• 30 protestors have stopped operations at Benalla slaughterhouse in Northern Victoria, chaining themselves onto the gas chamber used to paralyse pigs for slaughter.
• One protestor is locked inside the gondola used to lower pigs into the carbon dioxide gas while others have chained themselves to the ‘race’ where pigs are herded through into the chamber.
• Inside the gondola is Chris Delforce, who was behind a recent campaign that used footage he took while hiding inside a gas chamber in a Victorian abattoir and which reveals pigs thrashing and screaming in agony when exposed to the gas. 

Photos and footage: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_WQaPhY1McTxEd5II4aLzwwlCrl2uYXC

Animal rights advocates have shut-down operations at Benalla pig slaughterhouse in Northern Victoria this morning in a coordinated disruption. Around 30 protestors entered the facility in the early hours of the morning and locked onto machinery. Some climbed onto the roof, dropping a large banner that read Stop Gassing Pigs for Pork, while others have blocked the narrow chamber known as the ‘race’ where pigs are herded through into the gas chamber. A small group have chained themselves inside the carbon dioxide gas chamber, used to immobilise the pigs before their throats are slit. 

Animal campaigner and advocate, Chris Delforce is locked inside one of the gondolas, used to lower the pigs into a deep pit which is pumped full of CO2 gas. Earlier this month, Delforce’s organisation Farm Transparency Project was behind the release of shocking new footage that showed the final moments of pigs inside these gas chambers. This footage was captured by Delforce while he hid inside a gas chamber at a Victorian pig abattoir. 

“Today we are here to peacefully put our bodies in the way of these instruments of death and destruction and demand an immediate ban on the use of carbon dioxide gas chambers, at the very least until a full inquiry can take place.”

“In the two weeks since our footage was released, we have gone directly to the Australian Pork industry and to the government to ask what is being done to address this issue. At Australian Pork Limited the CEO snuck out a back door rather than speak to us and both the Victorian and Federal Ministers for agriculture have ignored our requests to meet. Pigs are dying in agony inside these gas chambers every day, we couldn’t wait any longer for someone else to intervene.”

Farm Transparency Project are currently calling on the government to launch a Victorian Inquiry into the use of carbon dioxide gas chambers as a form of ‘humane’ stunning and are pushing for a ban of the practice. 

“This is what the pork industry proudly claims to be the ‘most humane’ option out there for stunning pigs. We ask that, if pigs screaming in agony, desperately thrashing, and trying to escape is what this industry can call humane, how can we trust any claims they make to care about the welfare and wellbeing of animals? Australian pork is lying to its consumers and obscuring the reality which is that no pig wants to die. They go to their deaths in agony, writhing, screaming, and gasping for air.