Cranswick faces more cruelty to animals claims from third farm

SUPPLIER SAID THE INDIVIDUALS ALLEGEDLY INVOLVED HAD BEEN 'IMMEDIATELY DISMISSED'

- By TOM KEIGHLEY

HULL supermarket supplier Cranswick has reportedly sacked several members of staff after fresh allegations of animal cruelty have been made.

It comes as undercover footage of farm workers allegedly slamming piglets against the floor at a North Lincolnshire farm has been released by animal rights activists.

Images appear to show staff at Mere Farm, near Barton-upon-Humber, picking up young pigs and throwing them on the concrete floor in a practice known as "thumping" Hull pork producer Cranswick, which owns the farm, has called the behaviour "wholly unacceptable" and said it has sacked several members of staff.

Graphic images showing the alleged thumping are said to have been filmed in March and July this year, according to animal rights organisation Animal Justice Project. They said they have taken their findings to Lincolnshire Trading Standards and Animal & Plant Health Agency.

Major supermarket supplier Cranswick says it banned the practice of thumping, technically known as non-mechanical blunt force trauma, at its farms in May after similar footage appeared from another of its Lincolnshire facilities, Northmoor Farm.

However, Animal Justice Project claim that some of the distressing scenes of workers allegedly picking up and throwing piglets to kill them come from the days immediately after Cranswick talked about the ban on thumping at its annual general meeting, on July 28.