Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form
What we HAVE achieved
Thousands of animals are suffering on farms across the country. Their abuse and exploitation goes on behind closed doors, but we won’t let it go unnoticed. Animal Justice Project’s brave and dedicated undercover investigators continue to go above and beyond to expose and end animal exploitation. We conduct investigations aimed at exposing farms, rearers, dealers, traders and abattoirs across the country. No job is too difficult for our team.
"Through covert surveillance footage, animal suffering can be witnessed at first hand by the viewer. Seeing such footage educates people who can then make informed choices about their diets and lifestyle. Covert investigations are essential to aid social change, I am very proud to play my part in this process.” Animal Justice Project Investigator
1,413,951
Views on our videos in 2022
EXPOSING THE TRUTH
Animal Justice Project undercover investigators who put themselves at risk day and night to expose the reality for animals on intensive and so-called ‘high welfare’ farms. We reveal the truth behind the labels and create landmark changes along the way.
They are a highly skilled, specialist team with years of experience in field work. They gather intelligence using various methods and highly sophisticated surveillance techniques. All of our investigations are carried out to an extremely high standard, with care taken to ensure material can be used for prosecutions.
Past Investigations and Exposés
In just a few years, Animal Justice Project has become a leader in the field of undercover investigations. By continuing to expose cruelty, the industry can no longer deny there are more than “a few bad apples” and public perceptions are changing. Animal exploitation is the norm on farms. Legislation won’t change this while animals continue to be treated solely as products whose only value is profit.
ROTTEN: THE UK’S EGG INDUSTRY
2023 - Bird Bros egg farm
In a first-of-its-kind undercover investigation series, we are cracking open a Rotten industry. In part one, our undercover investigator infiltrates ‘Sunny Farm’, a colony cage farm, run by East Anglia’s largest egg producer, Bird Bros. What we found inside was far from sunny…
Distressing and appalling conditions within cages
Trapped hens, with some dying and others being trampled upon
Neglect resulting in slow deaths and the heinous killing of sick and dying hens
Daily findings of decomposing dead hens in their cages
Severe feather loss and bald patches on countless hens
Using an undercover worker, we infiltrated one of Morrisons’ slaughterhouses, Woodhead Bros in Spalding, Lincolnshire. Using brand-new tactics, we have filmed the terrifying final moments that cows and pigs face at this supermarket giant’s abattoir.
Terrified pigs repeatedly hit
Sick, lame and injured pigs transported to slaughter
Electric prods used on cows
Pigs forced into the gas chamber of a ‘gondola’
Vets failing to act as workers breached legislation
Filmed over a three-month period, the suffering at Bickmarsh Hall farm was clear. From nursing pigs being confined in cages for weeks at a time to tiny piglets being discarded amongst masses of other decomposing pigs inside waste bins. This standard UK pig farm shows the spine-chilling reality of what the industry tries so hard to hide.
Severely lame pigs were left suffering for hours, despite being known to workers
The farmers physically and verbally assaulted pigs
Dead animals were discarded in waste bins, filled with masses of bodies
Nursing mothers were confined to cages for weeks at a time in farrowing crates
Animals were left in faeces-laden, sodden conditions, without a clean place to lay down
125 hours of footage, over a two-month, period revealed the barbaric abuse inflicted upon pigs and tiny piglets by Peddars Pigs’ workers, an RSPCA Assured company. This so-called ‘higher welfare’ company offers rearing and transportation services but our undercover footage revealed a culture of violence towards animals.
Pigs were shocked with electric goads, causing undue suffering
Tiny piglets were kicked out the back of transport trailers and thrown onto concrete floors
Animals were crushed with boards and metal doors, causing them to cry in terror
Panicked animals fought to escape but were met with further electric shocks
Violence was widespread, with loading and unloading footage from NINE farms
Over a two-month period, we investigated a major goat dairy brand, Delamere Dairy, at one of their flagship contracted farms, Pasture House Farm in North Yorkshire. Producing over 40 million ‘award-winning’ products every year, this is one of the UK’s largest goat dairies and is seen across all major supermarkets. Holding over 2,000 goats, the owner, Phil Ormerod, is the Director for the Milking Goat Association, a body representing UK commercial goat farmers.
