Increasing number of pigs arrive at slaughter houses with serious injuries from being hit with chains and planks

A new system which rewards the speed of loading pigs on to transport vehicles could be behind the rising number of pigs being delivered with injuries to slaughter.

In the last two years, the number of cases involving pig abuse has quintupled.

The country’s largest slaughterhouse, Danish Crown in Horsens, and the Department of Veterinary Disease Biology at the University of Copenhagen, have noted the tendency, where in some cases more than 30 pigs have arrived at slaughterhouses with serious injuries.

Professor Henrik Elvang Jensen at the University of Copenhagen said studies of the pigs’ injuries showed that most of them were occurring on the farms. The injuries were caused by blunt instruments such as pipes, planks and chains, he said.

An explanation for this may lie with the introduction of a new system in 2006 that rewards farmers for transporting the pigs more quickly.

‘When a system is like that it can provoke a violent reaction if the farmer suddenly sees 30 pigs running in the wrong direction,’ Elvang Jensen said.

Erik Bredholt, who is in charge of Danish Crown’s pork production committee, said beating animals was completely unacceptable.

‘Every farmer knows you don’t get your pigs loaded on to the truck faster by beating them,’ he said.

Bredholt argued that the increase in the number of injured pigs had nothing to do with the new system, pointing instead to the economic pressure many farmers were presently under.