BRESCIA - Animal Equality, together with Eden di Licia Colò on La7, have released their latest investigation into the cruel rearing of thousands of pigs, in Brescia.

  Animal Equality, an international organisation that protects animals, has worked with Roberta Spinelli, a journalist sent by “Eden - A Planet to Save”, to look into the treatment of pigs. This region of Italy is often celebrated for its “Made in Italy excellence” of pork-production.

  The cameras used by Animal Equality highlight the extremely unhygienic conditions in which the pigs live, starkly contrasting with consumers’ preconceptions of how the province produces pork. The pigs are brought up in parasite-ridden conditions, where mice and other rodents are rife. They are often injured, unable to walk because of their agonisingly painful sores. Other inhuman practises include: workers dragging pigs by their legs with ropes, pigs being forced to live in overcrowded areas, meaning that they are covered with excrement.  

  There is no shadow of a doubt that there is a complete disregarding for the well-being of the animals in intensive breeding farms in Italy, Animal Equity believes.

  Animal Equity has since reported the managers of the farm to the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Brescia, showing videos and photographs of their findings. It is thought that the wholly unhealthy treatment of the pigs is dangerous of the consumers, too. Animal Equality believe that everyone needs to be made aware of the reality of pig farms.

  In Italy, more than 8 million pigs are raised annually in intensive farms, of which almost 4 million are in Lombardy. Of these, almost 1.5 million are raised in the province of Brescia, also affected by pollution and sewage spills related to the great presence of intensive farming.

  The petition that Animal Equity launched, addressed to the Presidency of the Council and the Minister of Health, pleaded for more frequent, more effective and timely controls, to be carried out unexpectedly in order to really ensure compliance with the rules of hygiene and animal welfare. “We need more controls, and we need them now," says Alice Trombetta, Executive Director of Animal Equality Italy.

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