Meat producer Cranswick’s shares have plummeted after UK supermarkets suspended supplies after alleged supplies against pigs.

Covert footage appeared this last weekend from the Animal Justice Project – AJP – showed workers at Northmoor Farm in Lincolnshire, abusing piglets by holding them by their back legs as they were smashed into the floor.

Other videos showed the botched killing of a sow, leaving the animal screaming and writhing in pain. A sow was also shown being beaten with metal bars.

PHOTO – AJP

A worker who failed to kill a sow using a bolt gun reportedly said to an undercover investigator ‘Don’t let nobody see you doing like what we did’.

Supermarket chains Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury and Tesco have now suspended Northmoor Farm as a supplier of meat; shares at the London Sock Exchange fell around 7.5% 0n Monday. It made £2.6 Billion in revenue in 2024, with around 24% coming from its fresh pork sector.

Cranswick owns Northmoor Farm; with around 6,000 pigs being processed there. Cranswick as a whole SLAUGHTERS AND PROCESSES IN EXCESS OF 34,000 PER WEEK; yes you read it right, 34,000 deaths PER WEEK. On their website they claim that animal welfare is at the heart of their business.

Images on their website show pigs and piglets in green fields with wide open spaces. The AJP has now filed a complaint to national agency TRADING STANDARDS as a result of its excellent investigation.

A spokesperson for Cranswick said that the animals they rear is of the utmost importance and that they were extremely disappointed to see the unacceptable lapse in welfare standards shown at Northmoor Farm. Evidently, as soon as they saw the footage from the farm, the working team were suspended and an ‘urgent and thorough investigation’ commenced. They have also suspended the farm from supplying any pig meat until the investigation is completed.

AJP founder Claire Palmer said they were demanding immediate enforcement of the ban on blunt force trauma; in addition to the prosecution of Cranswick. She continued that there must be a public enquiry into pig farming practices and regulatory failures.

AJP is calling for a legislative phase out of pig farming in favour of a food system that no longer depends on animal suffering.

We at WAV fully support what Claire says, and the work undertaken by AJP to expose this abuse.