• 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. 
• Earlier in the year, Chris Delforce hid inside a pig gas chamber, documenting the agonising deaths of hundreds of pigs and sparking a national conversation around the practice. Chris says that this inquiry is a “step in the right direction.”
• Chris Delforce says that he hopes the Victorian Inquiry will encourage federal Minister for Agriculture Murray Watt to initiate a national inquiry into pig slaughter methods. 

A Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into pig welfare has today been announced by the Economy and Infrastructure Committee. The announcement comes just under two months after animal protection organisation Farm Transparency Project released footage of pigs screaming, thrashing and gasping for air inside gas chambers, a method used in the slaughter of over 85% of pigs in Australia. 

Chris Delforce, the founding director of Farm Transparency Project, says that today’s announcement is a “step in the right direction,” and that the organisation looks forward to presenting evidence during the public hearings, but that this isn’t the end of their campaign to ban gas chambers. 

“I have dedicated my life to exposing the reality of animal confinement and slaughter, which is deliberately hidden from consumers by the meat, dairy and egg industries. I look forward to standing in front of this committee and tearing back the veil of secrecy that the Australian pork industry has hidden behind for so long.”

“We first exposed the suffering of pigs inside these gas chambers over 9 years ago, yet it took me hiding inside one to truly get this issue the attention it deserves. Since we released our footage, we have seen public outrage across the country. Gas chambers are used in all states except Tasmania and we’re calling on the federal Minister for Agriculture, Murray Watt, to initiate a national inquiry into pig slaughter methods which will allow the public to have their say and tell our politicians that we do not want this kind of horrific animal abuse to be legal and standard practice in this country.”

The Victorian inquiry will cover regulatory frameworks, pig stunning methods including CO2 gassing, the outcomes of a 2017 industry-led phase out of sow stalls, and pig breeding and confinement practices. The ongoing, widespread use of sow stalls in Victorian piggeries was also investigated and exposed by Farm Transparency Project late last year.