Hull pork producer Cranswick at centre of fresh pig abuse claims at a second farm

NEW DISTURBING FOOTAGE THIS TIME CENTRES ON SOMERBY TOP FARM NEAR GRIMSBY, WHICH THE FIRM ACQUIRED IN 2023

- By COREENA FORD

A FULL investigation into all on-farm practices has been launched by Hull supermarket supplier Cranswick after fresh allegations of animal cruelty were made against the company.

Earlier this year Cranswick the UK's largest pork producer halted operations at Northmoor Farm, near Market Rasen, in May when undercover filming allegedly captured staff mistreating piglets at the site.

The upsetting footage appeared to show employees holding piglets by their back legs before hurling them against the ground, using a banned killing technique dubbed “piglet thumping”. The footage was gathered in 2024 by an undercover Animal Justice Project (AJP) investigator, and also included alleged extreme maltreatment, excessively cramped conditions, neglect of animals and routine mutilations.

It resulted in Cranswick committing to not selling any pigs that were reared at the farm, as well as the launch of an independent probe which, as we previously reported, it recently said was well advanced. But now fresh footage has been released by the same animal protection organisation, this time gathered at a different pig farm acquired by the company Somerby Top farm at Barnetby - which it claims shows incidences of pigs being subjected to severe cannibalism, including being eaten alive by other pigs due to ruptured hernias, as well as alleged violent handling during loading with animals being beaten and kicked during slaughter loading.