Media Releases and Statements

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 >

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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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 >

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 >

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 >

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 >

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 >

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 >

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 >

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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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 >

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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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 >

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 >

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 >

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 >

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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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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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 >

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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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 >

Confronting hidden camera footage has revealed systemic improper stunning of turkeys before they are brutally decapitated in an abattoir in Numurkah, Victoria.

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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 by 2012 covert footage. Numerous animals are seen suffering from eye infections, respiratory issues and even blindness, while others lie dead or dying. S... Read more >

New evidence reveals the ongoing slaughter of ex-racehorses in NSW in breach of the state’s racing rules, with many sent directly from industry breeders including a stud owned by billionaire Gerry Harvey, owner of the prestigious ‘Magic Millions’ annual horse sale and retail giant Harvey Norman.  

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We're changing our name! Since our inception in 2014, we've used the name Aussie Farms to challenge perceptions of what it means to farm animals for food in Australia. However, the time has come for a name that more clearly captures our purpose as an animal protection organisation, to fight for the rights of animals to not be exploited and abused commercially, by forcing transparency on industries dependent on secrecy. We've always believed that truth and transparency are some of our greatest tools in the movement for animal liberation. So we'll be moving forward as "Farm Transparency Project". By dropping the "Aussie", we're also ready to expand our efforts internationally, with new countries to be added to our Map and Repository websites later in the year. Our primary focus will alwa... Read more >

Animal protection organisation Aussie Farms has released ‘devastating’ hidden camera footage of horses, including ex-racing thoroughbreds and standardbreds, being shot at two Sydney knackeries.

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A recurring revelation throughout this inquiry was the total lack of transparency and legal restrictions that the industry operates under, with even the poster boy for animal agriculture – goat farmer John Gommans – being exposed for animal cruelty when hidden cameras captured the daily brutal shooting of newborn male goats.   The government’s response does touch on this lack of transparency, but it’s a shame to see that their priority appears to be boosting consumer confidence in the industry, rather than doing anything to actually address the underlying concerns of those consumers. They’ve supported the recommendation for CCTV in slaughterhouses, but as we pointed out in our submission to the inquiry, unless that CCTV is publicly accessible it’... Read more >

Confronting Australian-first footage of baby goats screaming and struggling as their budding horns are burnt off with a hot iron has been released this morning by animal protection organisation, Aussie Farms. The anonymously-supplied footage was captured in recent weeks at Lochaber Farm, a large intensive goat dairy in Meredith, Victoria, owned by the popular Meredith Dairy brand. The practice, known as ‘disbudding’, aims to prevent the growth of the goats’ horns and is performed on days-old females (‘doe kids’) who are intended to join their mothers in the breeding and milking cycle. Though clearly cruel, disbudding is common on Australian goat farms and legally permissible due to an exemption for commercially-farmed animals in Victoria and other statesR... Read more >

It is extremely disappointing and concerning that the animal agriculture industry, whose business interests are at direct odds with our charitable purpose of "preventing or relieving the suffering of animals", were notified in advance of this decision by the ACNC as late as last week and possibly earlier. This, in combination with the language used in communication with us from the ACNC earlier this year, points to a clear and extremely inappropriate influence from that industry in the making of this decision, and more broadly speaks to the ACNC’s failure to conduct this investigation independently of external influence. It is unacceptable that an industry that stands to gain financially from the revocation of our charitable status was notified several days prior to our charity being... Read more >

Makers of the controversial Aussie Farms map and Dominion documentary have laid down a public challenge to the government on its decision to bring in ‘draconian’ federal and state laws: “The government has changed the law to stop you from seeing this. So we put it on a billboard.” This is the message displayed on a prominent billboard on the Westgate Freeway in South Melbourne en route to the city, by animal rights charity Aussie Farms. Underneath the text is the URL: WATCHDOMINION.COM, urging people to watch the documentary Dominion – a damning expose of the cruel and violent treatment of animals in factory farms, slaughterhouses, and the fashion and entertainment industries in Australia – which recently surpassed 1 million views. Dominion, which w... Read more >