Supermarkets suspend farm over pig welfare footage

Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s have suspended supplies from Somerby Top Farm, Lincolnshire, after undercover footage appeared to show serious animal welfare breaches at the site between May 2024 and January 2025.

The video, released by the Animal Justice Project – an animal rights organisation – was filmed at Somerby Top Farm, which is operated by Cranswick, Britain’s largest pork producer.

It shows piglets allegedly being kicked by workers, injured pigs packed into faeces-covered pens, and animals left writhing in pain or bleeding untreated.

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A worker was allegedly caught on camera punching a pig at Somerby Top Farm © Animal Justice Project

Red Tractor, the food standards assurance scheme, confirmed to the Mail on Sunday that it had suspended the farm with immediate effect and is now reviewing the evidence.

Response

Vet Dr Alice Brough, who analysed the footage, said: “The extreme violence shown by workers towards sentient individuals is deeply concerning.

“One pig is left to be cannibalised over days until he dies; it is impossible that a competent worker could miss the blood, screaming, and visible distress.

“Cranswick’s claims of high welfare are utterly incompatible with what we see here.”

Cranswick responded to the footage, stating: “The health and welfare of our pigs is our highest priority, and we were horrified to see this unacceptable historic footage, filmed at Somerby Top farm.

“We find the treatment of the pigs in the footage distressing to watch and we apologise unreservedly for this lapse in our standards.”

A National Pig Association spokesperson said: “The behaviour depicted in the footage is wholly unacceptable and cannot be condoned. We are horrified to see pigs treated in this way and continue to work with others across the industry to ensure high standards are maintained at all times.

“This sort of behaviour is also not representative of the care pig farmers provide to their animals across the country on a daily basis.

“We would like to highlight that this footage of Somerby Top Farm is from between May 2024 and January 2025 and NPA is aware that Cranswick has already implemented a comprehensive suite of actions following the release of footage from their North Moor unit previously.

“Furthermore, despite AJP being aware of the behaviour of some individuals on farm for many months, they evidently did not alert the business or relevant authorities and therefore those individuals have been permitted to continue to work with the pigs for all that time.”

In response, the company has implemented changes across its operations.

These include replacing management teams, retraining staff, banning manual blunt force trauma, and hiring five full-time welfare officers.

CCTV rollout

The company is also rolling out artificial intelligence-enabled CCTV across all 45 indoor farms to monitor both livestock health and staff behaviour.

The system is already active at Somerby Top Farm and around half of the sites are now streaming live footage.

A full independent veterinary review of Cranswick’s on-farm practices is currently under way. The company has pledged to share the findings once complete.