In February 2014 a small group of investigators entered Corowa slaughterhouse in NSW, which was at that point in time, the largest pig slaughterhouse in the southern hemisphere. At this stage, no one had ever filmed inside of a pig gas chamber before, with only rumours and whispers standing against the industry's promises of peaceful, humane deaths. This was about to change.
Over three days, the investigators installed cameras inside the slaughterhouse, including in the gas chamber itself, revealing, for the first time in the world, the true horror of what was happening inside. The footage launched a new organisation, Farm Transparency Project - then known as Aussie Farms - dedicated to investigating and exposing commercial animal use in Australia, and tearing back the curtain of secrecy that shrouded the breeding, confinement and slaughter of animals used for food, clothing and entertainment. The footage started a ripple effect, featuring in the documentary Lucent and leading to FTP’s founder, Chris Delforce, being raided and charged by the police. This inspired the creation of Dominion, a film which mobilised a movement for change that is still challenging the exploitation of animals today.
Now, almost 10 years later, we’re exposing Corowa again, and this time we know the risks.
So much has changed in the world since 2014, yet behind the walls of this brutal, pig gassing chamber, the horrors never ceased. The terror and suffering of the pigs who are suffocated to death inside this machine is just as horrifying, the casual cruelty of the workers who beat and prod them into the chambers, just as heartbreaking. The only thing that has changed is that, in publishing this, we risk much greater penalties.
But we will not let their stories go untold. We’re sharing this footage as further proof that we need a federal, parliamentary inquiry into the lack of legal protection for farmed animals. We also need each state to immediately take action to ban gas chambers, and shut down the facilities that continue to torture pigs under the label of ‘humane slaughter.’
