View all photos for this campaign in the photo gallery
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:
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.
Our hidden cameras captured a male worker r*ping Olivia, a caged mother pig, in a Victorian piggery
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.
View all 103 videos for this campaign in the video gallery
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.
Shut Down Dublin Piggery
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Media release: Thursday 7 Aug 2025
Farm Transparency Project has released a guided video tour of a major Victorian piggery using footage they captured while trespassing in the facility in late 2023. The tour was originally published last year as part of an interactive virtual-reality tour and led to charges being laid against two investigators from the organisation. Executive Director of Farm Transparency Project, Chris Delforce, speaks to camera during the tour, while showing the audience around sheds at Sunpork's Gowanbrae Piggery in Central Victoria. Chris Delforce in a farrowing shed at Gowanbrae Piggery in Central Victoria. Animal rights organisation Farm Transparency Project has...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Wednesday 5 Mar 2025 by
An animal activist who allegedly captured footage of a man allegedly raping a pig in Carag Carag will argue there is no evidence to prove the charges against her.
Monday 3 Feb 2025 by
An animal activist who broke into a Carag Carag piggery and made secret recordings, including one where a man allegedly had sex with a pig, will now face court herself.
Friday 31 Jan 2025 by
An animal-rights activist has been charged in relation to the events which led to a man being captured on camera allegedly raping a pig inside a central Victorian stockyard.
Wednesday 29 Jan 2025 by
An animal activist group has released footage from five Victorian piggeries which allegedly show dying piglets and injured sows, as industry representatives fight back against the activists.
Wednesday 29 Jan 2025 by
Animal activists have raided five piggeries in northern Victoria and claim they have exposed examples of animal cruelty.
Thursday 25 Apr 2024 by
The latest on what we know about the whereabouts of Olivia, the sow who was sexually assaulted by a worker at a Victorian piggery.
Saturday 6 Apr 2024 by
A few weeks ago, as a survivor of child sexual abuse I launched a call for reform to the Working With Children Check, designed to prevent further abuse. That part of my week was very public. Quietly at home, I was addressing another form of sexual abuse. I watched whistleblower...
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