News & Media > Media Releases and Statements

Media Releases and Statements

Tue 19 Mar 2024
Animal protection organisation Farm Transparency Project (FTP) has published interactive virtual tours of two Tasmanian slaughterhouses recently exposed for cruelty The tours were filmed with 360-degree cameras inside Tasmanian Quality Meats at Cressy, and Scottsdale Pork, during FTP's covert investigation last year With the state election just days away, FTP has published the tours - which incorporate footage from hidden cameras - to draw attention to months of inaction by the Rockliff government    Farm Transparency Project (FTP) has published on its website two interactive virtual slaughterhouse tours, filmed last year with 360° cameras inside the Tasmanian Quality Meats and Scottsdale Pork facilities. The slaughterhouses, along with three others, were exposed f... Read more >
Mon 11 Mar 2024
Footage captured last month by Farm Transparency Project shows a worker at a Victorian piggery raping a female pig (sow) who is confined in a farrowing crate. The footage, aired exclusively on ABC's 7.30 program, was captured accidentally by the group, who set out to expose routine animal cruelty ahead of the public hearings for the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into pig welfare, which begin tomorrow (Tue 12 March) in Melbourne. Investigators who captured the footage have said that they were taken completely by surprise by the sickening act, which they reported to authorities as soon as they could. The group have also released footage from the same facility showing newborn piglets being bashed to death and having their tails cut off without pain relief. Left: A worker rapes a ca... Read more >
Tue 5 Mar 2024
Farm Transparency Project has released new footage of the slaughter of cows at Gathercole’s slaughterhouse in Wangaratta. The footage shows cows seemingly still conscious after multiple shots to the head, thrashing and kicking while workers pull them by their tails and poke them with sharp objects.  Gathercole’s Wangaratta slaughterhouse was investigated by the same group in 2014, with footage showing the incorrect and painful stunning of pigs and lambs. Photos and footage: https://www.farmtransparency.org/facilities/59c0f-gathercoles-wangaratta-abattoir  New hidden camera footage captured in January of this year shows cows shot in the head multiple times with a handheld bolt-gun, and continuing to thrash, kick and blink as they slowly bleed out. The footage... Read more >
Tue 27 Feb 2024
Farm Transparency Project has released a new campaign calling for a ban of Dairy Australia’s Discover Dairy program, which provides lesson plans and activities to schools. The campaign, titled End Dairy Slaughter, features footage of the slaughter of week-old bobby calves and 4-6 year old dairy cows being violently slaughtered, which has been captured in Australian slaughterhouses in the past year.  Farm Transparency Project is calling out Dairy Australia for manipulative and deceptive targeting of children through their program which the group claims is biased and inaccurate.  A mother cow chases after a trailer taking away her newborn calf.   Photos and footage Animal rights campaigners from Farm Transparency Project have launched a new campaign to ban th... Read more >
Tue 30 Jan 2024
  • New footage from Gretna Quality Meats has revealed that animal cruelty is still rife, seven years after the facility was originally exposed by Animal Liberation in 2016.
  • Footage, released by Farm Transparency Project and captured in September 2023, shows pigs, cows and sheep still blinking, thrashing and trying to stand for minutes after their throats had been slit, as well as cows who are shot in the head multiple times before they collapse. 
  • A 2016 exposé of the slaughterhouse led to calls for the facility to be shut down, including from the RSPCA. Investigators are now saying that nothing has changed.
  • Gretna Meatworks is the fifth slaughterhouse exposed by Farm Transparency Project as part of a comprehensive investigation into the Tasmanian animal slaughter industry. 
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Mon 22 Jan 2024
New covert camera footage captured at Wal's Bulk Meats in Stowport, shows workers jumping on cows, sheep killed without stunning, cows shot multiple times with a rifle while crying out in pain and workers being kicked and chased by animals.  The group behind the footage, Farm Transparency Project, say that they were tipped-off about animal cruelty at the facility by an anonymous whistleblower. The group describes the footage they have released today as "revealing not only systemic and severe animal suffering, but exposing unsafe working conditions and absolute incompetence by workers." Wal’s is the fourth Tasmanian slaughterhouse exposed by the group since December, as part of a comprehensive investigation into the treatment of animals at Australian slaughterhouses.  ... Read more >
Mon 15 Jan 2024

Campaigners from Animal Liberation Tasmania and Farm Transparency Project are planning on disrupting animal transport trucks at Tasmanian Quality Meats slaughterhouse, in a protest against “systemic animal cruelty in Tasmanian slaughterhouses.”

