Marion Gauthier, edited by Manon Fossat 07:07, August 20, 2021

A new video from the L214 animal defense association is harming a pig farm in Yonne.

In the images, shot by a former employee, we see sows beaten with iron bars and piglets thrown to the ground.

A complaint has been lodged by the association which calls for a return to breeding standards.

Pigs in blood, castrated alive.

The Minister of Agriculture and Food, Julien Denormandie, condemned in a press release "unacceptable practices" after the publication by the animal rights association L214 of a new shock video.

It relays the images of a former employee of a pig farm in Yonne, who has become a whistleblower, and denounces numerous breaches of the regulations. 

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For nearly a year, Grégory Boutron compiled photos and videos of the pigsty in which he worked.

A year of seeing his colleagues hit the sows with an iron bar, sending them electric shocks to make them hear the piglets slamming to the ground until they were killed.

"I had nightmares, it woke me up. I saw the manager with his screwdriver, who mistreated the sows. It was screaming in all directions, I was distressed, I no longer ate meat. I also went to see a psychologist. and a psychiatrist, "he says.

"An indifference to the suffering of animals"

Several times the latter alerted his superiors, without response. He even lodged a complaint, but had no news. So he ended up contacting the L214 association. "It was important to show the director that everything I said was the truth and to show that what they did was not normal. It is inhuman", he pleads. Today, Grégory has changed jobs and is proud to have denounced this abuse.

L214 also filed a complaint, as explained by Sébastien Arsac, spokesperson for the association. "There is a kind of detachment, of indifference to the suffering of animals. We also see a photo that marked us, which is a sow that is painted to ridicule her. That says a lot about the contempt for the animals. The problem is that in these farms, we have to put up a barrier. And if I understand this psychological defense, it must not be installed, "he recalls. The association demands an inspection of the breeding as well as a return to standards. She has legally started an online petition that has already collected more than 50,000 signatures.