• 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 regulations.

Animal protection organisation, Farm Transparency Project, has issued a challenge to the meat industry today, announcing that it will investigate and expose 30 Australian slaughterhouses over 2023 and 2024. 

The organisation and its founding director, Chris Delforce, hit the headlines this year after hidden cameras installed by investigators revealed pigs dying in agony inside gas chambers, described as ‘best practice’ by the Australian pork industry.

In a statement made on social media, Delforce shared that his team had entered and installed hidden cameras at three additional Australian slaughterhouses in June, and that they have now reported all three to state authorities for multiple breaches of animal welfare regulations and illegal activity. Delforce pledged that they would share footage from the first of these this week. 

“Every animal whose life ends inside an Australian slaughterhouse experiences terror, pain and suffering. Yet, we are repeatedly told otherwise by industries who rely on consumer loyalty and taxpayers' money in order to remain financially viable. Farmed animals are exempt from legal protection, not because they feel less, but because in this system they are worth more dead than alive.”

In a video released on social media by Farm Transparency Project, Delforce says that increased penalties faced by animal protection investigators and whistleblowers prompted the group to escalate their efforts to reveal the reality of Australian animal slaughter

“We’ve given the industry enough time to sort itself out. In the ten years since I founded Farm Transparency Project, things have only gotten worse, and the industries that rely upon commercialised animal abuse have become more willing to do whatever it takes to protect their secrecy. With the increasing criminalisation of those who expose legal and illegal animal abuse, we know that our work will only get harder and more dangerous. So, before the industry comes for us, we’re going to tear down every wall they put up to hide their practices from the world. We will stop them, before they stop us.”

“The fairy-tale of pigs peacefully falling asleep before slaughter, or of cows calmly walking to their deaths, is exactly that. A comforting delusion fed to us by our government and by multinational corporations, who rely on secrecy and deception in order to fool good people into thinking they can buy their products and still love animals.”

The organisation is calling for an end to the exemptions in state animal welfare legislation that permit routine cruelty towards animals in farms and slaughterhouses.

Photos and footage:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12EfbKx6Jp4Ok6ZvZS78BHpF3ZnDETkVg?usp=sharing

More information:
https://www.farmtransparency.org/campaigns/shut-down-slaughterhouses
https://www.farmtransparency.org/campaigns/gas-chambers