Ministry of Justice Opposes Pig ‘Prison’

Backing up the calls of local people, animal-welfare groups and 30,000 PETA supporters, the Ministry of Justice has publicly spoken out against plans to build a monstrous mega-farm in Foston, Derbyshire.

The proposed pig factory farm is on a green-field site adjacent to a women’s prison, meaning that in addition to inflicting uninterrupted misery on the farm’s animal inmates, it could adversely affect the vulnerable women housed at HMP Foston.

Factory farming is detrimental to the environment, causing unpleasant odours, noise, increased traffic and greenhouse-gas emissions . It’s been linked to human health problems, including antibiotic resistance. Finally, it’s highly offensive to anyone who recognises that animals deserve respect and compassion.

Pigs are highly intelligent, friendly individuals, who love their children and enjoy playing outside, building nests and foraging for food. The farm in Foston would deny them the opportunity to do any of these things, confining them instead to cramped concrete stalls for their entire lives and sending them to be slaughtered for pork when they are between 4 and 7 months old.

The level of cruelty represented by this facility – which would incarcerate up to 25,000 pigs at a time – is shocking enough. But it has a wider significance: if the application goes ahead, it could usher in a new wave of massive, US-style factory farms, the scale of which this country hasn’t seen before. That’s why, as compassionate people, we need to do everything that we can to stop this unethical farm from going ahead.

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Image: Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals