View all photos for this campaign in the photo gallery
Over two months in 2012, activists installed cameras and documented cruelty inside Wally's Piggery NSW, just a short drive from Canberra. The footage and photographs were provided to RSPCA NSW, NSW Police, and the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI), who orchestrated a raid on the piggery, however it later became known that the DPI had tipped off the facility about the raid. 53 charges of animal cruelty were eventually laid by the RSPCA but later dropped after pressure from the DPI.
Following the raid, the material was published and achieved widespread media coverage, causing significant public outrage; the 'Aussie Pigs' campaign had begun. In frantic damage control mode, the industry's peak body Australian Pork Limited tried to claim that Wally's was a one-off, a "rogue operator" - so the activists set out to prove them wrong.
Pig farming in Australia is over 90% factory or intensive farming. In these kinds of farms there is a very routine structure for how each stage of the life of a pig is lived, beginning in what’s called a ‘farrowing crate’ and ending in a ‘finisher’ pen. A ‘farrowing crate’ is a pen roughly 2m by 1.5m in size made usually of cement or wood where mother pigs (sows) and their piglets live while they are suckling. Within that pen there is a metal contraption which restricts the mother to one position, able only to move a few inches forwards or backwards. The piglets move from either feeding with mother, or laying beside her. If the floor is made of cement there is casual manual cleaning of waste from the pigs. If the flooring is wood, there are gaps in the wooden slats for drainage of faeces and urine. The drainage however is often not effective and these gaps can also be traps for piglets’ little bodies and legs.
During this time the piglets will have their teeth cut and their tails removed to avoid frustration-caused aggression injuries on each other, and they will be castrated, all without pain relief. Runt and sick piglets perish here. Corpses are often seen laying in these pens, either left to die or killed by workers. And mother pig very often suffers from pressure sores due to the hard surfaces she lays on continuously.
The next stage in a farmed pig’s life is a weaner pen. Weaner pens are often in the same shed as the farrowing crates or near by. They have much larger areas for holding the piglets from the farrowing crates once they are weaned from their mothers. Again, weaner pens contain mostly cement or wooden flooring, with metal fencing. Similarly, ‘grower’ and ‘finisher’ pens are for keeping pigs as they develop through the last two stages of growth until they are about 6 months of age and sent to slaughter. These pens usually fill entire sheds and are often at a completely different location to where the pigs are born. During these stages pigs become increasingly agitated due to their high intellect, confinement, poor conditions and boredom. They often lash out at each other violently, at times causing serious injuries despite their teeth having been cut as piglets.
After the farrowing crate a mother sow moves to a similarly sized restraint on her own called a ‘sow stall’, or in a group housing area for female pigs. She is then artificially inseminated by farmers and waits in the group housing pen or sow stall during her 4 month pregnancy before being taken back to the farrowing crate to start all over again. This continues for as many times as a pig can physically endure, and still be able to produce a financially viable number of live piglets. The restricted movement causes muscle wastage which quickens their physical decline. To reduce this effect, often as a part of their duty, workers encourage sows to stand up each day by yelling at and hitting the sows. Despite having a wild lifespan of up to 20 years, after 2-3 years the sows are then sent to slaughter.
View all 42 videos for this campaign in the video gallery
Cruelty and abuse are inherent to the animal slaughter industry, including meat, dairy, eggs, fur, wool and leather. Much of this cruelty is legal, due to exemptions in animal welfare legislation that specifically permit acts of cruelty towards farmed animals, that would be illegal if performed on dogs or cats.
The only way to truly stop cruelty to farmed animals is to stop eating them. Take the pledge today to leave animals off your plate and live vegan - be part of a growing movement towards a kinder, more sustainable world, and take a stand against industries that harm and exploit animals.
Media release: Tuesday 11 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 is from piggeries in Leitchville, Bagshot North, St Arnaud and Tragowel. Animal protection organisation Farm Transparency has published footage from five more Victorian pig slaughterhouses, bringing the total up to 15 facilities exposed since the 21st January. The latest piggeries to be exposed by the group are Hancock...
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: Monday 16 Nov 2020
Hidden cameras installed at the cattle feedlot operated by former pig farmer Wally Perenc, near Yass NSW, have shone new light on the animal cruelty charges mysteriously withdrawn in 2014 by RSPCA NSW, and bolstered calls for the RSPCA to be stripped of its jurisdiction over farm animal cruelty, as detailed in the NSW Parliament by the Hon Mark Pearson MLC. The new footage, anonymously provided to animal protection organisation Farm Transparency Project (formerly Aussie Farms), depicts adolescent calves bellowing in anguish as their young horns are ripped off without pain relief, not 100 metres from the now defunct piggery made infamous...
