The images in the following program are very sensitive and may be as disturbing to viewers as they were to us. However, we have to show the truth about animal cruelty.

Caring viewers, welcome to Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants and this week’s edition of Stop Animal Cruelty. Have you ever wondered why so many people are becoming vegetarian or vegan? Is it because these lifestyles are healthy and can reduce the incidence of heart disease, stroke and cancer? Are people changing their diets to protect the environment, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and minimize water and soil pollution?

Certainly there are many who adopt plant-based diets for these admirable reasons, but many simply switch because it’s the right thing to do. It’s the right thing to do!

HOST:
The fact is that beef, pork, chicken, lamb and fish all come from living, breathing, feeling beings that are no different from the animal companions such as dogs, cats and birds that we love and cherish.

Many scientific studies have shown that like humans animals are self-aware, intelligent, cognitively gifted and able to demonstrate likes and dislikes.

Today we will present excerpts from the documentary “Pigs in Purgatory” produced by Hillside Animal Sanctuary of the United Kingdom. Hillside was founded in 1995 by Wendy Valentine to provide a home for animals rescued from factory farms across the UK.

Hillside also works to raise public awareness about animal welfare issues and the inhumane nature of factory farming. The sanctuary is now home to more than 900 rescued animals who will never have to worry about being sent to slaughter and can live out their lives in peace and harmony. Let’s now view “Pigs in Purgatory.”


Pigs in Purgatory Filmed by Hillside Animal Sanctuary in Norfolk... investigating Britain’s farms This is a video diary of the lives of pigs at a farm that was visited by Hillside on 16 separate occasions over a 12- month period.

Footage A (filmed 02/04/04) Showing illegally buried animals and the pigs' living conditions. By law each pig should have: 'a clean, comfortable and adequately drained place in which it can rest.'

HOST:
Due to the horrendous, unsanitary environments many pigs die simply from living at these sites. The following images are of animals that have been dumped and left to rot.

HOST:
Pigs raised for meat endure extremely cramped living conditions while getting fattened up for slaughter, living and sleeping in there own feces, urine and vomit.


They spend months within these four walls on bare concrete.


1:52 Investigator(m):
No straw whatsoever.

HOST:
Here we can see the decaying corpses of innocent animals that have succumbed to the nightmarish conditions. Maggots are eating their flesh.

HOST:
By being fed a nutritionally unsound diet and with no room to move, these genetically manipulated animals grow at an unnatural rate, which in turn causes many health problems such as arthritis and lameness.

Footage C (filmed 02/06/04)

Dead pigs still in bins and ongoing living conditions.

04:38 Investigator(m):
Oh, the smell is absolutely… Oh dear!

Footage D (filmed 15/07/04 and 27/07/04)

Dead pigs, which should be properly disposed of within 24 hours, STILL in bins! Also ongoing living conditions.

Investigator(m):
This dead-skip on the pig farm near Stalham. Phoa, Dear me!

HOST:
Lack of adequate hygiene leads to more than 25% of the pigs developing mange, a parasitic skin infection, and 70% getting pneumonia.

Still decomposing on 29/07/04

HOST:  
We will now pause for some messages. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television. When we return we will continue examining the appalling conditions endured by pigs on factory farms.

HOST:  
This is Stop Animal Cruelty on Supreme Master Television. Let’s now view some excerpts from the second part of the Hillside Animal Sanctuary documentary “Pigs in Purgatory.” Pigs love to rest on a clean bed of straw.

Footage E (filmed 11/11/04) Showing carnage in the breeding pens plus the usual living conditions.

HOST:  
Sows or mothering pigs are kept crowded and imprisoned. Ten percent of baby pigs die within their first two to three weeks of life. The defenseless runts in a litter are killed by “thumping” or being slammed as hard as possible onto a concrete floor.

These sows should have been separated before giving birth.

Shivering in cold slurry on a freezing November’s night

Footage F (filmed 26/11/04) The final destination

11:06 Investigator(m):
This lorry which I am now following near Stalham. Now I’ve got to follow it to the slaughterhouse. I’m now heading towards Norwich, still behind this lorry with pigs on it, going down towards the A11 still following this lorry.

We’re going into the town center of Bury St. Edmonds. We’ve gone through Bury; we’re now, we’re on the A143 to Haverhill, still following this lorry full of pigs. There’s the lorry I now followed backing into the slaughter bay.

HOST:  
At the tender age of six months the innocent animal co-inhabitants are taken for slaughter. First they are stunned; that is, savagely electrocuted, suffocated with carbon dioxide or repeatedly shot in the head with a captive bolt gun. Then after having their throats slit they will be horrifically submerged in boiling water.

HOST:  
What you see are farrowing crates where the mothering pigs are imprisoned. Bound to cold concrete floors they develop open sores, and their babies are torn away from them after 10 days.

HOST:  
The piglets are castrated, their tails are sliced off and their front teeth are snapped in two, all without anesthetics.

It is one year to the day since we first filmed this farm and nothing has changed.

People who eat bacon, ham, pork and sausages etc. cause millions of pigs to exist in conditions similar to those you have just witnessed. To increase public awareness of the suffering endured by animals behind the closed doors of the factory farming industry, Hillside investigation videos/DVDs are distributed free.




For more details, please contact: Hillside Animal Sanctuary Hill Top Farm, Hall Lane Frettenham, Norwich Norfolk, NR12 7LT United Kingdom
Tel: +44 01603 736200
website: www.hillside.org.uk  
e-mail: contact@hillside.org.uk

HOST:
We applaud Hillside Animal Sanctuary for saving the lives of some 900 rescued animals and also for producing “Pigs in Purgatory” and other videos showing the reality of factory farming. The practices of animal farming such as forced impregnation, imprisonment and eventual slaughter of helpless beings are inherently callous.

This barbaric treatment of our wonderful animal co-inhabitants goes against everything that a civilized society stands for, and more importantly is contrary to our natural sense of compassion. So please act according to your conscience and help stop the suffering of billions of farmed animals by adopting a healthy, life-affirming plant-based diet.

We thank you for your company today on Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants.