Asda and Tesco suspend pork supplies after animal abuse footage
Supermarket retailers Asda and Tesco have suspended supplies from Mere Farm after reports of pig abuse emerged from the Animal Justice Project.
The farm, which is located in Lincolnshire, has been a breeding site for major UK pork supplier Cranswick.
The Animal Justice Project released independent footage of ongoing animal abuse, including overcrowding, physical violence on pigs and negligence towards injuries, feeding and care.
Additionally, there was footage of piglet abuse, as well as insufficient care being given to nursing pigs. Asda confirmed the supermarket immediately suspended supplies from the site in question.
A Tesco spokesperson said: “We take animal welfare extremely seriously, and we expect all our suppliers to adhere to our high welfare standards. This footage is distressing, and we have suspended the farm with immediate effect, pending a thorough investigation with our supplier. Any failure to meet our high welfare standards is unacceptable and we take swift action where necessary.
Subscribe to Grocery Gazette for free
Sign up here to get the latest grocery and food news each morning
“We continue to work with our suppliers to drive improvements in animal welfare through independently auditing all our own brand suppliers against our Tesco Welfare Assured standards and working with farm assurance schemes to agree industry-wide improvements.”
A Cranswick spokesperson said: “We are deeply disappointed and frustrated by the covert footage captured on one of our farms. The behaviour depicted is wholly unacceptable and clearly breaches the values, standards and animal welfare practices that we uphold across our business.
“Much of the material appears to pre-date the significant reforms we have been implementing, including the complete overhaul of our livestock handling policies and extensive, independently-led retraining for our employees.”
They added: “We are continuously working on improving our on-farm standards and culture, whilst investing in cutting edge surveillance technology. This programme is ongoing and subject to continuous review and improvement.
“Despite these efforts, it is clear that a small number of individuals have failed to follow our strict animal welfare protocols, even after retraining. This constitutes a serious breach of our standards.
“As a result, those individuals have been immediately dismissed and we will cooperate fully with the relevant authorities to support further investigations.”
22 Comments. Leave new
No animal should be treated this way and no animal should be caged especially nursing animals lying on concrete with no connection to each Young
That’s disgusting behaviour poor pigs 🐖 they don’t have a good life anyway
Well done Asda & Tesco for decision to cut ties from this pork farm!! There is no excuse for causing suffering to any animal, and this farm needs investigating.
Let’s hope these people who run the farm learn something from this!!
All animals should be pets and caring like other animals you have pets and no animals should not be killed not fair them poor animals can mansion m you have pets pig have babsy ok you have a and feed mother ok but mother pig cage on hown and feed the pigs other size and can’t get access to Too mommy pig and feed the pigs some pigs and take way mother pig . Pigs see there mother to be killed and chop up to for sale pork and same other
What Cranswick say is rubbish. For many many years they have not taken animal welfare seriously and it’s not before time that their attitude towards animals came back to bite them! It’s taken multiple actions by animal welfare projects to make them start to take it seriously. Money matters so much more for these companies.
Well done Tesco and Asda for doing this.
Every animal deserves respect and the workers who deliberately abuse these animals deserve to lose their jobs. It is bad that a mother pig is kept in horrendous conditions.
Its going on everywhere! All animals are abused, ill treated all for money. Its bad enough animals living outdoors and being fed up to a specific slaughter weight let alone thousands upon thousands on factory farms. Its horrific, so cruel and unnecessary and should never be allowed, all about the money!
I wonder what this farm has done with the pigs that are ready for slaughter?
Somewhere they will end up in the food chain, I’m sure of that.
We are not talking of a few pigs, but thousands.
Will Cranswick still process these pigs?
Sick barbaric torture. Shame Supermarkets hide behind the so called Red Tractor approved logo….its a joke.
Well done to those who captured this on camera. End this utter misery, sick, disgusting torment.
I will not buy anymore pork from Tesco or Asda. Any animal does not deserve to be ill treated. They should be treated with respect.
This abhorrent behaviour happened at another Cranswick farm in Lincolnshire earlier this year. This is not acceptable. The animals do not have much life and should be cared for during this short time. Close the place down.
Absolutely disgusting but it’s not surprising, Change could start with these huge corporations involved adding into the contracts that the buyers can arrive at the slaughterhouse at any time without any forewarning, if you supply the food, you are responsible for checking up on your suppliers, not a animal welfare group!
This has been going on for months, why us no one doing anything? Where is the RSPCA, they are supposed to be looking after animal welfare.
You ask where the RSPCA are. They are a charity, and not government-funded. They cannot be everywhere and check the welfare of every animal in each of the ten thousand (minimum) animal farms in the UK, and the millions of animals in smallholdings, plus every pet in the country. Feel free to donate a billion pounds weekly and they might be able to afford to check a quarter of said animals each year.
I’m vegan , I’m so happy someone is doing something about the cruelty towards these sentient animals, people have turned a blind eye to this terrible cruelty for so long , we are supposed to be a country of animal lovers it’s all lies .
But they sell Halal and Kosher meat? Go figure.
Hypocritical. Making out they care for the suffering of animals
That was awful to read well done Asda and Tesco
Good that Asda and Tesco have taken immediate action. This is an awful thing to read about. How very unsettling.
Sadly these large pig farms are run by managers who struggle to get staff who are nterested in the animals they are only interested in there wage and going home they are not interested in pigs welfare or health its not there Loss if they die the managers are reluctant to sack bad staff staff is hard to find.
Red tractor auditors never pick up on welfare they only understand paperwork.
We need to get back to family farms where the farmers are interested in there livelihood and health n welfare of their animals.
This is the third cranswick farm filmed abusing animals the police need to be involved now and Tesco and Asda need to stop using any cranswick produce not just from this farm I will not buy pork or chicken from these supermarkets until they stop using cranswick completely
This abuse appears to be an ongoing issue and is possibly the tip of the iceberg at this pork supplier.
Cranswick should be held accountable for this disgraceful cruelty.