More Animal Cruelty Uncovered In Young NSW Piggeries

Windridge Farms’ Wonga Piggery, owned by the parents of Edwina Beveridge, is the twelfth Australian piggery to be exposed for animal cruelty by Animal Liberation; the fifth in the Young NSW region.

Footage and photographs taken covertly by activists and provided to Animal Liberation ACT shows dead and dying piglets left out in the open; piglets whose legs have become trapped in the cage floors; sows confined to tiny cages within farrowing crates and sow stalls or packed into “group housing”, many with large open injuries, others with smaller wounds indicative of fighting caused by overcrowding and a lack of stimulation; pigs living in their own faeces; round-the-clock artificial lighting; and infestations of flies and rats with rat droppings littered throughout piglet feed.

Bernard Brennan, spokesperson for Animal Liberation ACT, said: “This is yet more evidence of systemic cruelty in our country’s pig farms; in this instance, one of the largest and most highly-regarded by the industry. Having removed a large number of their sow stalls in favour of the new standard of ‘group housing’, we can see that this apparently great welfare advancement is nothing more than larger cages, where pigs still have very little room to move and are now vulnerable to fighting brought on by frustration and boredom. The bright white sterility of some of the farrowing rooms are a perfect example of how mechanised and factory-like modern animal ‘farming’ has become, with sentient animals treated as nothing more than units of production. Despite its best efforts, the industry has once again proven that there is no ethical way to raise and kill pigs for human consumption.”

Wonga Piggery is owned by Dugald and Jean Walker, the parents of Edwina Beveridge, whose company Blantyre Farms was last month outed for some of the worst animal abuse seen in recent Australian history despite a violent attempt to keep it hidden from the public. The family previously took Animal Liberation NSW to court to prevent footage from Wonga Piggery being released, unsuccessfully arguing that they should have copyright over any material filmed on their property.

The new footage was released on Wednesday night, 4 December 2013, and can be seen at: https://vimeo.com/80955946. Photos and further information can be found on the campaign website, www.aussiepigs.com/piggeries/wonga.