Shocking Horror Pig Farm Footage Outrage
This footage shows “cannibal”pigs on a farm eating their own faeces and suffering from bite injuries on their tails and ears, with no clean water and very little food as carcasses are left to rot in pens.
The footage has just been revealed by an animal rights organisation and it shows pigs in eastern Spain living in terrible conditions, agonising and eating their own faeces while purine – the animals’ faeces and urine, which should be kept in septic tanks – leaks into a nearby river.
According to the animal rights organisation Igualdad Animal, 142 nearby towns and villages have been deprived of access to clean drinking water due to purine leaked from farms in the region.
The new footage was recently recorded anonymously on a farm located in the region of Catalonia, in eastern Spain, and it has now been revealed by Igualdad Animal.
The video shows pigs living among their own faeces, which they eat, which is in breach of the current laws protecting pigs in Spain, according to the organisation.
There was also no clean water in the water dispensers of the farm, which is allegedly overcrowded, with the pigs eating each other’s tails and ears.
The pigs can also be seen injured and unable to move, dragging themselves among the faeces, agonising without veterinary attention and even living with pig carcasses for days on end.
Silvia Barquero, the executive director of the Foundation Igualdad Animal, told Real Press that the conditions on the farm, the exact location of which has not been revealed as the investigation is still ongoing after the foundation reported the case to the national police, represent “what happens inside a normal farm in Spain”.
According to Barquero, Catalonia is the region with the most pig farms in Spain and she said: “Out of the 50 million pigs being bred in Spain, 20 million are in Catalonia.”
The poor conditions on this farm are a cause for concern for the animal rights organisation for various reasons. Barquero said: “I am very concerned about the animals cannibalising each other, a practice that happens when the animals are in crowded situations, they bite each other’s tails.”
According to the organisation, the hygiene situation is also concerning, as the pigs can be seen living among their own faeces, while the current regulations stipulate that farms should be cleaned at least once a day and should stay clean in order to preserve animal welfare.
Barquero also said: “The septic tank had overflowed and we sent a professional team to assess the area and it was confirmed that the leak had seeped intro the underground waters and was spilling into a nearby river”. Situations like this have led to over 142 municipalities no longer having access to drinkable water.
The organisation also said that they have conducted an environmental report confirming that this farm is causing an illegal leak of purines contaminating a nearby river. They also confirmed that the level of nitrates is around double the average of other pig farms in the region.
Igualdad Animal said that Catalonia is the region in Spain where pig farms are the most intensive, and around 41 percent of the aquifers – underground permeable rock that act as waterways – have been contaminated. Barquero explained that this is a “systematic fact happening on the pig farms.”
The organisation has reported the farm to the national police for animal abuse and environmental crimes. The investigation is believed to be ongoing.
Most of the cattle industry in Spain, around 98 percent, is industrial and only two percent are farms with animals bred in open air spaces.
Barquero said: “The pigs live their entire lives in small places, they cannot have a natural behaviour.”
She added that “Spain is breaking European animal welfare directives.”