Wednesday 25 Sep 2013 by
AUSTRALIAN Pork Limited (APL) has taken action against a website run by Animal Liberation which claims to expose the "inside story" on intensive livestock management practices.
Friday 2 May 2014 by
AUSTRALIA'S largest pork producer Rivalea has launched an investigation into animal cruelty after shocking footage emerged of a pig being excessively prodded and kicked.
Tuesday 6 May 2014 by
POLICE were yesterday reviewing footage of a pig being excessively prodded and kicked by an employee at Corowa’s Rivalea abattoir.
Wednesday 7 May 2014 by
Disturbing footage has emerged, reportedly from Corowa's Rivalea abattoir, resulting in accusations of animal cruelty and an on-site investigation.
Wednesday 7 May 2014 by
A PIGGERY at the centre of animal cruelty allegations has sacked two staff as police review hidden camera footage showing one of the men kicking a disabled pig.
Friday 20 Jun 2014 by
An escalating anti-pig farming campaign shows no signs of slowing, vindicating Australian Pork Limited's (APL) move to seek backing from the Australian Farmers Fighting Fund.
Wednesday 25 Jun 2014 by
A new animal rights group called Aussie Farms will publish video footage every night this week of what it describes as animal cruelty in Australian piggeries.
Monday 7 Jul 2014 by
Varying political forces have weighed into the debate over proposed new laws aimed at curtailing illegal trespass activity on farms by animal rights activists.
Tuesday 22 Jul 2014 by
Australian lawmakers and livestock industry groups are trying to disguise "ag-gag" laws to assist their introduction in Australia, says animal rights activist Chris Delforce.
Sunday 16 Nov 2014 by
Animal welfare activists are at war with pig farmers, targeting and secretly filming piggeries across the country. They say it's the only way to force changes to farming and slaughtering practices, but farmers say their livelihoods and families are being t
Thursday 20 Nov 2014 by
The ADO is extremely disappointed to learn that the serious animal cruelty charges laid against the managers of Wally's Piggery have been dropped and the case against them dismissed in the Yass Local Court on Monday 17 November 2014.
Friday 21 Nov 2014 by
Animal cruelty charges against the now defunct Wally's Piggery at Murrumbateman have been dropped. In October, Valent (Wally) Perenc, 64, Stephanie Perenc, 58, and their financial backer WSL Investments Pty Ltd, pleaded not guilty to a total of 53 charges
Wednesday 26 Nov 2014 by
Last week, RSPCA NSW dropped all animal cruelty charges against Wally's Piggery, a factory farm located just outside Canberra. The high profile case was dismissed from Yass Local Court after both the prosecutor, RSPCA NSW, and lawyers acting for Wally's Piggery
Wednesday 26 Nov 2014 by
Activists and animal rights groups are frustrated by the discussion of Australia introducing ‘ag-gag’ laws similar to the US, saying they will help farmers get away with animal cruelty.
Wednesday 26 Nov 2014 by
Animal Rights activist and website designer of aussiepigs.com, Chris Delforce, originally published the Animal Liberation ACT and NSW video footage from inside Wally’s Piggery.
Monday 22 Feb 2016 by
Animal activists have secretly filmed scenes at a South Australian piggery where workers beat, kick and ride sows as they artificially inseminate them.
Tuesday 23 Feb 2016 by
Animal rights activists have recorded shocking abuse and conditions on video and more than 800 photos inside a piggery north of Adelaide.
Tuesday 23 Feb 2016 by
Graphic footage of pigs being kicked, beaten and ridden while being artificially inseminated, allegedly taken at a piggery north of Adelaide, has been released by an animal rights group.
Tuesday 23 Feb 2016 by
Footage of alleged animal abuse at a SA piggery has been released by Animal Liberation which says an RSPCA investigation is underway.
Saturday 27 Feb 2016 by
Kicked. Beaten. Ridden on while being artificially inseminated.
Friday 13 Sep 2019 by
Footage shown to Yahoo News Australia shows rodents swarming and dead, rotting animals inside a commercial piggery in NSW. Rats swarm the walls, run around the pigs and eat the bodies of the dead.
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