Thousands Join PETA in Opposing Pig Prison

For Immediate Release:

28 September 2015

Contact:

Sascha Camilli +44 (0) 20 7837 6327, ext 235; [email protected]

THOUSANDS JOIN PETA IN OPPOSING PIG PRISON

More Than 26,000 Agree: Application for Massive Derbyshire Facility Must Be Killed and Buried

Foston, Derbyshire – A new pig farm condemning 25,000 pigs at any one time to lives of misery could be built in Foston following Midland Pig Producers’ appeal against the decision that scrapped the initial proposal. With the Planning Inspectorate’s deadline for receiving comments coming up tomorrow, PETA has fired off a letter – complete with more than 26,000 signatures from local residents and other concerned members of the public – urging the Planning Inspectorate to reject the appeal.

“From the noise of the traffic to the knowledge that tens of thousands of sensitive pigs are likely to be suffering inside filthy sheds, the facility would be a blight on Foston’s landscape and its reputation”, says PETA UK Director Mimi Bekhechi. “If the Planning Inspectorate visited one of these intensive farms and saw the terrified animals, heard their screams and smelled the putrid stench of ammonia, faeces and decaying flesh, he would surely refuse permission for this hellhole.”

As PETA warns in its letter, pigs on factory farms are treated extremely cruelly. On these farms, pigs are crammed into severely crowded, filthy sheds and are denied the opportunity to engage in any natural behaviour. Piglets are routinely mutilated, usually without any anaesthetics, such as when part of their tails and teeth are cut off. And when they are sent to the abattoir, many are painfully killed without any prior stunning. Aside from tarnishing the community’s reputation, such a large-scale factory-farming operation could also have an adverse impact on the surrounding countryside, destroying the beautiful scenery and generating a high level of noise and increased traffic, undoubtedly disturbing residents. And on a larger scale, factory farms are among the main contributors to the greenhouse-gas emissions that cause climate change.

PETA’s letter to the Planning Inspectorate can viewed and signed by visiting PETAUK.org/foston.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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