Pigs brutally beaten with stickslifted by the snout and ears, kicked by operators in environments with hygienic deficiencies among healthy, but also sick and dying animals.
These are the chilling images that come from a pig farm owned by a Lidl supplier in the province of Forlì-Cesena. They are spread by the Ère Animali association. The documentation, dating back to April-May 2024, highlights violence of all kinds as well as irregularities.
The farms of the German large-scale retail trade giant, which have already ended up at the center of numerous controversies for the treatments reserved for broiler chickens, do not spare themselves even for pigs. Cruelty is the common element.
The procedures of this farm are characterized by aggressiveness on the part of the workers and the veterinary doctor, attitudes that are a source of further pain and stress for already suffering animals. From unloading operations to swabs to detect respiratory diseases, the scenario is terrifying.
One pig is hit on the snout, a very sensitive part of the body, another is chased and beaten with a board, which should instead serve to direct the pig’s movements. Even during control swabs, the animals are tied and lifted with a snout strap.
Time is marked by beatings, electric prods, fear. Farmed pigs also have untreated wounds, lesions and hernias. For some conditions, such as a serious abscess that a pig has, it is possible to intervene by cutting into the enclosure without immobilizing the animal or disinfecting the wound.
These images demonstrate once again how extremely poor Lidl’s animal welfare policies are across the board not only for chickens but also for other species” declared Brenda Ferretti, campaigns manager ofessereanimali.
From the images you can also see the docking of the tail, a practice that violates Directive 2008/120/EC, and bite marks. This last problem is not solved by removing the tail beforehand.
The critical health and hygiene issues in the area outside the farm are also very worrying. Dozens of carcasses, many with entrails protruding from the body, are abandoned in the field.
The law provides for something completely different for the remains of dead animals, which must be transferred to specific airtight cold storage cells. But that field is instead an open-air cemetery, where the risk of spreading diseases and contamination of the soil and aquifers linked to this incorrect practice is real.
essereanimali reported the breeding to the Forestry Carabinieri of Forlì-Cesena, urging Lidl to commit seriously to improving breeding standards. For chickens and all other species intended for food production.
Recently, as well as in France, Lidl Germany has also signed a policy aligned with the ECC (European Chicken Commitment), which demonstrates the feasibility of our requests” concluded Ferretti.
There isn’t another second to waste.
