Video of a 'mass grave' of pigs has been published by Farm Transparency Project (FTP), filmed at Brownlow Piggery, one of four South Australian pig farms owned by or affiliated with Andgar Proprietors. 

The footage, captured by unknown investigators and provided anonymously to FTP, comes just two months after shocking footage was captured at Andgar's Dublin piggery. Evidence of piles of rotting, decomposing corpses and living pigs with horrific wounds at the Dublin facility was released by FTP, prompting an investigation by the RSPCA and leading to the euthanasia of over a dozen pigs and the issue of 21 animal welfare notices. 

The recent visits occurred in early August at four pig farms owned by Andgar Proprietors or one of its directors, Garry Tiss and Andrew Goss, including Dublin piggery, Brownlow Piggery, Two Wells Piggery and Finniss Park Piggery in Mannum.

The new footage from Dublin shows dead pigs who had been dumped outside pens or lying alongside their littermates. In others pens, pigs were filmed with bleeding wounds on their faces and bodies - some signs of fighting, while others pointed to illness.  

The footage from both Brownlow and Finniss Park Piggery shows mother pigs in 'farrowing crates', small cages in which sows can be confined for up to six weeks after giving birth. Sick and injured piglets were filmed, as well as those who had been stillborn.

Also filmed at both piggeries are sow stalls, which are used to confine mother pigs during their pregnancy. The Australian Pork industry pledged to phase out these archaic devices by 2017, yet multiple investigations since have shown that they are still in widespread use. 

Executive Director of Farm Transparency Project, Chris Delforce, says that his organisation is seeing a massive rise in reports from concerned members of the public who have "lost faith in the authorities."

"For years, the public have had to walk past horrible evidence of cruelty and neglect and see their pleas for regulatory action fall on deaf ears. The fact that they are now turning to civilian investiagators to document and report cruelty or, in some cases, breaking the law themselves shows just how desperately the system which is supposed to protect South Australia's farmed animals has let them down."

"The footage we've received shows what the South Australian pig industry considers acceptable. To us, and I think the majority of the Australian public, it's anything but. Sick and dying pigs, caged mothers and piles of the dead is not, and should not ever be, considered acceptable."