Australian farrowing crates, Lansdowne Piggery NSW, 2013

In response to a misleading promotional video of Lansdowne Piggery, NSW, recently published by Australian Pork Limited (APL), Animal Liberation ACT has released damning footage showing the reality endured by pigs in the Lansdowne sheds.

Earlier this year, Animal Liberation ACT exposed the shocking nature of ‘ordinary life’ for hundreds of female pigs kept in individual crates of misery known as ‘sow stalls’ in an Australian intensive piggery.

Clearly in damage control mode, the industry tried to retaliate with a promotional video in which sow stalls and farrowing crates were compared to the use of cots for human babies, with the caption, “Sometimes things designed for safety can appear cruel to the uninitiated.” The piggery’s owner, Ean Pollard, Chair of the NSW Farmers Pork Committee, is shown praising the animal welfare standards of Australian pig farmers and questioning the motivation of the activists who obtained the footage.

This week Animal Liberation ACT has released a 7 minute video detailing the real conditions inside farrowing crates in Mr Pollard’s piggery. The footage shows dead and dying piglets, with one whose leg has been trapped between the metal bars of the floor of the crate, unable to move away from the dead brothers and sisters lying beside him.

Clare Atkinson, spokesperson for Animal Liberation ACT, said: “If Ean Pollard, and Australian Pork Limited, are as proud as they say they are about their standards, why did they choose to keep this reality out of their video? Anyone can see from this footage that the animals are suffering tremendously.

Meanwhile, Animal Liberation’s position has always been clear: no matter how many bales of hay these farmers add in for their promotional videos, or how legal the cruelty they inflict may be, their industry as a whole cannot be justified. We will continue to break down the secrecy they rely on, and expose the truth of what they do to a public who do not find it acceptable.”