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28.11.2007 02:00 |
- Undercover investigation at 101 Finnish farms shows the horrors behind closed doors
Finnish animal rights organisation Oikeutta Eläimille (Justice for Animals) has published an undercover investigation about Finnish animal production. The material was delivered to the organisation anonomously. Shocking video material and photos can been seen at www.tehotuotanto.net.
In English: click here.
During the investigation 21 Finnish broiler farms, 60 pig factories and 20 egg farms (most of them battery units) were visited and filmed during a year-long period between 2006 and 2007. The visited broiler farms make up 16 % of the 124 Finnish broiler farms, and 25% of Finnish broilers live their five-week long lives in these enormous sheds. The piggeries represent the different forms of pig farming. The size of the egg farms varied from thousands to hundreds of thousands of individuals.
In all of the broiler farms there were dead, ailing or crippled birds. The injuries were usually leg or wing injuries and wounds, bruises or injuries in the plumage. In all the farms the birds were kept in huge factory sheds, each containing 15,000-25,000 animals.
Nearly all the farms had several sheds. One farm could thus have well over 100,000 birds. Individual care and attention in these circumstances is therefore impossible. This leads inevitably to an immense amount of suffering.
In almost all pig farms breeding sows were kept in farrowing crates. Also gestation crates were used in most farms. Pigs kept for meat production were all held in very confined pens. The pigs had scars and injuries and tail-biting was common. The conditions were often filthy. The investigation found dead pigs in every third visited piggery. Often the carcasses were just left to rot among others in pens, on the floor or in the yard.
In many of the chicken farms there were dead hens in the cages or lying on the floor. In some places the corpses were decayed and it was obvious that they had been there for a long time. In all the visited chicken farms the birds looked very stressed and they had been pecking each other.
The results from the investigation show that suffering animals are not an exception but a rule in Finnish animal production. This material shows that animal suffering is an inseparable part of the production: animals are seen as products and commodities instead of sentient beings.
Interviews and information:
+358-46 897 0706
+358-46 897 0694
+358-46 899 0382
info (at) oikeuttaelaimille.net
How to use the site in English: click here.
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