How does cruelty continue to go unchecked on Australian farms?
Shocking cruelty at a South Australian pig farm highlights the urgent need for systemic reform.
Image: Farm Transparency Project
A South Australian pig farm has been exposed for some of the worst cruelty ever seen by animal welfare experts in Australia. It’s confronting and distressing. And once again, it wasn’t the industry or authorities that uncovered these significant animal welfare failures. It was a concerned member of the public and an animal protection organisation, Farm Transparency Project.
What they captured during the investigation reveals just how broken our animal welfare system is and amplifies the need for a drastic overhaul of how animal welfare is governed in Australia.
The worst cruelty and suffering ever documented at an Australian pig farm.
The farm, Andgar Piggery, was first reported to the RSPCA by a concerned member of the public, who also notified Farm Transparency Project and what they found was horrifying:
Pigs stuck in mud and waste that was so deep, they were forced to swim – many had already drowned
Pigs with horrific untreated injuries and wounds
Pigs forced to live amongst dead and decomposing bodies
Rats running rampant throughout the sheds.
Farm Transparency Project immediately reported this facility to the authorities, and it is now under investigation – but it raises the question: how was it ever able to get this bad in the first place?
Animal welfare failures happen due to inadequate compliance, monitoring and accountability.
Andgar Piggery was accredited under the Australian Pork Industry Quality Assurance Program (APIQ). This accreditation is meant to signal that producers meet comprehensive food safety, animal welfare, and environmental standards. But what good is accreditation if such deplorable suffering can occur right under the stamp of approval?
“Industry-run schemes like APIQ are no substitute for independent regulation, compliance monitoring, and enforcement. What we’re seeing is the result of a system where animal welfare is too often left to self-regulation, where the same industries profiting from animal use are setting the rules and policing themselves.”
While this investigation revealed extreme cases of cruelty, every year, millions of animals suffer because of our outdated and broken animal welfare system. In Australia, there is currently no independent government body that oversees the application of our animal welfare laws. There’s also no consistent program of routine inspections to ensure laws are being followed and suffering prevented.
The very government departments and ministers tasked with protecting animals are also responsible for promoting the industries that use them. This leads to weak protections, lax enforcement, undue industry influence, and unacceptable suffering for animals like pigs.
A pig stuck in waste and mud up to their neck.
Image: Farm Transparency Project
It’s time for a new system, one that puts animals first.
To prevent cruelty like this from continuing, we need to urgently shift to a model of independent oversight. This means separating animal welfare from agriculture departments and ministers and putting in new systems that ensure strong and fair enforcement and regular compliance checks.
That is why the Alliance for Animals is calling for:
A National Animal Welfare Commission to provide independent leadership, develop fair standards, and ensure consistency and accountability across all states and territories.
State Animal Welfare Authorities to oversee training of inspectors, administer industry compliance monitoring programs, and publicly report on compliance and enforcement.
Together, these reforms will help prevent extreme cruelty like that seen at Andgar Piggery, ensure proper action is taken if cruelty is evident, and deliver a system that better reflects how Australians believe animals should be treated.
The public is ready, and the animals have waited long enough.
The majority of Australians want to see animals treated with respect and compassion. But until we reform the foundations of how animal welfare is governed, animals will continue to suffer.
Will you help secure stronger protections for animals by supporting these key animal welfare reforms? Add your name to the form below.
Image: Farm Transparency Project