Supermarkets suspend supplies from Lincolnshire pig farm over animal abuse footage | Animal welfare

Three of the UK’s biggest supermarkets have suspended supplies from a Lincolnshire pig farm after footage filmed covertly by an animal rights organisation appeared to show workers kicking piglets and hitting them with boards and paddles.

The footage also suggested the injured pigs with open wounds were packed into pens covered in faeces, with some left lame and writhing in pain.

Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s said they had “immediately” suspended supplies from Somerby Top Farm, which also reportedly supplies Morrisons, after becoming aware of the footage.

The farm was bought by Cranswick, Britain’s largest pork supplier, in late 2023 and was audited and certified by the British animal welfare and food assurance scheme Red Tractor in October 2024.

The animal rights group the Animal Justice Project (AJP) says it filmed the abuse between May 2024 and January 2025.

It claims cameras hidden across the farm over this period showed legally required welfare checks often ignored visible injuries and suffering, such as a pig who was bleeding from a ruptured hernia, with official inspections of 1,000 pigs taking as little as 90 seconds.

There were “multiple botched killings of lame piglets”, which left them in agony for more than 30 seconds after being shot, according to the Mail on Sunday, which obtained the undercover footage. Workers would routinely “hit pigs with boards, paddles and their fists, deliberately targeting areas such as their snout and eyes”.

One piglet, which “showed clear signs of extreme pain”, was reportedly left dying for 33 hours as other piglets cannibalised an open wound. “He had no escape from being eaten alive,” said the narrator of the film published on the AJP website, claiming that workers ignored the pig’s squeals of distress.

“During our filming, Somerby Top [Farm] was audited by Red Tractor,” the narrator said. “Yet just two weeks later, when we returned, we were met with the same squalid conditions.”

Red Tractor said it could not verify this, but responded to the “deeply distressing” footage by suspending Somerby Top Farm’s certification with “immediate effect” and referring the farm to the government animal welfare regulator, the Animal and Plant Health Agency.

“Red Tractor is conducting a thorough review of both current and historical footage, compliance and staffing on the farm,” the organisation said in a statement. “The farm will remain unassured if Red Tractor is not satisfied our standards are met.”

They said footage had only been presented to Red Tractor this month. “This delay is concerning and suggests that these activists have prioritised ideology over protecting animal welfare. Red Tractor provides a free anonymous whistleblowing service and we actively encourage anyone with concerns to raise these so that we can investigate immediately.”

In a statement, Cranswick said the health and welfare of its pigs was the company’s “highest priority”: “We are horrified to see the unacceptable treatment of pigs at Somerby Top Farm, [which was] historically recorded and brought to our attention this week.”

The company added that since May, when covert footage filmed by AJP showed apparent abuse at another of its farms, North Moor Farm, it has installed CCTV at all its indoor pig farms, recruited five new welfare officers, retrained all its farm workers and commissioned an independent veterinarian-led review across all its farms.

It said it had launched an investigation as soon as the AJP shared the footage: “The staff involved are no longer with the business.”

Morrisons did not immediately respond to a request for comment.