This isn’t natural behaviour – it’s the product of intense boredom, crowding and despair. Cranswick has created these conditions.
A piglet with a necrotic hernia was cannibalised by pen mates at Somerby Top Farm in Lincolnshire for more than 33 hours, as revealed by disturbing undercover footage published by Animal Justice Project.
The baby pig is seen limping, bloodied, and visibly distressed until his organs eventually ruptured and he died in preventable agony - with no intervention from staff at a pig fattening facility owned by the Britain’s largest pork producer, Cranswick Country Foods.
The piglet was just one of many animals subjected to severe cannibalism, including being eaten alive due to ruptured hernias, stress, and boredom. These incidents constitute clear violations of the Welfare of Farmed Animals (England) Regulations 2007 and the Animal Welfare Act 2006.
Despair
Another piglet endured 46 hours of continuous attacks on her large, necrotic hernia. She screamed, collapsed, and went more than 10 hours without water and 12 without food as piglets fought over her wound. No action was taken to relieve her suffering.
Somerby Top Farm houses around 4,000 pigs in barren sheds, with up to 27 pigs per pen. The farm is Red Tractor-assured and supplies supermarkets including Tesco and Sainsbury’s. The welfare breaches were captured during a ten-month investigation by Animal Justice Project, filmed between May 2024 and January 2025.
Campaigners say it makes a mockery of Cranswick’s statement that “Animal welfare is at the heart of everything we do”. A Red Tractor audit was conducted just two weeks before some of the most severe welfare breaches were filmed, raising serious questions about the scheme’s credibility and enforcement.
Animal Justice Project is calling for a criminal investigation into welfare breaches at Somerby Top Farm as well as the phasing out of pig farming with greater government funding for plant-based farming.
Claire Palmer, director of Animal Justice Project, said: “This is the worst cannibalism we have ever documented. Pigs were literally being eaten alive, suffering ruptures, infections and horrific injuries. This isn’t natural behaviour – it’s the product of intense boredom, crowding and despair. Cranswick has created these conditions, not the pigs. The public should be appalled.”
Slaughter
Dr Alice Brough BVM&S MRCVS, a pig veterinarian who reviewed the footage, said: “The extreme violence shown by workers towards sentient individuals is deeply concerning; sick and injured pigs are brutally kicked and beaten.
This isn’t natural behaviour – it’s the product of intense boredom, crowding and despair. Cranswick has created these conditions.
“One pig is left to be cannibalised over a period of days, until he eventually dies from his injuries; it is not possible that a competent worker could miss the blood, screaming and clear discomfort. Cranswick claims to have a strong commitment to high standards of farm animal welfare, yet this is just one of many horrors exposed under their name.”
George Monbiot, the environmentalist author and campaigner, also watched the footage. He said: “Animal Justice Project’s latest exposé at Somerby Top farm reveals another Cranswick facility where extreme suffering is the norm.
"It’s beyond comprehension; I have never seen so many pigs in such an appalling state. This is another example of why pig farming must urgently be phased out. Yet again, we call for action to be taken by the government.”
The investigation gathered evidence of a litany of failures at the farm. Piglets deemed unfit for transport were loaded and removed from the site, in breach of government transport guidelines and the Welfare of Farmed Animals (England) Regulations 2007.
Sick, lame, and injured pigs were subjected to brutal handling by Cranswick staff and the farm manager. This included beating, kicking, and dragging during loading for slaughter - clearly breaching animal welfare laws.
Welfare
During loading, piglets were violently struck with boards, paddles, and hands - targeting sensitive areas such as the face, eyes, snout, and testes. One piglet was hit 13 times in quick succession with the edge of a board. Boards were also dropped from height onto their backs and spines.
Captive bolt guns were used to kill vulnerable pigs on-site, yet some were inadequately stunned and left to die, constituting a breach of humane slaughter regulations.
Workers carried out superficial checks - walking past pens and merely glancing at animals. One observed inspection of a thousand pigs lasted just 90 seconds. Only one check was conducted per day, with visible injuries and suffering routinely ignored.
Pigs were kept under constant artificial lighting for up to 50 hours at a time, in violation of rules requiring periods of darkness for animal welfare.
This exposé follows a previous Animal Justice Project investigation into Northmoor Farm, a Cranswick breeding unit where piglets were filmed being slammed onto concrete. That footage sparked national outrage, the sacking of staff, a drop in Cranswick’s share price, and a ‘review into animal welfare policies’.
Accountability
Pigs born at Northmoor are transported to Somerby Top for fattening, before being sent to Cranswick’s slaughterhouses in Hull and Norfolk. Cranswick’s Hull slaughterhouse currently kills 35,000 pigs each week, with the company investing £35 million to expand its capacity to 50,000.
The pigs are killed in CO₂ gas chambers, a method widely condemned by welfare experts for causing prolonged suffering and panic.
The abattoirs supply supermarkets Tesco, Morrisons, Asda, Sainsbury’s as well as Marks and Spencer.
These revelations come as DEFRA figures confirm 10.1 million pigs were slaughtered in the UK in 2024, with 90 per cent factory farmed and 95 per cent certified by Red Tractor.
The investigation raises urgent questions about Red Tractor’s auditing, retailer accountability, and potential criminal breaches by Cranswick staff and contractors.
Right of Reply
A spokesperson for Cranswick Country Foods said: "The health and welfare of our pigs is our highest priority and we were horrified to see this unacceptable historic footage, filmed at Somerby Top farm. We find the treatment of the pigs in the footage distressing to watch and we apologise unreservedly for this lapse in our standards.
“Since May, we have been implementing major changes across all of our farming businesses to address the challenges raised within the footage. We have changed the management team at these farms and staff shown in the footage no longer work for the business. We have recruited five new full time welfare officers.
"All of our farm colleagues have been retrained in livestock handling, with a strong focus on animal health and welfare. We are currently installing AI enabled CCTV at all of our indoor farms to enable us to monitor the health of our pigs and the behaviour of our colleagues, in real time, to ensure our exacting standards are consistently met."
They added: “Following the release of the North Moor Farm footage and as previously announced, we have commissioned a full review of our on-farm practices, which is being completed by an independent veterinarian professional. We will share the results of this investigation when it is complete."
A Sainsbury’s spokesperson said: "We are appalled by the mistreatment in this footage. What it shows in no way reflects the standards of welfare and conduct we require from all of our suppliers, including Cranswick. While we understand this footage was captured before Cranswick launched a comprehensive review of its operations, until we have detailed, independent assurance that Somerby Top Farm and all other sites in the Elsham Lincs Group meet our welfare standards we have immediately suspended supply from these farms.”
This Author
Brendan Montague is a member of the editorial team at The Ecologist.
