Extreme violence and neglect uncovered on a UK dairy farm
Covert filming by an Animal Equality investigator has revealed disturbing undercover footage of deliberate violence and neglect on Madox Farm, a large dairy farm in Carmarthenshire, South Wales. The troubling scenes include workers kicking and punching cows in the face and stomach, and hitting them with metal shovels. The footage was broadcast to millions of people on BBC One’s Panorama. Milk from the farm is supplied to Freshways, the UK’s largest independent dairy processor and wholesaler. Freshways distributes dairy products to established retailers and businesses including Costa Coffee, British Airways, Londis, Budgens and P&O Cruises.
The True Cost of Milk: Our Footage On BBC Panorama
15/02/2022
Madox Farm: What We Found
Animal Equality’s investigator worked undercover on Madox Farm for several months and documented troubling scenes of abuse and neglect, including a number of serious legal violations.
The footage reveals workers punching and kicking cows in the face and stomach, as well as hitting them with sharp, metal shovels. It also shows cows unable to stand being hoisted by their hips with a lift and dragged against the cold concrete floor.
But that’s not all that our cameras documented. Listed below are the main problems we found on the farm, which unfortunately are widespread in the dairy industry. …….
A groundbreaking investigation by Animal Equality has exposed widespread cruelty and blatant illegalities in the goat meat industry across Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar. The organization documented horrific conditions in 7 farms, 5 markets, and 4 slaughter facilities, revealing the appalling suffering inflicted on goats at every stage of their lives.
Every year again we witness the impossible, in Christian countries, the result of a Faith gone utterly wrong. The lamb, the very symbol of Innocence and of Jesus Christ, being subjected to a level of cruelty, and in huge numbers, that defies understanding.
After all …
So much for wishful thinking, and quite possibly the Lord’s own thoughts on the issue, and man’s relationship with these defenceless creatures, and indeed all of the Animal Kingdom.
And THIS is the reality … year after year after year.
Investigation documents cruelty at UK sheep slaughterhouse
November 4, 2019 Updated: January 20, 2025
Animal Equality UK has released a new investigation filmed inside a sheep slaughterhouse. The disturbing recordings, filmed during July and August 2019 at Farmers Fresh Wales slaughterhouse in Wrexham, North Wales, detail unimaginable cruelty and immense suffering. Farmers Fresh Wales supplies customers in London and across the Midlands, as well as continental Europe. …..
Instead of sitting down to a family dinner over the holidays, Animal Equality investigators were on the road, documenting the suffering of lambs transported from Eastern Europe to Italy for slaughter.
Every Christmas and Easter, Animal Equality documents the long and difficult journeys that lambs undergo from Eastern Europe to Italian slaughterhouses. These lambs, many only weeks old, end up on the tables of millions of Italians during the holidays.
Transport: The Investigators’ Daily Journal
Although the transport trucks tend to follow predictable routes, it’s not always easy to map their movements. We located and followed some trucks, being careful not to lose them while we gathered as much information as possible.
Shocking cruelty in lamb industry revealed once again
Animal Equality launches it’s ‘Save a Lamb’ campaign with a video that shows the cruelty lambs suffer in modern farms and slaughterhouses.
March 23, 2015 Updated: February 24, 2025
International – Through the release of a new video showing the life of a lamb in 60 seconds, Animal Equality launched on Saturday, March 22nd it’s 2015 ‘Save a Lamb’ campaign.
(watch Video on Page)
The video was filmed entirely by Animal Equality undercover investigators in farms and slaughterhouses in Italy. The practices shown in the footage are standard and common practice in the meat industry. ….
Underwater factory farms are one of the biggest causes of suffering on the planet. Forcing billions of fishes to spend their lives swimming in endless circles in cages before suffering inhumane and painful deaths. We call on the European Commission to include the protection of fish welfare among the priority objectives of the revision of the EU legislation on animal welfare.
The new investigation
A new investigation by Essere Animali reveals the shortcomings of the current European Union legislation on animal welfare, which clearly fails to guarantee the protection of farmed fish. The shocking images filmed during the investigation — which was conducted at several trout farms as well as a few sea bass and sea bream farms — reveal farming, transport and slaughter practices that cause enormous suffering to the animals.
By releasing this investigation, Essere Animali joins and relaunches the Compassion in World Farming campaign, aimed at asking the European Commission to include the protection of fish welfare among the priority objectives of the revision of the EU legislation on animal welfare.
From cage to fur farming and fish welfare, key animal welfare concerns are being addressed very differently across the EU’s 27 Member States.
In this report, we break down the steps that different countries in the EU are taking on a range of animal welfare issues – or lack thereof. The stark differences in their approaches highlights the critical need for the EU to publish its long-awaited revision to the animal welfare legislation, which has not been updated for decades, and which is not sufficiently protecting the wellbeing of animals across Europe.
Only by modernising and strengthening these laws will the EU be able to effectively harmonise the approaches of all Member States to animal welfare: improving the lives of billions of sentient beings, easing compliance for farmers, ensuring fair competition, and aligning agriculture with its sustainability and resilience goals.
22 Oct 2024: Civil defence teams and residents work together to rescue a horse trapped beneath the rubble of a home destroyed by Israeli air strikes in Gaza.
One more innocent victim, among the many animals so often forgotten in this war not just on humanity, but on all creatures trapped there in this Hell unleashed by Israel, made possible by the United States.
Italy banned male chick killing in 2022, yet the slaughter quietly continues. From the heart of Rome to its most iconic landmark, advocates are demanding action.
March 28, 2025
Italy banned male chick killing in 2022, but enforcement has stalled due to loopholes and government delays.
Male chicks are killed in the egg industry because they cannot lay eggs or grow quickly enough for meat. Millions are ground up alive or suffocated each year.
