The Price of Pork

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Over the last two years, Farm Transparency Project has set out to expose the current state of the Australian pig meat industry with groundbreaking investigations into the confinement and slaughter of pigs in Australia. 

Our investigations have exposed: 

• The ongoing use of sow stalls in Victorian piggeries, five years after an industry promised phase-out.
• The horrific suffering and slaughter of pigs inside carbon dioxide gas chambers.
• The mutilation and violent killing of day-old piglets at a major Victorian piggery.
• The sickening rape of Olivia, a sow confined to a farrowing crate at a Victorian pig farm.

EcoPiggery

Most recently we investigated the piggery of President of the Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) Pig Council, David Wright, who gave evidence during the Victorian Parliamentary inquiry into pig welfare. During the public hearings David Wright gave evidence about the pork industry's adherence to “industry best practices,” and commitment to animal welfare, painting a picture of idyllic pig farms filled with contented pigs and hardworking farmers, under threat from vindictive, aggressive activists, determined to show his industry in a bad light. 

In response to these statements, we published an investigation into his piggery in Leitchville, Victoria, revealing shocking conditions of sows, piglets and grower pigs. We documented sows kept in narrow ‘mating stalls’ for over a week, as well as sows and piglets confined to farrowing crates. Many sows had painful, infected pressure sores and were forced to sleep and stand in rivers of their own waste. Sheds contained maggots and pigs were seen eating the bodies of dead kittens as well as sick and dead piglets. 

David Wright co-owns this piggery with Colin Sinclair, owner and operator of Benalla slaughterhouse. Pigs from the farm are killed inside the same brutal gas chamber we exposed in early 2023. Read more about the investigation in our editorial. 

Midland Bacon

An investigation by our team revealed the mutilation of newborn piglets, which is performed without anaesthetic or pain relief. Hidden cameras also captured the predominant method that Australian piggeries use to kill sick or weak piglets, which is to pick piglets up by their back legs, and slam head-first onto the floor, not a metre away from their mothers who watch on helplessly. In large piggeries, like Midland Bacon near Stanhope, this happens every morning.  

Sows endure a repeated cycle of forced impregnation, giving birth, and having their piglets taken away from them. This forced impregnation is done through inserting a vial of boar semen into a sows vagina, after she is manually stimulated by a worker. This kind of sexual abuse and exploitation in any other context would be considered bestiality, but the pig farming industry is granted an exemption because it relies on bestiality for this everyday procedure.

When our investigators installed hidden cameras at Midland Bacon to capture the mutilation and killing of piglets, they also captured the sickening inevitable outcome of the normalisation of sexual abuse. After the lights have gone off in the farrowing shed for the day, a male worker is seen approaching a caged sow from behind, lowering his pants, and r*ping her for several minutes. Confined to a farrowing crate, she has no way to escape.

What we want

Support farmers to transition out of the pig meat industry and into kinder alternatives. 

The only way to end the suffering of pigs in farms and slaughterhouses is to stop breeding and killing them for food. We are calling on governments to support a phaseout of one of the most cruel and unsustainable industries in Australia and choose to support kinder, plant-based alternatives to pig products.

You can also take action as an individual by pledging to stop supporting animal slaughter by leaving animals off your plate and living vegan. Take the pledge today. 

For the latest information on our efforts to get Olivia released to an animal sanctuary, please see our 'Free Olivia' FAQ article. 

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We've shown time and time again that the Government is acting as nothing more than a pawn for pig slaughter industry lobbyists to manipulate in order to preserve the status quo. If we want to see real change for animals, we can't rely on them to act. It is up to us. 

As long as animals are bred, confined and killed for food, there will always be pain, fear and suffering. We will never stop fighting until every cage is empty and every slaughterhouse shut down.

• Footage from five more piggeries released by animal protection group

  Media release: Tuesday 4 Feb 2025

  Footage from five more Victorian piggeries has been released by animal protection organisation Farm Transparency Project. The footage was taken by unknown investigators who filmed inside 20 piggeries across the weekend of the 18th & 19th January, before anonymously providing video and photos to Farm Transparency Project. The latest footage to be released shows pigs in filthy conditions, covered in their own waste; high numbers of dead and dying piglets; pigs living in rat infested sheds; and sow stalls, which the Australian pork industry promised to phase out almost 10 years ago.  Animal protection organisation Farm Transparency has published footage from...
• Footage from five Victorian piggeries released by activists, 15 more to follow

  Media release: Tuesday 28 Jan 2025

  Footage from five Victorian piggeries has been released by animal rights organisation Farm Transparency Project, who say that a further 15 will be exposed in the coming weeks. Video taken inside the piggery shows dead and dying piglets, dirty conditions, pigs living in their own waste and sows with large pressure sores, cuts and scratches, evidence of fighting between pigs. The footage was gathered by anonymous, civilian investigators over two nights earlier this month. The investigators then provided the footage, and evidence of the date and location of its capture to Farm Transparency Project to review and publish. Footage from the...
• Shocking conditions uncovered as activists target 20 Victorian piggeries over weekend

  Media release: Tuesday 21 Jan 2025

  Animal rights campaigners have laid dozens of dead piglets at the offices of Victorian Premier, Jacinta Allan, in a protest against the government's refusal to address "urgent" animal welfare issues. Advocacy group Farm Transparency Project (FTP) organised the protest after receiving footage showing shocking, filthy and cruel conditions at twenty Victorian piggeries, filmed covertly by dozens of activists over the weekend. Further footage and the names of all twenty facilities will be released by FTP in the coming weeks. Animal rights campaigners have gathered outside the ministerial office of Victorian Premier, Jacinta Allan, in a protest against the government's continued...
• Pig industry leader accused of cruelty and deception as secret footage released

  Media release: Tuesday 4 Jun 2024

  The piggery of Victorian Farmers Federation Pig Council president David Wright has been targeted by animal advocates who have released new footage showing ‘cruel and sickening’ treatment of pigs on his farm. David Wright gave evidence during the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into pig welfare earlier this year, where he spoke about the high standards he maintains on his farm. Animal advocacy group Farm Transparency Project is now calling out the pig industry leader, publishing footage showing mother sows in narrow cages with painful, infected pressure sores, as well as sows in farrowing crates with over a dozen stillborn piglets. View...
• Protest outside Northern Victoria pig farm where 'sickening' bestiality took place

  Media release: Wednesday 20 Mar 2024

  30+ animal activists are protesting outside a Northern Victoria pig farm, after “sickening” bestiality act revealed last week. 30+ animal activists have gathered outside Midland Bacon pig farm in Carag Carag, demanding the release of the sow who last month was captured on camera being raped by a worker, while confined to a farrowing crate. A global petition to free the sow, who activists have named Olivia, has been signed by over 13,000 people. The activists have arrived at the farm with a livestock trailer and are demanding that she be released into the care of an animal sanctuary. The protest has been...

See all 9 media releases

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