All goats were kept in a zero-grazing system, unable to ever go outdoors and display natural behaviours such as grazing
Many sick and lame individuals
Nanny goats who were so heavily pregnant they could not stand up, left immobile under their immense size
Male and female day-old kid goats killed on farm in front of other goats, filmed as a UK-first
Kids were left mutilated as they have their tiny horns removed in a sadistic process called ‘disbudding’
Verbal and physical abuse against goats of all ages
Over 100 dead goats left on piles strewn across the farm, even on a public footpath open to scavengers
The seven-month investigation (273 hours of footage) exposes cruel and inhumane practices at a multi award-winning organic dairy farm in Bath. What we filmed was a far cry from the picture painted by this farm and shows that organic still means pain, suffering and death.These included:
Three-day old calves being dragged from mothers by rope around their neck
One calf crying for over 39 hours straight after separation
Mother cows bellowing for their babies for hours after and appearing to seek out their babies
Calves housed in small isolations pens significantly smaller than the pens shown to visitors on the farm’s ‘open farm day’ (which we filmed at undercover)
One newly-separated calf housed in a pen for 28 days – twice as long as the farm’s two week claim
Verbal and physical abuse of cattle – staff members slapping, punching, and kicking cows in the face, legs and udders; as well as hitting them with alkathene pipes
Multiple cases of lameness correlating to ‘impaired mobility’ and ‘extremely impaired mobility’ according to veterinary opinion
Rough dehorning of calves
Depriving calves of milk
Tiny calves sent to slaughter via a dealer, Will Pollett near Bristol
Shocking hidden-camera footage obtained over two months (200 hours of footage) by Animal Justice Project at a Cheshire-based slaughterhouse deemed ‘generally satisfactory’ by the Government’s own food watchdog, ‘Food Standards Agency’, reveals horrific cruelty to pigs, sheep and cows before they die:
Bulls violently beaten for over 40 minutes (over 200 times) by staff and the manager with electric goads before being killed
Piglets having throats cut, then being thrown onto a pile with no checking of signs of life, and finally being thrown into hot water tank
Tiny piglets brutally thrown into the tank while apparently still conscious
Short stun times, as little as one second, and poor stunning of pigs and sheep. The animals kicked out and gasped whilst hanging after stun
The immediate cutting/dressing of pigs’ legs following ‘sticking’ and whilst pigs thrashed on shackles, thus not allowing enough time for the animals to bleed out
Stunning equipment repeatedly failed, causing panic and distress to pigs and sheep
Long ‘stun-to-kill’ time
The government-appointed veterinarian not leaving the lairage to check on animals stunned and killed
2020 – Oaklands Livestock Centre and Hewitts Abattoir 2021 - Buitelaar ‘Collection Centre’
An extensive undercover project spanning five months at a dealer’s yard where tiny, ‘reject’ male dairy calves, labelled “mongrels” and “grass rats” by some farmers, are sent to slaughter, as well as the killing of calves inside an abattoir. In a separate investigation, our team filmed inside a calf ‘collection centre’ in Wrexham.
Tiny calves, some from dairy farms supplying Sainsbury, thrown down ramps, kicked and hit by staff
A culture of abuse amongst workers towards calves
Calves starved of food for over 21 hours and no water provided for unweaned calves at any time during filming. A breach of UK law
Brutal killing of young calves in abattoir
Calves taken to the slaughterhouse as young as nine days old and being left all night in cold, wet lairage
An undercover investigation into a beef ‘mega farm’ in Daventry, Northamptonshire supplying major supermarkets and sending 4,500 cows a year to slaughter, as well as Somerset rearing farm, Badgers Cross which raises beef and veal calves under 'Cattle Connect' for Waitrose. This is a UK-first and reveals the fate of bull calves who go on for rearing at so-called zero-grazing farm.