Animal Equality has long pushed for in-ovo sexing, a technology that determines a chick’s sex before hatching.
Animal Equality projected a message onto the Colosseum, displaying hatchery footage and urging ministers to enforce the ban.
Advocates have also taken to the streets, protesting outside Italy’s Agriculture and Health Ministries.
Update February 2025 – Animal Equality projected a message onto the Colosseum, calling for enforcement of Italy’s male chick-killing ban. The display showed footage from hatcheries alongside the faces of the three Italian ministers responsible for implementing the ban. These were accompanied by the words: “Act now, stop the slaughter of male chicks!”
Advocates also launched a manifesto against chick killing, backed by journalist Giulia Innocenzi and singer-songwriter Giorgia.
Update December 2024 – Animal Equality’s Vice President for Europe spoke about male chick killing on TV program Mi Manda Rai Tre.
Update November 2024 – Protesters gathered outside the Agriculture and Health Ministries, condemning delays in the ban’s enforcement.
Update September 2023 – The Italian government outlined enforcement for the male chick killing ban. However, loopholes remain, allowing exceptions for sexing errors, machine failures, and more. A letter signed by Animal Equality and other groups urged the government to close these gaps.
Update August 2023 – Some members of Italy’s Chamber of Deputies–similar to the U.S. House of Representatives–asked to clarify enforcement of the 2022 male chick-killing ban. Officials formally requested answers from the Ministers of Agriculture and Health.
Update August 2022 – Italy’s Chamber of Deputies gave final approval for a ban on male chick killing. The law passed by a wide margin and is slated to take effect by 2026. Animal Equality’s Director for Italy spoke at a press conference to mark the occasion in the Parliament’s press room.
Animal Equality has launched a campaign urging Italy’s government to end the killing of male chicks in the egg industry.
The petition–directed at the Ministries of Agriculture and Health–calls for officials to promote in-ovo sexing technology and support companies that adopt it.
Italy’s largest supermarket chain–Coop–voiced its support just hours after Animal Equality’s campaign launch. The company announced online and in the media that it will adopt in-ovo sexing technology as soon as possible.
Why are male chicks killed in the egg industry?
Around the world, millions of male chicks are killed every year because they can’t lay eggs or grow fast enough for meat. Within hours of hatching, they are typically ground up alive in industrial macerators, gassed, or in some cases, electrocuted.*
*While electrocution is allowed in the U.S., it is not allowed in Europe.
In Italy, tens of millions are discarded as waste each year. The practice is just as widespread in the U.S., where hundreds of millions are killed annually.
Billions of baby birds face death on the day they are born simply because their lives are not profitable. Please sign the petition to end this massacre.
(PLEASE SIGN PETITION ON PAGE)
A proven solution: In-ovo sexing
In-ovo sexing technology identifies a chick’s sex before it hatches, preventing millions of male chicks from being born into the egg industry. Several countries have already adopted this method.
The process works by detecting the embryo’s sex within the first days of fertilization. This is done through a minimally invasive or non-invasive test.
Various in-ovo sexing technologies are available, though some are still in development.
Egg-free: The best way to protect chicks
While in-ovo sexing prevents male chicks from being killed, millions of hens still suffer in the egg industry. They endure short, stressful lives, only to be slaughtered when their production slows.
The simplest, most effective way to protect them is to choose plant-based alternatives. Check out delicious, compassionate, egg-free recipes on Love Veg (https://loveveg.com).
It sounds like something out of a dystopian nightmare, but it’s real: pregnant horses are restrained and drained of massive amounts of blood, leaving them weak and traumatized —all so the pharmaceutical industry can extract PMSG, a hormone used to fuel factory farms.
And Iceland is at the center of this horror. As the only producer of PMSG in Europe, its blood farms keep industrial animal agriculture running across the continent. Without Iceland’s supply, the entire industry takes a major hit. But right now, we have a rare chance to shut these farms down for good.
Iceland’s government has already admitted that blood farms violate EU animal welfare laws. Under pressure, they’ve pledged to reconsider the future of PMSG production *this year*—to either ban it permanently or allow this cruelty to continue. Meanwhile, Ísteka—the pharmaceutical company profiting from this torture—is lobbying hard to keep blood farms open, pressuring Iceland’s government to protect its bottom line.
This is our moment. If we raise a massive global outcry now, we can drown out Big Pharma’s lobbyists and push Iceland to finally ban PMSG for good.
Tell Iceland: ban PMSG
Thanks to numerous investigations by the Animal Welfare Foundation, the reality of PMSG production in Iceland has been exposed. Their latest undercover investigation in 2023 revealed the true extent of the cruelty behind PMSG extraction, bringing this hidden industry to light.
PMSG is the ultimate symbol of factory farming’s brutality—a hormone extracted from the blood of pregnant horses to fuel mass production of meat. In industrial pig farms across Europe, mother sows are injected with PMSG to hijack their bodies, forcing synchronized pregnancies so factory farms can churn out piglets on a rigid schedule.
Iceland had a chance to stop it. But in 2023, under pressure from Ístekathe government caved. Instead of banning blood farms, they put forward weak regulations and delayed real action until this year. Now, with the future of PMSG on the line, Big Pharma’s lobbyists are back, fighting to keep the cruelty going. This time, we can’t let them win—Iceland’s leaders need to see that people everywhere are demanding they ban PMSG for good. If we act now, we can make this year the turning point.
The Ekō community has taken on this fight before—and won. We pressured two major German pharmaceutical companies to cut ties with blood farms in South America, dealing a big blow to this cruel industry. Now, Iceland is the last major stronghold—and together, we can shut it down.
World Animals Voice 