Cruelty Exposed In W.A. Piggeries Ahead of Perth Documentary Screening

Mindarra Piggery (WA’s largest) near Gingin, and Narrogin Piggery are the first in WA to be exposed for animal abuse on activist website www.aussiepigs.com since the campaign began in 2012, bringing the total nationwide to 33. Damning footage and photographs taken inside the farms have been released in a joint effort by animal rights groups Aussie Farms and Animal Liberation WA, in the lead-up to Perth’s screening this Saturday 1 November of a new feature-length documentary about Australian pig farming, entitled Lucent.

Chris Delforce, Executive Director of Aussie Farms and producer of Lucent, said, “Last year, Westpork – the owners of Mindarra Piggery – were fined $225,000 after facing charges of animal cruelty. It seems not much has changed, with extreme cruelty still rampant in the farrowing sheds investigated by activists earlier this year. We’re seeing mother pigs kept in small metal cages, unable to turn around, one with a painful prolapse and another being sprayed continuously by cold water from a broken pipe, unable to move away. Several dead and dying piglets remain near their caged mothers or piled into buckets.”

Ashley Jago, spokesperson for Animal Liberation WA and organiser of the upcoming film screening, added, “Pigs are naturally very clean animals who will designate a toilet spot far away from where they sleep or eat… but at Narrogin Piggery – and many other piggeries around the country –  they’re forced to live in a build-up of their own excrement.”

Details about the documentary Lucent and the Perth screening can be found at www.aussiepigs.com/lucent.