Isolated behind the walls of a warehouse, shackled by dirty bars, with no access to the outside, hundreds of pigs live on a concrete floor covered with their excrement. Their only occupation is to chew on a chain and lick a bar. During their entire short life of fattening, they will sleep, eat, relieve themselves, get sick and sometimes die, in this small enclosed space, without ever seeing the sky.
Our new investigation reveals the living conditions of pigs on factory farms in Switzerland in 2022.
In Switzerland, more than 1.25 million individuals live the life revealed by our images. Contrary to what we would like to believe, intensive livestock farming does exist in Switzerland. Let’s make this reality known.
Reduced to a daily life of concrete, noise and metal bars, these animals are kept in dark, closed buildings, dedicated solely to confinement and fattening. The only landscape they will know is this prison environment.
Confined in large numbers to small spaces with no access to the outdoors, these pigs live in crowded conditions, unable to satisfy their need to explore and be active. In their last weeks of life, they barely have room to lie down.
Their only occupation is a metal chain to play with. Deprived of the opportunity to express their needs to excavate, dig or play, they lead a life of boredom and frustration.
Hygiene here is deplorable: an accumulation of faeces that do not drain away through the slatted concrete, dirt on the walls, dust. The pigs, which usually relieve themselves at a distance from where they sleep and eat, are forced to live in their own excrement. Although they have a highly developed sense of smell, the stench is unbearable.
Used as a palliative to the disastrous living conditions (high density, insalubrity, concrete environment), drugs, including antibiotics, classified as critical by the World Health Organization for the risks of antibiotic resistance generated for the human population, are administered to the pigs.
Their living conditions are so bad that many of them die. The "casualty documents", which record the deaths, show at least one death per week.
Help us to raise awareness about the reality of factory farming in Switzerland
On September 25, 2022, you have the opportunity to act. A ban on intensive livestock farming in Switzerland would change the lives of millions of animals like the ones you have just seen.
Vote YES to the initiative to end factory farming.
