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What OUR UNDERCOVER WORK HAS achieved
Thousands of animals are suffering on farms across the country. Their abuse and oppression goes on behind closed doors, but we won’t let it go unnoticed. Animal Justice Project’s brave and dedicated undercover investigators continue to go above and beyond to document and help us end animal harm. We conduct investigations at farms, breeders, dealers, traders and slaughterhouses across the country. No job is too difficult for our team.
"Through covert surveillance footage, animal suffering can be witnessed at first hand by the viewer. Seeing such footage educates people who can then make informed choices about their diets and lifestyle. Covert investigations are essential to aid social change, I am very proud to play my part in this process.”
Animal Justice Project Investigator
Animal Justice Project Investigator
1,866,027
Views on our videos in 2023
OUR FIELD TEAM
Animal Justice Project undercover investigators put themselves at risk day and night to expose the reality for animals both on intensive and so-called ‘higher welfare’ farms. They help us show consumers the reality behind the labels and campaign for animal rights, appealing morality, fairness and justice, in a society where fellow animals (and nature) are seen as resources and property.
They are a highly skilled, specialist team with years of experience in field work. They gather intelligence using highly sophisticated, tried-and-tested methods and surveillance techniques. Their material is watertight and can be used for prosecutions in the courts. Animal Justice Project's undercover footage has been vital for several cases where law-breakers were held to account which has led to a kinder, fairer society that benefits all.
They are a highly skilled, specialist team with years of experience in field work. They gather intelligence using highly sophisticated, tried-and-tested methods and surveillance techniques. Their material is watertight and can be used for prosecutions in the courts. Animal Justice Project's undercover footage has been vital for several cases where law-breakers were held to account which has led to a kinder, fairer society that benefits all.
Past Investigations and Exposés
In just a few years, Animal Justice Project has become a leader in the field of undercover investigations. By continuing to show the oppression on farms and in slaughterhouses, whilst advocating for animal freedom, animal industries can no longer claim there are “a few bad apples” and public perceptions are changing. Animal Justice Project uses undercover investigations to help people understand the vital role they can play in social change, as well as pressure law-makers and local authorities to enforce a failing legal system for farmed animals.
BOAR SEMEN 'COLLECTION'
2024 - INNOVIS 'WORKING STUD' BOAR FARM, NORFOLK
We turned our cameras to a hidden part of the pig industry that’s never been seen filmed. Innovis is a semen ‘collection’ farm where boars spend years in desolate concrete pens, exploited for their reproductive abilities.
- Staff stabbed pigs with pitchforks, hit them with plastic piping and kicked them in their faces and testes
- Severely lame boars couldn’t bear weight on all legs yet were still forced into the ‘collection’ room and hit with piping
- Boars were drugged with Enzaprost but suffered dire side effects before being masturbated
- The concrete pens lacked any enrichment, leaving boars bored and frustrated
- All workers were filmed beating pigs, reflecting a culture of violence
RSPCA ASSURED pig slaughter
2024 - c&K meats pig slaughterhouse in suffolk
Animal Justice Project infiltrated a large pig slaughterhouse that kills up to 7,000 pigs a week – C&K Meats – revealing horrors silenced by a smokescreen of welfare assurances.
- Pigs died during transport
- Workers used paddles and boards to hit animals
- Pigs shot and left writhing in pens
- Health issues included hernias, wounds, lacerations and bitten off tails
- Breaches in full view of CCTV and with Official Veterinarians on site
- Pigs screamed as they were gassed
Rotten: Cage-freE Exposed
2024 - distress and death at free-range farms supplying M&S and Happy Egg
In a continuation of our laying hen series, we are targeting the 'highest welfare’ free-range eggs in UK supermarkets including Marks and Spencer’s own label eggs and the famous Happy Egg brand. Once again the farms we visited were associated with the British Free Range Egg Producers Association (BFREPA), proving once again that associations, governing bodies, assurance labels and marketing campaigns only serve to appease consumers and mask the reality for farmed animals.
