Media Release

15th May 2006

?Cruel Britannia? Campaign Exposes Horrific Conditions on British Pig Farms

British consumers have been deceived - by both the pig industry and the Government - into believing that pigs on UK farms enjoy a standard of living unparalleled anywhere else in the world, claims Viva!, Britain?s largest vegetarian campaigns group. It has produced a disturbing video of its undercover investigations to prove the point (enclosed).

Over the past five months, Viva! has visited dozens of pig farms across Britain and documented cruel and unhealthy methods of production which, it says, will shock most consumers. Chosen entirely at random, the units exposed are typical of UK pig farms generally and reveal a picture of filth, overcrowding, dead and dying animals and widespread neglect.

Some of the scenes in Viva!?s video ? filmed in Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Somerset and the West Midlands ? require a strong stomach. They include dead and rotting piglets alongside living siblings; skips full to overflowing with dead piglets; sows with open, festering sores imprisoned in metal crates; pigs coated in their own faeces with filthy, wet concrete on which to sleep; crippled piglets dragging themselves around, unable to walk.

?The British pig industry boasts of the best animal welfare in the world, yet everywhere we pointed the camera we saw filth, suffering and neglect?, says Toni Vernelli, Viva!?s campaigns manager. ?It?s time they stopped conning the public with meaningless quality assurance schemes and little red tractor symbols and owned up to the gruesome reality of pig production in the UK.?

Accompanied by a giant ?Piggles? mascot ? complete with plane and flying helmet ? Viva! will bring their ?Cruel Britannia? campaign to high streets across the UK this summer. Using a body-worn TV screen to air their shocking footage, the campaigners will urge shoppers to ?Join the fight for pig freedom ? don?t eat ?em!?.

Piggles? UK flying tour begins in Lincoln on Thursday 18th May.

Photos from Viva!?s investigation can be viewed and downloaded at: http://www.viva.org.uk/campaigns/pigs/cruel_britannia/

For more information contact Toni Vernelli on 0117 944 1000 or 0797 069 0468,
or visit http://www.piggles.org.uk