameness, weakened bones and muscles, urinary tract infections and heart weakness. As a result
of being denied the ability to perform natural behaviours such as foraging and using their snouts to
dig, they suffer frustration, distress and depression.
‘Sow crates’ have been banned or are being phased out in the UK, Sweden, Finland, Netherlands
and in seven states of the USA. Their use will be severely restricted in the EU from 2013. Despite
this – in Australia sow crates can continue to be used for a mother pig’s full 4 month pregnancy until
2017 and then still for six weeks per pregnancy from then onwards.
Prior to giving birth a factory-farmed mother pig is moved to an even smaller crate. In the 24 hours
prior to giving birth she has a strong hormonal urge to build a nest out of straw and twigs to give
birth to her young in comfort – yet she has no choice in a factory farm but to give birth on a metal or
concrete floor in the same area that she toilets.
Mother pigs remain in these ‘farrowing crates’ for 4 to 6 weeks until their piglets are removed. They
can then be re-impregnanted and returned to a ‘sow crate’. In Australia – mother pigs can literally
be imprisoned in crates barely about to move for their entire ‘productive’ life.
Piglets routinely have their tails cut off and teeth clipped without pain relief. Such procedures, if
performed on a cat or dog, would be cruelty offences.
Grower pigs (those raised for bacon, ham and pork) are slaughtered at 4 to 6 months of age. Up to
50% have been found to have painful stomach ulcers as a result of being fed food that is too finely
ground, but designed to ensure that they reach slaughter weight quicker.
Animals Australia – November 2009
NEWS 
