In 2003, a government advisory body, the Farm Animal Welfare Council, said that CO 2 stunning/killing “is not acceptable and we wish to see it phased out in five years”. Furthermore, the Food Standards Agency is legally required to be present at all sites and would routinely review any footage taken from an abattoir to ensure animals are treated humanely, and we have had no issues raised in the timeframe you have provided.” Its animal welfare policy states: “At Pilgrim’s UK it is essential that all pigs are treated humanely throughout their lives and that the pig’s welfare is always at the forefront of everything we do.” It confirms that all Pilgrim’s pigs are stunned using CO 2.Ī Pilgrim’s Pride spokesperson said: “There is nothing to identify that this is our site, and it would be inappropriate for us to comment on that basis. Pilgrim’s UK, formerly known as Tulip, is a division of Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation, which is owned by JBS, the Brazilian-owned meat producer. “We urgently need to stop using animals as resources because this kind of horror show is the result.” It’s an unacceptable way to treat any animal, and that really concerns me.”Īnimal activist Joey Carbstrong, who captured the footage for the film Pignorant, said that the continued use of CO 2 arises from the favouring of corporate profit over the interests of the animals.

“If this is the way animals are treated in this plant, they’re not being handled humanely. Paul Roger, a vet and founder member of the Animal Welfare Science, Ethics and Law Veterinary Association, said some pigs appeared to start waking from the gas prior to slaughter. The period of poor welfare continues until the pig loses consciousness.” The gasping can be seen in all pigs where the mouth is visible. “The pigs in the video react to the first inhalation of carbon dioxide with fear and obvious discomfort,” said Donald Broom, an animal welfare professor at the University of Cambridge. The pigs appear to be in distress as the gas concentration increases, with one still kicking after more than three minutes.

They show pigs in groups of five or six being mechanically herded into a cage and then lowered into a Butina gas chamber in a ferris wheel-like system. The images published today were obtained, say campaigners, using hidden cameras at Pilgrim’s Pride abattoir in Ashton-under-Lyne in north-west England in February 2021.

Undercover princess