Pig Gassing – Act Now

To make meat, all animals are slaughtered. It’s not something we’re encouraged to think about because if we did, many more of us would be vegan. That’s not something the meat industry wants! Slaughter of sentient, feeling, intelligent beings is always gruesome, nasty and cruel. Imagine how scared you’d be… yet, it’s also unnecessary!

“Is any meal really worth this suffering? When I learnt the truth about animal agriculture, I never looked at the world in the same way again. This doesn’t need to happen.” – Jerome Flynn

Of the 10.7 million pigs slaughtered each year in the UK, almost 90 per cent are killed by gassing. It causes agony as the carbon dioxide gas forms an acid on their eyes, nostrils, mouths and lungs.

Pigs are lowered into a chamber containing a minimum concentration of 80 per cent carbon dioxide (CO₂). As the gondola is lowered, the pigs scream and thrash around violently trying to escape as the gas causes acute pain – for up to one minute. Exposure to CO₂ gas then leads to a loss of oxygen to the brain (anoxia).

The suffering this causes the pigs has led to calls for the practice to be banned. In 2020, EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) published a report on the welfare of pigs at slaughter. A panel of scientists concluded: “Exposure to CO₂ at high concentrations (higher than 80% by volume) is considered a serious welfare concern because it is highly aversive and causes pain, fear, and respiratory distress”.

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Please share the video and talk to others about the reality of slaughter. It is normal to feel outrage and sadness and it helps you and the animals if you direct this emotion into positive campaigning and action.

The best thing you can do to stop this is going vegan. This will help decrease the demand for animal products and thus put an end to these practices. Millions of people are vegan or have stopped eating meat in the UK alone.

Viva! has lots of incredible resources to make going and staying vegan, easy. And if you want to join others and help campaign against cruelty, sign up to Viva!’s emails and join Viva! at viva.org.uk/join – together we are stronger in our fight for the animals.