In 2015, Animal Liberation Victoria (
alv.org.au) and Animal Liberation NSW (
animal-lib.org.au) investigated three separate Victorian pig slaughterhouses known for using the pig industry's "best practice" stunning method: carbon dioxide gas chambers, where most pigs in Australia, including those raised as "free range", take their final breaths.
These gas chambers rely on some major misconceptions. In particular it is suggested that, like might be expected with carbon monoxide, the pigs gently fall asleep, unaware of what's happening. With carbon dioxide however, it's the complete opposite - the pigs lose consciousness through agonising asphyxiation.
The investigation involved climbing down into the chamber while wearing an oxygen tank to position hidden cameras. The activist who did so immediately noticed their eyes burning, which led to the discovery that when carbon dioxide reacts with liquids or mucus coated membranes (like that of the eyes, nostrils, sinuses, throat, and lungs), it forms carbonic acid. From their first lungful of gas, these pigs are burning from the inside out.
The three slaughterhouses are:
- Diamond Valley Pork, Laverton VIC
- Australian Food Group, Laverton VIC
- C A Sinclair, Benalla VIC
At Diamond Valley Pork, the camera captured a pig who somehow pushed through the barrier into the chamber before a gondola was in place, falling onto the gondola below and then down to the bottom of the chamber - if the fall didn't kill him, the gas would have within minutes.
At the Benalla abattoir, workers use high amperage electric prods connected to mains power, delivering repeated excruciating shocks to the pigs in order to force them up the chute into the gas chamber. On multiple occasions the prod was held against the anus of the pigs. This is done all day long by several different workers, in full view of the facility's surveillance cameras.
You can choose not to support this cruelty - visit
veganeasy.org to find out how.
