Content warning: the following article contains descriptions, footage, and pictures of extreme animal rights abuses.

The Animal Justice Project has released disturbing undercover footage from Somerby Top Farm in Lincolnshire. The UK’s largest pork producer Cranswick Country Foods owns the pig fattening facility at the centre of shocking animal rights revelations – including distressing scenes of cannibalism.  Filmed over ten months between May 2024 and January 2025, the investigation revealed harrowing scenes of extreme suffering inside a Red Tractor-assured site supplying Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and other major supermarkets.

Red Tractor told the Mail on Sunday it has suspended the farm with immediate effect and is reviewing the footage. Campaigners say the findings demolish Cranswick’s claim that:

animal welfare is at the heart of everything we do.

Cranswick’s animal cruelty: disturbing new footage that should shock Tesco

This exposé follows Animal Justice Project’s 2024 investigation into Northmoor Farm, a Cranswick breeding unit where piglets were filmed being slammed onto concrete. That footage prompted national outrage, staff dismissals, a fall in Cranswick’s share price, and a policy review.

Pigs born at Northmoor are transported to Somerby Top for fattening before slaughter at Cranswick’s abattoirs in Hull and Norfolk. There, the company kills them using CO₂ gas chambers, a method welfare experts have condemned for causing prolonged suffering. These abattoirs supply Tesco, Morrisons, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Aldi, and Marks & Spencer.

Cranswick’s Hull facility kills 35,000 pigs each week, with a £35m expansion planned to increase capacity to 50,000. At Somerby Top Farm, staff cram 4,000 pigs into barren sheds, with up to 27 pigs per pen. Investigators say the footage offers a rare, sustained look at daily life on a pig farm — both before and after a Red Tractor audit.

Damning findings documented

Animal Justice Project documented:

• Extreme cannibalism and prolonged suffering. This included one piglet attacked for over 33 hours and another for 46 hours, both dying without intervention.

• Unfit pigs transported – including those with rupturing or ulcerated hernias, open wounds, burst abscesses, and severe lameness, in breach of legal guidelines.
• Violent handling. Employees routinely beat, kicked, dragged, and struck pigs with boards, paddles, and hands. This included blows to faces, eyes, snouts, and testes.
• Improper killing. Staff inadequately stunned pigs with captive bolt guns and left them to die.
• Negligent welfare checks. The facility carried out inspections lasting as little as 90 seconds for over 1,000 pigs, ignoring visible injuries.
• Lighting violations. They kept pigs under constant artificial light for up to 50 hours.
• Audit concerns. Severe breaches filmed just two weeks after a Red Tractor inspection, raising questions over the scheme’s credibility.

Pigs left to be cannibalised and extreme violence: pig farming must be phased out

Veterinarian Dr Alice Brough BVM&S MRCVS, who reviewed the footage, said:

The extreme violence shown by workers towards sentient individuals is deeply concerning. One pig is left to be cannibalised over days until he dies; it is impossible that a competent worker could miss the blood, screaming, and visible distress. Cranswick’s claims of high welfare are utterly incompatible with what we see here.

Director of Animal Justice Project Claire Palmer added:

This is the worst cannibalism we have ever documented. Pigs were literally eaten alive, suffering ruptures, infections, and horrific injuries — the result of boredom, overcrowding, and despair. Cranswick created these conditions. The public should be appalled, and it’s time for an independent, public inquiry into the UK pig industry.

Author and environmental activist George Monbiot, who viewed the footage, said:

I have never seen so many pigs in such an appalling state. This is yet another example of why pig farming must urgently be phased out.

Animal Justice Project is therefore calling for:

• A criminal investigation into breaches at Somerby Top Farm.
• A government-backed phase-out of pig farming.
• Public investment in plant-based agriculture.
• An independent public inquiry into UK pig farming.

Featured image and additional images supplied