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Thu 11 Jan 2024
New footage from Scottsdale Pork slaughterhouse in Tasmania shows pigs being tipped into scalding water while apparently conscious, and showing signs of consciousness, including blinking, after their throats have been slit.  Farm Transparency Project, who captured and released the footage, are claiming that the abattoir was built as a result of government corruption and "shady backroom deals," and are demanding its closure in the wake of the footage. Scottsdale Pork is owned by members of the Plymouth Brethren (known as the Exclusive Brethren) religious group, and was built in 2020-2021 after receiving 2 million dollars of government funding.    View footage and screenshots New footage has been released showing the slaughter of pigs at Scottsdale Pork slaughterhou... Read more >
Mon 8 Jan 2024
Farm Transparency Project has released an interactive virtual-reality tour of a major Victorian piggery, using 360° footage they captured while trespassing in the facility in late 2023.  The group states that the tour is their latest way to increase public awareness of modern pig farming practices, and to encourage members of the public to make a submission to the ongoing Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into Pig Welfare.  The footage shows mother pigs (sows) and piglets in breeding and 'weaner' sheds, and contains embedded videos featuring a guided tour of the facility by Executive Director of Farm Transparency Project, Chris Delforce, who points out issues common to commercial pig farms such as dead and dying piglets, tail docking without pain relief, extreme confinem... Read more >
Tue 2 Jan 2024
Meet Stephanie Tretheway, the 2024 Tasmanian of the Year. Last night we exposed The Local Meat Co, a Tasmanian slaughterhouse where cows and sheep are brutally killed. This slaughterhouse was bought in 2022 by Stephanie and her husband Sam through their business Tas Ag Co (@tas_ag_co). Up until last night, their ownership of the slaughterhouse was proudly listed on their website and social media accounts, and confirmed in ASIC records, domain registrations, and media interviews.  Following the release of the footage, we received an email from Stephanie, threatening legal action if we didn’t remove all mentions of her ownership of the slaughterhouse. She has since frantically attempted to hide the evidence. Steph and Sam’s names have been removed from the @tas_ag_co accou... Read more >
Tue 2 Jan 2024

Animal advocacy group Farm Transparency Project has released new footage from the Local Meat Co, showing cows and sheep being beaten and ineffectively stunned before slaughter. Some footage of the Local Meat Co was exposed in December, alongside four other Tasmanian slaughterhouses, but the full footage has only now been released to the public. The slaughterhouse is owned by 2024 Tasmanian of the Year, Steph Trethewey, who bought the business with her husband in 2022.