- Dead and decomposing hens
- Hens trapped in cage mesh, hanging upside down
- Deformed beaks from ‘debeaking’
- Hens collapsed in shed floors covered in filth and faeces
- Extreme crowding
- Pitiful enrichment
- Injuries such as prolapses and twisted necks
RSPCA ASSURED CHICKEN HATCHERY
2024 - horrors at annyalla chicks ltd in wrexham
We went undercover inside the UK’s largest independent hatchery, Annyalla Chicks Ltd, at their site in Boston, Lincolnshire, to reveal the secretive slaughter of newborn chicks. The company hatches over three million chicks a week on an industrial scale before shipping these tiny animals to farms across the nation. A short and miserable life of oppression awaits them on-farm, but the pain and suffering begins in the hatchery.
- Chicks hatched on an industrial scale
- Tiny newborn chicks trodden on and crushed under the wheels of a trolley
- Live chicks thrown out with egg waste
- Abysmal care from staff as chicks are thrown between crates
- Chicks shredded alive during maceration
- Cannibalism, injuries and death
Rotten: Cage-freE Exposed
2024 - Suffering at RSPCA Assured Free-range farms nationwide
As part of our work on laying hens, we documented the suffering of hens incarcerated in farms under the highest level of so-called ‘welfare’ label that the UK egg industry has to offer. We infiltrated farms associated with directors at the British Free Range Egg Producers Association (BFREPA). Once again we showed that awards, accolades and assurance schemes mean nothing to farmed animals.
- Dead hens left to decompose on shed floors for days and potentially weeks
- Extreme feather loss and crowded, filthy conditions
- Severe bullying and feather pecking — one hen was pecked to death on camera
- Injuries and suffering - prolapses, growths and hens suspected of being egg bound
- Hens unable and too weak to jump onto upper tiers to access food or water
- Hens not being let outside for up to three days
- Shocking examples of ‘enrichment’ including plastic bottles and bags
GRESSINGHAM’S DUCKS: CAUGHT FOR SLAUGHTER
2023 - gressingham foods duck farm & Duck catching
By exposing the violent process of catching ducks ('depopulation') for commercial meat, we revealed the aggressive behaviours exhibited by Keyo’s workers, a specialist catching company. The ducks were roughly crated and transported to Gressingham Foods'slaughterhouse in Suffolk, where they were killed.
- Health issues included eye and nasal infections and blindness
- Ducks were severely lame, had twisted legs and bent necks
- The dead were left to rot amongst the living
- Birds were strangled for almost a minute by workers as they were flung around to scare others
- Ducks were slammed into plastic crates, trapping their heads, wings and legs
- 920 ducks were killed, or died, in just 42 days
ROTTEN: Chicken catching 'gangs'
2023 - rspca assured chicken catchers
As part of our investigation series on laying hens, we exposed for the first time ever the secretive nocturnal world of chicken catcher ‘gangs’ who used violence, fear and intimidation to ‘depopulate’ hens at their ‘end of lay’, which is when they are deemed no use to the egg industry. We placed our investigator onto a catching team alongside RSPCA Assured ‘chicken processing specialists’, AD Harvey, to uncover The Foul Truth about this hidden industry.
- Hens were repeatedly kicked, hit and thrown by workers during a process they called "sweeping"
- Birds were stamped on, and hit by crates and feeders
- Hens were viciously slammed into crates, trapping their heads, wings and legs
- Many were injured, stunned and some were killed as a result of this violent process
- Workers grabbed hens and held many of them upside down by one leg which is a blatant breach of both government and RSPCA Assured guidelines
- AD Harvey Founder’s grandson, who is also the catching manager, was repeatedly filmed condoning and endorsing these breaches
ROTTEN: 'Enriched' cage farm
2023 - Bird Bros egg farm in lincolnshire
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In our new undercover investigation series on laying hens, we are cracking open a Rotten industry. In the first investigation, our undercover investigator infiltrated ‘Sunny Farm’, a colony cage farm, run by East Anglia’s largest egg producer, Bird Bros. What we found inside was far from sunny.
