Côtes d'Armor: "unbearable" images of rotting pigs in a farm

The animal defense association L214 released on Monday a video of rotting pigs taken in a Côtes d'Armor breeding farm, "unbearable images" recognized the Cooperl, an agricultural cooperative to which the breeder is a member.

"A vision of horror," describes L214 in a press release.

"On the floor of one of the rooms lie about twenty corpses. In other rooms, other bodies, sometimes almost in the state of skeleton, are nibbled by the rats. A wheelbarrow full of bones is lying around in the room. 'exploitation'.

According to the association, the facts occurred between August and December 2020 and the bodies were still "scattered in the breeding" on January 13.

"Neither the veterinary services of the department, nor the Cooperl have been able to identify the failures of the breeder and even less to overcome his deficiencies", estimates L214, which calls for an administrative investigation and announces the filing of a complaint "for cruelty and abandonment of animals to the prosecutor of Saint-Brieuc".

The images "are unbearable", acknowledged the Cooperl, the French leader in the pork industry, in a press release.

"In view of the state of the corpses, their disposition and the absence of traces of a fight on the leather, the veterinarian concluded that the pigs had died about 8 months ago, as a result of brutal suffocation, including 'breeder has informed neither the cooperative nor its veterinarian, ”adds the cooperative group, based in Lamballe (Côtes-d'Armor).

"Financial and moral fragility of the breeder"

The Cooperl specifies that this fattening site was "physically closed" at the end of May 2020 "by the breeder at the request of his veterinarian".

"In view of the video, the suffocated dead animals remained on site without the cooperative and the rendering company being informed," she said.

A "calving site where sows and part of the pigs are raised", owned by the same breeder, was the subject of "corrective actions" after the report of "animals in distress" in early September, according to the cooperative.

The Cooperl, which achieved 2.4 billion euros in turnover in 2019, evokes "the moral and financial fragility of the breeder, whose company is placed in receivership".

The "Cooperl continues to support this breeder to help him leave the profession," the statement added.

The National Assembly is due to examine from Tuesday a bill of the majority against animal abuse, which does not address the issue of intensive breeding.