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Following the release of footage taken inside Wally's Piggery NSW, activists from Animal Liberation ACT and NSW captured footage at two additional piggeries in August 2012, proving that the atrocities at Wally's are not a one-off but are in fact the industry standard. Allain's and Tennessee are considered "good", legal piggeries by this industry.
Yet the footage reveals row upon row of female breeding pigs crammed into individual pens where they have less room than hens in battery cages. At Allain's, rats scurry around the spider web infested shed, while feral cats share stalls with piglets at Tennessee. In one section of the Tennessee Piggery, the heat lamps for the piglets are off or broken, leaving them shivering in the darkness.
Many of the large mother pigs are forced to lie immobile with their heads wedged under feeders and waterers, with scabby limbs jammed up against the bars of their cage. One pig takes a deep breath of the putrid air and her lungs touch both sides of the stall. For others, their only comfort is touching the sides of the pig in the next cage through the bars. These magnificent creatures, more intelligent than dogs and even some primates, are forced to lie for months on end in these 'standard' conditions. These ghastly cages, known as sow stalls, are what the pig industry considers essential to 'deliver a superior reproductive performance'.
Mark Pearson (Executive Director, Animal Liberation NSW): "These are typical intensive piggeries keeping female pigs in undersized stalls and crates for long periods of time. To the pig industry, this is normal pig 'accommodation'. To anyone else, it's just plain cruelty."
Jess Ferry (Co-President of Animal Liberation ACT): "These are supposed to be 'good' piggeries. No matter what way you look at it, pig farming is cruel - don't buy into it."
