Wally’s Piggery in Murrumbateman continues to slaughter and mistreat animals despite being under investigation, fresh video footage appears to show.
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New footage shows a severed pig's head and pools of blood on the floor of the premises, scores of animals packed tightly into pens, and a new sledge hammer assumed to be for slaughtering.
The video comes three months after police and authorities raided the piggery in response to graphic footage which showed piggery workers kicking and tossing piglets and beating pigs to a slow death with a sledge hammer. It also showed buckets of dead piglets and sows with open untreated sores.
The initial footage was filmed by activists during a covert operation between May and July this year. Animal Liberation NSW executive director Mark Pearson said he did not know the source of the latest footage, but said it had been filmed on Saturday and published on their website on Monday.
“They are still killing pigs, and they are not using electrical stunning for the killing… there’s blood and a head, and hair, and a sawn-off sledge hammer still there,” Mr Pearson told the Tribune.
He was also concerned the animals were still living in unacceptably muddy conditions with no warm dry flooring.
“Even though clearly they are not breeding anymore, they are still operating as a piggery and still killing animals while they are not licensed to.
“We’re not satisfied [with the piggery] only being monitored or that all the animal welfare issues have been dealt with.”
He said if the four investigating authorities had been effective in their monitoring of the situation, “then the camera that filmed that on Saturday morning should not have found this situation with the pigs”.
The RSPCA carried out a random inspection of the piggery in September and reported the farm was being de-stocked and that conditions had improved. Its investigation is now drawing to a close.
The agency is aware of the new footage and inspected the piggery again this week. It believed the new footage was not, in itself, evidence of cruelty.
“The piggery had improved conditions since first inspected … [there are] less pigs on the property and its owners have been working with RSPCA to address compliance issues,” a spokesman said.
“RSPCA inspectors will continue to conduct random inspections of the piggery to assess the welfare of the pigs and to monitor the compliance.
“The only animals that currently remain on the property are the weaner and grower pigs. With no sows, there is no breeding and the numbers of pigs housed at the property will continue to decline as the weaners are grown out.”
A NSW Food Authority spokeswoman said the agency had investigated whether the business had sold any pig meat but found no evidence of it. The piggery was not licensed to operate an abattoir.
The owner of the piggery could not be contacted and the factory phone has been disconnected.
The footage can be viewed at www.aussiepigs.com.au. Warning: contents may offend some readers.
