Nettverk For Dyrs Frihet (Network for Animal Freedom) has released the findings of its groundbreaking six-year investigation into dozens of Norweigian pig farms. With places selected at random, the report has sent shockwaves across the country as people are faced with the stark reality of standard pig farming.

With scenes distressingly similar to those featured in Surge’s investigation into Willerby Wold Piggeries and recent exposes into other farms in the UK by Animal Equality and Viva, a six-year investigation by Nettverk For Dyrs Frihet (Network for Animal Freedom) has shattered any illusions that the horrendous conditions we witness time and time again are isolated cases.

Investigators from Network for Animal Freedom visited no fewer than 65 farms between 2015 and 2021 amassing damning evidence from 85 inspections. Their photographs and footage captured the misery of life for animals on a standard Norwegian farm, with severely injured and sick pigs, mother sows immobilised in cramped farrowing crates, pigs forced to sleep in their own urine and faeces, and narrow stalls that violate welfare requirements.

“With just a few exceptions, we have done only one visit to each farm,” said Network for Animal Freedom in their campaign video. “This way, our images give an insight into the daily life on Norwegian pig farms on a completely ordinary, randomly chosen day. These horror scenes seem to be the norm, not the exceptions.”

“There is every reason to believe that the findings are representative of the entire pig industry,” the group wrote on its campaign website. “We have documented violations of all 85 inspections that have been carried out. The industry knows that they have an animal welfare problem, but often tries to blame individual farmers, to trick consumers into believing that they can buy meat with a clear conscience.”

According to the group’s website, all the pig farms inspected have been reported to the Norwegian Food Safety Authority who were also notified as inspections were conducted. However, the group said that fewer than half of their reports were acted upon by authorities and in the instances when inspections were conducted, they often failed to respond to serious offences.

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The release of the six-year report has garnered widespread media attention in Norway. A spokesperson for Network for Animal Freedom told Surge that the country’s largest broadcaster, the state-owned NRK network, had featured their footage on multiple occasions, conducting their own research and follow-up reports.

99 per cent of Norwegian pigs never go outside unless it is to travel to the slaughterhouse. By comparison, in the UK around 40 per cent of mother pigs are reared ‘free-range’ and farrow outdoors in huts, according to Compassion in World Farming (CIWF), although even on outdoor bred farms the piglets are still mutilated and brought inside to be fattened. Network for Animal Freedom points the finger squarely at the increasing industrialisation of farming in Norway, with stocking densities so high that it is impossible for pigs to engage in natural behaviour. 

“The animal density is often too high which means that the pigs must stand close together and lie on top of each other or in the faeces on the slatted floor,” the group said.

“As if that was not enough many manufacturers keep the sows inside such narrow gestation or farrowing crates that they can hardly move around.

“By releasing this documentation now we hope that many more will be critical of the industry secrecy and its claims and promises of good animal welfare.”

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Andrew Gough is Media and Investigations Manager for Surge.

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