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Fri 22 Dec 2023
Tasmanian Quality Meats has been given the all-clear from the federal government to return to business as usual, despite evidence of systemic animal abuse exposed by us earlier this month. The slaughterhouse was originally threatened with losing its export license after our footage showed dozens of calves being violently killed while fully conscious, as well as workers kicking, hitting and throwing calves and sheep. But, after pressure from the slaughterhouse and the state government, the federal government has backed down, opting to allow the slaughterhouse to keep its licence to export sheep, and requiring that they replace their restrainer before killing any more bobby calves for export. While TQM's owner has tried to frame this as a voluntary pause in calf slaughter while they addres... Read more >
Thu 14 Dec 2023
All talk, little action The Tasmanian government has just released their response to our shocking exposé of Tasmanian slaughterhouses, and its far from the decisive action they pledged to take just four days ago. Rather than responding to evidence of systemic animal abuse immediately, the government has announced that the most they can manage is to re-investigate the facilities and form a task force to consider developing new animal welfare guidelines. Given that all five slaughterhouses we investigated were already in breach of existing state and national welfare legislation, we fail to see what developing new ones will manage, except for giving the appearance of doing something, while in reality preserving business as usual. It took four days for Tasmanian Minister for Primary In... Read more >
Fri 8 Dec 2023
View photos and footage: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14oe6RnPEip5M0CMPALvQECagjPiP1tzQ?usp=drive_link Animal advocacy group Farm Transparency Project has released hidden camera footage from five Tasmanian slaughterhouses, in what they’re calling a comprehensive and damning indictment of the state’s animal welfare regulators.  The footage shows the slaughter of sheep, cows, deer, pigs and week-old ‘bobby calves’ from the dairy industry. Many animals are revealed to be killed while fully conscious, including dozens of bobby calves who are captured dying slowly over minutes as they bleed out. Farm Transparency Project is working with Australia’s foremost animal protection group, Animals Australia, to launch a formal inquiry into animal slaug... Read more >
Fri 10 Nov 2023
15 animal activists have been charged with trespass, seven months after they occupied a Benalla slaughterhouse in a protest against the use of gas chambers in pig slaughterhouses. The protest, which happened on April 13th, was in response to an investigation of three Victorian pig slaughterhouses, which revealed pigs screaming, thrashing and gasping for air inside carbon dioxide gas chambers. Seven protestors were arrested and charged on the day, while the remaining 15 were allowed to leave voluntarily, after chains and other devices they were using to lock-on were removed by police. 15 animal rights protestors have been charged with trespass after shutting down operations at a Benalla slaughterhouse in April this year. The protest was in response to footage released by animal pro... Read more >
Wed 12 Jul 2023
Animal cruelty investigators have used hidden cameras to capture new footage inside a South Australian pig slaughterhouse’s gas chamber, which shows pigs screaming, thrashing and trying to escape while slowly suffocating to death. Farm Transparency Project has captured hundreds of hours of footage from four slaughterhouse gas chambers, across two states, over the past six months. Its investigators say they have not once seen pigs die without terror, pain and frantic attempts to escape. The organisation is calling for a national inquiry into pig slaughter methods, claiming that Australian animal confinement and slaughter is “inherently violent and cruel." Farm Transparency Project has announced an intention to investigate and expose 30 slaughterhouses over 2023 and 2024. ... Read more >
Mon 10 Jul 2023
Animal advocate Chris Delforce has today announced that his organisation, Farm Transparency Project, plans to break into 30 slaughterhouses over the next two years, to capture and expose footage of Australian animal slaughter to the public. Delforce, who earlier this year shared groundbreaking new footage of pigs being gassed to death in Victorian slaughterhouses after hiding in a gas chamber, stated that his organisation has already investigated six slaughterhouses this year, and will be releasing a new investigation this week. Footage from three new Australian slaughterhouses is promised over the next few weeks, with Delforce sharing that Farm Transparency Project has reported to state authorities all of the facilities investigated, for multiple extreme violations of animal welfare... Read more >
Sat 17 Jun 2023
Campaigners held an early-morning vigil outside Diamond Valley Pork while pigs were being killed in the gas chamber inside They followed this with an evening memorial in Melbourne CBD where they lay to rest the bodies of three piglets who they say represent the millions of pigs killed in Australian slaughterhouses every year  The protests were part of a national weekend of action calling for a federal inquiry into pig slaughter methods and a ban on the use of gas chambers in Australian slaughterhouses  Animal rights campaigners from Farm Transparency Project have organised a candlelight slaughterhouse vigil and city memorial to remember the millions of pigs killed each year inside carbon dioxide gas chambers, and to push for a ban on the practice. Early this morning, arou... Read more >
Thu 25 May 2023

A Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into pig welfare has been announced less than two months after investigators from Farm Transparency Project released shocking footage of pigs being gassed to death in Victorian slaughterhouses. 

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Wed 26 Apr 2023
Australian Food Group slaughterhouse in Laverton has shut down rather than installing CCTV mandated by government regulator PrimeSafe, according to a report by ABC. The slaughterhouse was last month at the centre of a national exposé into the use of gas chambers in pig slaughterhouses, after animal advocate Chris Delforce spent almost 10 hours inside the chamber filming the agonising deaths of pigs inside. Delforce says that AFG's choice to stop operating rather than install CCTV inside their chamber is "typical" of an industry unwilling to take accountability, however it represents a "massive win for pigs." One of Victoria's three largest pig slaughterhouses has shut its doors rather than install CCTV inside their gas chamber. Australian Food Group slaughterhouse was last mont... Read more >
Thu 13 Apr 2023

30 protestors have stopped operations at Benalla slaughterhouse in Northern Victoria, chaining themselves onto the gas chamber used to paralyse pigs for slaughter.