- Distressing and appalling conditions within so-called 'enriched' cages
- Trapped hens, with some dying and others being trampled upon
- Neglect resulting in slow deaths and the heinous killing of sick and dying hens
- Daily findings of decomposing dead hens in cages
- Severe feather loss and red raw patched of skin on hens
MORRISONS’ SLAUGHTERHOUSE
2022 - WOODHEAD BROS ABATTOIR in spalding
Using an undercover worker, we infiltrated a Morrisons’ slaughterhouse, Woodhead Bros in Spalding, Lincolnshire. Using innovative covert techniques, we filmed the terrifying final moments that cows and pigs face inside the lairage and on the kill floor.
- Terrified pigs repeatedly hit by workers
- Sick, lame and injured pigs transported to slaughter
- Electric prods used on cows
- Pigs forced into the gas chamber of a ‘gondola’
- Veterinarians failing to act despite workers breaching legislation
- All happening in full view of CCTV
Red Tractor assured pig farm
2022/2023 - bickmarsh hall farm in warwickshire
Filmed over a three-month period, the suffering of pigs at Bickmarsh Hall farm in Warwickshire was severe. From nursing pigs being confined in barren cages for weeks at a time, to tiny piglets discarded amongst the decomposing bodies of others inside waste bins. This standard UK pig farm reveals the spine-chilling reality behind 'pork and 'sausages'.
- Severely lame pigs left suffering for hours, despite workers knowing about them
- Workers physically and verbally assaulting pigs
- Dead animals discarded in waste bins which were filled to the brim with bodies
- Nursing mothers confined to farrowing crates for weeks at a time
- Animals left in faeces-laden , sodden sheds without a clean place to lie
rspca assured pig transport
2022 - peddars pigs rearing and transport company
125 hours of footage, over a two-month period revealed the abuse inflicted upon pigs and tiny piglets by Peddars Pigs’ workers. Peddars is an RSPCA Assured haulage company providing rearing and transportation services to the pig industry. Our undercover footage revealed a culture of violence towards animals.
- Pigs were shocked with electric goads which was a legislative breach and caused suffering
- Tiny piglets were kicked out the back of transport trailers and thrown onto concrete floors
- Animals were crushed with boards and metal doors, causing them to cry out in fear
- Panicked animals fought to escape
- Violence was widespread during loading and unloading at almost a dozen farms
Award-winning goat dairy farm
2022 - Delamere Dairy farm in skipton, north yorkshire
Over a two-month period we investigated major goat dairy brand, Delamere Dairy, at their flagship farm, Pasture House Farm in North Yorkshire. Producing over 40 million award-winning 'products' every year, this is one of the UK’s largest goat dairies. So much so that Delamere Dairy is a household name - with cheese, yoghurt and milk in all major supermarkets. Confining over 2,000 goats, the owner, Phil Ormerod, is also the Director for the Milking Goat Association, a body representing UK commercial goat farmers.
- All goats were kept in a zero-grazing system, unable to ever go outdoors and carry out natural behaviours such as grazing
- Many sick and lame individuals
- Nanny goats who were so heavily pregnant they could not stand up
- Male and female day-old 'kid' goats killed on farm in front of other goats, filmed as a UK-first
- Baby goats were left mutilated as they have their tiny horns removed in a process called ‘disbudding’
- Verbal and physical abuse of goats by Delamere Dairy staff
- Over 100 dead goats left on piles strewn across the farm, even on a public footpath
Organic Dairy Farm
2021 - Bath Soft Cheese organic dairy in bath, somerset
The seven-month investigation documented cruel and shocking practices at a multi award-winning organic dairy farm in Bath, Somerset. What we filmed was a far cry from the picture painted by this farm and showed that organic still means pain, suffering and death for cows and calves in the dairy industry.
