[VIDEO] Animal abuse: L214 denounces the barbaric practices used on pigs in a farm in Yonne – LaDepeche.fr

Association L214 unveils this Thursday, August 19 the horrors committed on the pigs of an intensive breeding in Yonne, where there are 1,800 sows, three times the French average. A whistleblower testifies, with his face uncovered.

L214 lodged a complaint for serious abuse and asked the prefect of Yonne for immediate measures: an inspection of the breeding, penalties and upgrading. A petition has been posted online. The association for the defense of animals lists numerous infringements of the regulations in force: mutilation, excessive breeding densities, … Two very serious abuses are put forward: the breaking of piglets, and the cutting of tails. Thanks to the testimony of an employee, and to the many images to which the association was able to have access, it has all the proofs of these assertions.

The breaking down of piglets, a barbaric and illegal practice

Weaker piglets are not very profitable for breeding. Poor, lame … they are eliminated from birth. The company uses the technique of “breakdown”. The latter consists of bringing them down by grabbing them by the hind legs to strike their head violently on a hard surface, often on the ground. It happens that this is not enough to kill them, the operation is then repeated. These dying little animals are sometimes left on the ground or in a garbage can. Millions of piglets are thus massacred each year in France.

Texts, such asdecree of 12 December 1997, Where the European regulation of September 24, 2009 strictly regulate the use of this technique. In the case of this pigsty in the Yonne, the breeders therefore martyr these animals without respecting these measures. Piglets are not in fact affected by the emergency killing provisions.

Cutting raw cocks, a very painful and outlaw method

The whistleblower also reports the cutting of pigs tails, raw, from an early age. One 2019 report of the National Institute of Agronomic Research (INRA) demonstrates the inflicted pain caused on these animals with this method. It is used to prevent injuries that pigs inflict on each other, including bites, due to poor breeding conditions.

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The law formally prohibits this cut practiced routinely. However, the European Commission pointed out in a 2019 report that systematic tail cutting was carried out in 99% of French farms.

“They are violently mistreated without management reaction”

The whistleblower wished to speak with his officials about this mistreatment, without success … He therefore decided to file a complaint and make the images public. He admits to having been deeply shocked by the practices of the breeding, and even to have fallen into depression.

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Sébastien Arsac, director of investigations and spokesperson for L214, salutes “the courage of this employee who decided to make public the serious abuses committed on the animals at the pigsty of Tremblats, in the Yonne. The sows and piglets of this farm is already living a miserable life, as in the majority of pig farms (95% of pig farms are intensive), they are also violently mistreated without reaction from the management. We demand sanctions for this breeding and a ban piglets breaking down as well as the raw cutting of their tails. “