Farming News - RSPCA inspection follows more pig cruelty videos in East Anglia

RSPCA inspection follows more pig cruelty videos in East Anglia

Following the release of more undercover footage by animal rights group Animal Equality, the RSPCA has suspended a pig farm in Norfolk from its Freedom Foods assurance scheme. The RSPCA announced this week that it is investigating Little Thorns Farm following the release of footage over the weekend.

 

The charity described scenes in the undercover footage as "disgusting." The video shows pigs being beaten at two East Anglian pig farms, one of which was operating under the RSPCA ‘Freedom Foods’ assurance scheme. The Animal Equality footage shows a piglet being struck on the head with a bar, pigs being kicked, smacked and hit with a hammer.

 

The RSPCA announcement comes two months after another of its assured farms in Norfolk was implicated in severe animal cruelty. An Animal Equality investigator filmed mistreatment of pigs at Harling Farm near Thetford, which was also part of the Freedom Foods welfare scheme.

 

The RSPCA announced on Monday it would meet with the management of the East Anglian Pig Company, which owns both farms featured in the undercover footage, and had sent animal welfare officers to both premises.