- Three-day old calves being dragged from mothers by rope around their neck
- One calf crying for over 39 hours straight after separation
- Mother cows bellowing for their babies for hours and desperately looking for their calves
- Calves housed in isolations pens significantly smaller than the pens shown to visitors on an ‘Open Farm Day’
- One newly-separated calf housed in a pen for 28 days – twice as long as the farm’s claim
- Verbal and physical abuse of cattle – staff members slapping, punching, and kicking cows in the face, legs and udders; as well as hitting them with alkathene pipes
- Multiple cases of lameness correlating to ‘impaired mobility’ and ‘extremely impaired mobility’ according to veterinary opinion
- Rough dehorning of calves
- Depriving calves of milk
- Tiny calves sent to slaughter via an animal dealer, Will Pollett near Bristol
Small slaughterhouse: Pigs, sheep and bulls
2021 – G & Gb Hewitt abattoir in chester
Some of the most powerful hidden-camera footage we've ever obtained was captured ocross two months inside at a Cheshire-based slaughterhouse that had been deemed ‘generally satisfactory’ by the Government’s own food watchdog, Food Standards Agency. Our pictures and video made it to multiple news sites in the UK and showed the public what slaughter looks.
- Bulls violently beaten for over 40 minutes (over 200 times) by staff and the slaughterhouse manager
- Piglets having throats cut, being thrown still thrashing onto a pile of other dead and dying piglets, and finally into a tank of hot water
- A tiny piglet appearing to kick out from within the boiling water tank, indicating this poor animal wasn't dead
- Short stun times, as little as one second, and inadequate stunning of pigs and sheep
- The immediate cutting ('dressing') of pigs’ legs following ‘sticking' with a knife, which is a breach of legislation
- Stunning equipment repeatedly failed, causing panic and distress to pigs and sheep
- Long ‘stun-to-kill’ times, meaning further animal suffering
- The government-appointed veterinarian not leaving the lairage to check on animals who were being stunned and killed
Calf Trade and Slaughter
2020 – Oaklands Livestock Centre and Hewitts Abattoir
2021 - the Buitelaar group ‘Collection Centre’
2021 - the Buitelaar group ‘Collection Centre’
An extensive undercover investigation spanning five months at a dealer’s yard where tiny, ‘reject’ male dairy calves, labelled “mongrels” and “grass rats” by some farmers, were collected from farms and markets before being sent to slaughter, as well as the killing of calves inside an abattoir. In a separate investigation, our team filmed inside a calf ‘collection centre’ in Wrexham operated by Buitelaar Group.
- Tiny calves, some from dairy farms supplying Sainsbury's, thrown down ramps, kicked and hit by staff
- A culture of abuse amongst workers towards calves
- Calves starved of food for over 21 hours and no water provided for unweaned calves at any time during filming. A breach of UK law
- Brutal killing of young calves in a small abattoir
- Calves taken to the slaughterhouse as young as nine days old and being left all night in a cold, wet lairage
Beef rearing farm and veal farm
2020 – Berryfields Farm and Badgers Cross in northamptonshire
Our undercover filming at a zero-grazing beef ‘mega farm’ in Daventry, Northamptonshire was the first of its kind in the UK. Not only did we film cows reared for beef at Berryfields Farm, which supplied major supermarkets, we also filmed young calves at a Somerset rearing farm, Badgers Cross, which was linked to Waitrose. The investigation at Berryfield revealed the fate of male ('bull') calves born on dairy farms who are not able to produce milk.
