The largest investigation of RSPCA farms in UK history has exposed hundreds of animal welfare breaches and a “rotten barrel” of legal animal abuse, a report by social movement Animal Rising shows.
Over the course of four months, Animal Rising conducted 60 investigations on 45 farms. In total, the group found 280 legal breaches and a further 94 breaches of DEFRA codes of practice.
A 52-page report presents this evidence alongside analysis from animal welfare experts, including Professor Andrew Knight, a veterinary professor, and Ayesha Smart, a barrister and Crown Court judge.
“Our exposé shows it is not possible to fix this industrial scale cover-up,” write Rose Patterson, Dan Kidby and Ben Newman, Animal Rising’s Directors, in the report. “The public don’t want to pay for animal suffering – but that’s exactly what is happening, because they are being lied to.”
Suffering is the norm on RSPCA farms
Investigators found evidence of animal suffering on every RSPCA Assured farm they visited.
In its 200th year, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) is facing widespread condemnation for its promotion of animal farming.
RSPCA’s President Chris Packham said the footage “makes me sick” and urged the charity to drop the Assured scheme.
Much of the suffering observed on RSPCA Assured farms was the result of systematic negligence. In the worst cases, investigators found dead and dying animals suffering from starvation and dehydration.
But every farm had serious welfare concerns. For laying hens, serious failings included faecal contamination of feed and chronic stress resulting from an inability to exercise natural behaviours.
“These birds are highly sentient, and such treatment of them is not ethical,” said Professor Andrew Knight. “Unfortunately, these conditions are common within the laying hen industry.”
No enrichment and significant suffering
Elsewhere, investigators came across dying pigs convulsing in a pool of excrement, and salmon with missing eyes and infested with lice.
Obvious breaches of RSPCA’s welfare standards include pigs with no enrichment in Somerset and hens trapped outside sheds unable to get back inside in Kent.
Dr Alice Brough, a veterinarian and former commercial pig vet, reviewed the footage and noted “significant suffering, both physical and mental”.
She described “cramped, filthy conditions with a lack of comfort, enrichment and stimulation to keep [pigs] occupied enough not to fight or cannibalise each other”.
Pigs were suffering at every single RSPCA Assured farm Animal Rising visited.
“The barrel is rotten”
In recent years, hundreds of investigations have exposed cruelty and malpractice on supposedly high-welfare UK farms. Earlier this year, Animal Justice Project found evidence of appalling conditions at free-range egg farms.
The RSPCA’s typical response to such cases is to call out “one bad apple”.
Following Animal Rising’s new investigations, that excuse is no longer possible. “The barrel is rotten,” the report declares.
“The RSPCA are selling a myth and profiting from it to the tune of around £4 million a year in fees from farms where animals live and die terribly.
“The Assured scheme has failed,” the authors add. “It is a marketing arm of the intensive animal agriculture industry.”
The RSPCA has sold consumers the myth of humane meat since launching its Freedom Food scheme in 1994. This was rebranded to RSPCA Assured in 2015.
Recent controversies, including its promotion of meat at McDonald’s, show how out of touch the charity has become from its stated aim of “preventing animal cruelty”.
Accreditation schemes like RSPCA Assured are failing farmed animals. Indeed, Animal Rising reported the conditions on one farm to the RSPCA in late March. Despite clear evidence of suffering, this farm remains operational and part of the RSPCA Assured scheme, the report points out.
Expose and rescue
As well as exposing the routine cruelty found on RSPCA farms, Animal Rising also liberated some dying and diseased animals.
One animal, whose story is told in Animal Rising’s video, is Charlie. A pig of around three months old, “she was found in an overcrowded pen with a growth above her eye.”
Investigators thought the growth could be cancerous. In any case, it was “a painful cyst, placing pressure on her eyes (possibly impacting vision).”
Concerned about her immediate safety, investigators rescued Charlie “so she could receive veterinary care”. Safely removed from the RSPCA Assured farm, Charlie has received the care and love she deserves. “Now she can live a free and natural life.” ★
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