Calves under a month old at Badgers Cross being roughly pushed around by workers, yelled and shouted at
23 Red Tractor and DEFRA guidelines breached at Berryfields
Cows beaten with pipes and fists, kicked, had tails twisted, and one had a bucket thrown in his face causing him to slam onto the concrete floor
Sick, lame and injured cows left to suffer in a filthy ‘hospital pen’
Cows struggling to walk moved by workers with fists, yelling, swearing, and kicking through the crush and walkways
Drone images showing the industrial scale of beef farming
For the first time ever, Animal Justice Project placed cameras for 24 hours inside Gressingham Food’s huge slaughterhouse in Redgrave, Suffolk (the largest duck abattoir in the UK), This investigation inside the abattoir was featured in every major newspaper, reaching thousands of people and reveals mandatory CCTV and government audits inside UK slaughterhouses is failing to prevent animal cruelty and suffering.
A staggering fifteen breaches of EU, UK government and Red Tractor guidelines in just 24 hours
The brutal handling of birds and yanking them by their necks on shackles
Shackling and involuntary inversion appeared to cause the duckssignificant distress
Workers argued and shouted at each other, even physically assaulted each other, whilst roughly shackling distressed and panicked birds
Ducks left hanging for over 14 minutes - well over the maximum time of 2 minutes specified in both UK and EU legislation
Ducks arrived dead in crates and one bird was covered in blood
Animal Justice Project filmed for two months on Gressingham Foods duck farms in Thetford, Norfolk supplying Red Tractor Assured duck to Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Tesco, Co-Op, ASDA and Morrisons.
Barren sheds entirely void of any enrichment or open water, and housing up to 12,000 ducks
Thousands of ducks in large windowless sheds with no water to bath or even preen themselves in
Shackling and involuntary inversion appeared to cause the duckssignificant distress
Ducks arrived dead in crates and one bird was covered in blood
Each duck was afforded just 2 foot square floor space
Ducks and ducklings pedalling on their backs in clearly great distress
Constant lighting for 47 hours
Lame ducks were seen by workers and then ignored
Workers roughly grabbed ducks by their necks, carried them through the sheds – still by their necks – then broke their necks and threw them onto the flock
Animal Justice Project’s ‘eyes in the sky’ provide a new perspective on the devastating impact that animal agriculture has on animals, the environment, and rural communities.
Equipped with high-tech video cameras, our drones fly above farms, slaughterhouse and livestock markets, capturing the nightmarish scale of these facilities from above.
"We have to see them, show their hidden reality and expose industry lies.” Animal Justice Project Investigator
12
Investigations released since 2019
1,413,951
Views on our videos in 2022
Protect farmed animals by giving today
All donations go to an associated charity, Animal Justice Project Trust, who fundraise and provide grants to projects and campaigns that align with their objective of educating the public in veganism.
All donations go to an associated charity, Animal Justice Project Trust, who fundraise and provide grants to projects and campaigns that align with their objective of educating the public in veganism.
sign up to our newsletter
Stay updated on our life-changing campaigns for animals, investigations, policy change and action alerts!
Congratulations! You successfully subscribed! By signing up to our newsletter, you'll be the first to hear about our new campaigns, updates and successes! We would really appreciate it if you could also make a small donation to help us continue our vital work! DONATE TODAY
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
how Can you Help today?
Help us ensure that our campaigns reach as many people as possible.
Stay updated on our life-changing campaigns for animals, investigations, policy change and action alerts!
Congratulations! You successfully subscribed! By signing up to our newsletter, you'll be the first to hear about our new campaigns, updates and successes! We would really appreciate it if you could also make a small donation to help us continue our vital work! DONATE TODAY
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.