- Calves under a month old at Badgers Cross being roughly pushed around by workers, yelled and shouted at
- 23 Red Tractor and DEFRA guidelines breached at Berryfields
- Cows beaten with pipes and fists, kicked, had tails twisted, and one had a bucket thrown in his face causing him to slam onto the concrete floor
- Sick, lame and injured cows left to suffer in a filthy ‘hospital pen’
- Cows struggling to walk moved by workers with fists, yelling, swearing, and kicking through the crush and walkways
- Drone images showing the industrial scale of beef farming
Duck Slaughter
2020 - Gressingham Foods slaughterhouse
For the first time ever, Animal Justice Project placed cameras for 24 hours inside Gressingham Food’s huge slaughterhouse in Redgrave, Suffolk (the largest duck abattoir in the UK), This investigation inside the abattoir was featured in every major newspaper, reaching thousands of people and reveals mandatory CCTV and government audits inside UK slaughterhouses is failing to prevent animal cruelty and suffering.
- A staggering fifteen breaches of EU, UK government and Red Tractor guidelines in just 24 hours
- The brutal handling of birds and yanking them by their necks on shackles
- Shackling and involuntary inversion appeared to cause the ducks significant distress
- Workers argued and shouted at each other, even physically assaulted each other, whilst roughly shackling distressed and panicked birds
- Ducks left hanging for over 14 minutes - well over the maximum time of 2 minutes specified in both UK and EU legislation
- Ducks arrived dead in crates and one bird was covered in blood
Duck Farms
2019 & 2020 – Gressingham Foods duck farms
Animal Justice Project filmed for two months on Gressingham Foods duck farms in Thetford, Norfolk supplying Red Tractor Assured duck to Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Tesco, Co-Op, ASDA and Morrisons.
- Barren sheds entirely void of any enrichment or open water, and housing up to 12,000 ducks
- Thousands of ducks in large windowless sheds with no water to bath or even preen themselves in
- Shackling and involuntary inversion appeared to cause the ducks significant distress
- Ducks arrived dead in crates and one bird was covered in blood
- Each duck was afforded just 2 foot square floor space
- Ducks and ducklings pedalling on their backs in clearly great distress
- Constant lighting for 47 hours
- Lame ducks were seen by workers and then ignored
- Workers roughly grabbed ducks by their necks, carried them through the sheds – still by their necks – then broke their necks and threw them onto the flock
Turkeys
2019 – Pastures Poultry organic farm and abattoir
Another ‘gold star’, high-end farm filmed at by Animal Justice Project. This time free-range turkeys in Northampton. Our investigation team uncovered:
- Turkeys being plucked alive
- Terrified chickens entering scalding tanks alive and flapping
- Guinea fowls’ feathers being ripped out whilst still conscious
- The violent handling of birds and yanking them by their necks on shackles
- Slaughter in full view of other birds waiting for their turn
Free-Range Broiler Chickens
2019 – RSPCA chicken farms
Hidden-camera footage reveals the horrible truth of what happens to RSPCA, ‘high-welfare’ chickens behind closed doors:
- Almost 500 chicks died in their first week
- A dilapidated, sparse and largely concrete 'range' for 'free-range' birds on the RSPCA-certified farm
- Kicking, throwing and snapping of the necks of baby chicks; and the leaving of one chick over eight hours to die
- Lame birds and dying birds left to suffer for days
- Workers breaking the necks of adult birds and throwing them convulsing on the ground to die or flap off
- A worker urinating into a bucket then throwing live but seriously impaired birds into it eight hours later
- Catching teams cursing, throwing, kicking and slamming birds into crates during catching for slaughter
DRONE INVESTIGATIONS
Animal Justice Project’s ‘eyes in the sky’ provide a new perspective on the devastating impact that animal agriculture has on animals, the environment, and rural communities.
Equipped with high-tech video cameras, our drones fly above farms, slaughterhouse and livestock markets, capturing the nightmarish scale of these facilities from above.
Equipped with high-tech video cameras, our drones fly above farms, slaughterhouse and livestock markets, capturing the nightmarish scale of these facilities from above.
"We have to see them, show their hidden reality and expose industry lies.”
Animal Justice Project Investigator
Animal Justice Project Investigator
21
Investigations released since 2019
1,866,027
Views on our videos in 2023
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