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Tue 4 Apr 2023
Investigators behind “horrific” footage of pigs being gassed to death stage peaceful sit-in at Australian Pork Limited, seeking meeting with CEOMonday 3 April Animal cruelty investigators from the group Farm Transparency Project have travelled to Canberra this morning, and are asking to meet with the CEO of Australian Pork Limited, after she expressed confusion over footage which shows pigs screaming and thrashing inside "best practice" carbon dioxide gas chambers. Director of Farm Transparency Project, Chris Delforce, hid himself inside one of the gas chambers featured, to capture first-hand what happens to pigs inside. He says that APL have shown a “disgusting unwillingness” to take responsibility for the horrific scenes which he states depict “the norm ... Read more >
Mon 27 Mar 2023
Prominent animal advocate Chris Delforce hid inside one of the pork industry’s “humane” carbon dioxide gas chambers to document the gassing of pigs. New footage captured by Farm Transparency Project inside Victoria’s three largest slaughterhouses, revealed exclusively on ABC’s 7.30 program last night, shows thousands of pigs screaming and thrashing in agony as they are lowered into the gas.  This investigation comes 9 years after Delforce first used hidden cameras to expose the use of gas chambers for pigs; the first time in the world that the widespread practice had been captured on camera. He says it “has only become more brutal.” Earlier this year, activist Chris Delforce hid inside the top of a carbon dioxide gas chamber in the Au... Read more >
Wed 11 Jan 2023
Pork giant Sunpork has removed a statement from its website claiming that it has eliminated sow stalls, after an investigation by Farm Transparency Project exposed the use of cages for mother pigs in a piggery owned by the company The statement was on Sunpork's website up until November 2022, but has now been removed following the exposé which revealed the widespread use of sow stalls in Victorian piggeries, 5 years after the industry claimed to have phased them out Sunpork supplies to major supermarkets including Coles and Woolworths, and had proudly claimed themselves to be one of the first pork producers to eliminate sow stalls Animal rights group Farm Transparency Project claims Australian pork giant Sunpork has been exposed for deceiving consumers after backtracking on i... Read more >
Tue 4 Oct 2022
Animal protection organisation Farm Transparency Project is responsible for two anti-dairy billboards which have appeared this week in Brunswick and Albion The billboards link to a website showing footage of Australian dairy farms and demanding a complete transition of the industry Chris Delforce, Executive Director of Farm Transparency Project has launched this new project while campaigning as an Upper House candidate in the upcoming state election More images available at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/pkfy5uums5a68ea/AABCKXbGrDAWSKuynQrKEz7Sa?dl=0 Animal protection organisation Farm Transparency Project is calling for a complete end to the production of dairy with a series of controversial billboards. The billboards which have appeared this week in Brunswick and Albion feature an i... Read more >
Wed 21 Sep 2022

Media release by Andy Meddick MP (Animal Justice Party Victoria) - An undercover investigation by Farm Transparency Project has revealed at least six Victorian piggeries are confining mother pigs to small cages, despite an industry phase-out deadline of 2017.

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Fri 18 Mar 2022

Over February 10 and 11, the High Court will hear a constitutional challenge to a controversial NSW law that prohibits reporting on public interest matters, where the information or material has been obtained covertly.

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Wed 1 Dec 2021
The Victorian Government has today announced the introduction of new legislation, the Livestock Management Amendment (Animal Activism) Bill 2021, to address what it calls "the serious impacts of trespass on Victorian farms and... the significant biosecurity risks that breaches from animal activists can pose". These new laws impose heavy on-the-spot fines for people who covertly enter animal agriculture facilities to capture evidence of cruelty. Once again, the issue of biosecurity is being used as an excuse to attempt to limit consumer awareness of the systemic cruelty occurring in farms and slaughterhouses across the country. There has not been a single incident of a biosecurity hazard caused by activists, despite hundreds of investigations into farms, slaughterhouses and related facil... Read more >
Tue 29 Jun 2021

Animal protection organisation Farm Transparency Project has served the Attorney-General of New South Wales with documents filed in the High Court of Australia, challenging the state government’s use of surveillance privacy laws to limit public awareness of animal cruelty in farms and slaughterhouses.

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Tue 23 Feb 2021
Animal protection group Farm Transparency Project has hit back at claims made today by Racing NSW in response to new evidence of the ongoing slaughter of NSW racehorses. The racing body has distanced themselves from responsibility, suggesting that only a handful of the identified horses were in breach of Racing Rule LR114, despite many of the horses coming directly from the industry’s own breeders. Rule LR114 states that “any person that is in charge of or has in his or her possession, control or custody of any [eligible, unnamed or named] horses is not to euthanize or destroy a horse”, and that “where a decision has been made to retire a horse, or not to commence racing an Eligible Horse, and that horse has been domiciled in NSW for the majority of its life…... Read more >
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