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Let's just do it from here.

Alright, Dan?

Yeah.

All right, the security camera's just there

Where those two pillars are?

The gas tank though, you've got the big tank there.

The gas chamber is, it's more to the right,

it's more towards the puff.

So my heart's pounding.

My body was saying, get the hell out of here.

My worst nightmares were coming through.

I'd have to leave it.

If I'm not willing to risk my life

to expose what's happening to them,

then I don't really care about it enough.

You're on private property, bye-bye.

Hey Joey, what do you got from there?

So, ever since I was a little kid,

I was always an animal lover, but I really love pigs.

Honestly think the catalyst
for me loving pigs so much

was the movie "Babe".

And after watching that I would
always draw pictures of pigs

and I was at school making cutouts of pigs,

and they were just the main
characters in all my drawings.

My name is Joey, I'm from the northern suburbs

of South Australia.

I come from a broken home and my dad left

when I was really young.

From about the age of 14,

I started experimenting with drugs.

I started becoming acclimated
to street violence actually.

Things progressed, like what happens

is the environment starts to shape you.

The violence started to step up a notch as well

and it was just a crazy, crazy world.

'Cause when you start getting

to higher level organized crime,

there's starting to be power struggles,

there starting to be wars on the streets,

and there was shootings, and
assassinations were happening.

There were stabbings but it was the amount of drugs

I was using that started to spiral my mental health.

And it happens over the course of years.

And yeah, so I always had a gun on me for protection.

You're really stupid if you
didn't actually in that world.

And I remember one night I
was on the run from the police

and they caught up with me at a cheap hotel,

and they found the firearm down my trousers, and bang,

it was the sobriety that prison gave me

that made me start analyzing
my life from a new perspective.

I started seeing that my actions have reactions

and I started thinking to myself,

do I really wanna stay here for the rest of my life?

'Cause that's where I'm going.

So when I got released from prison,

it was an amazing feeling.

I was like so grateful for my
freedom, and to see my family,

and I just knew what I'd lost,

and I knew what I could lose at that point.

But that sobriety is what made
me change my whole mindset.

I started to really think of my future

and I started thinking, what the gang life, not for me.

That was one of the most anxious times in my life

actually being sober and leaving the gangs

and I had an existential crisis.

I didn't know who I was.

I had an identity crisis but I stayed strong

and stayed sober, and that
was the beginning of my new life.

So people might think it's pretty funny

for an ex-gang member,

but even to this day I still really love pigs.

You are my favorite animal ever.

Look at you.

Hello, hello.

I just love pigs.

Hey, bud.

Do I get a cuddle?

I love their demeanor.

I love their intelligence.

I love the way that they care for their families.

Some are playful, some are lazy,

and they all have their own unique personalities.

They're all individuals.

What do you know about pigs?

They're cute when they're small,

and they trot around and stuff.

They're cute.

Let's see, pigs are a domestic and wild animal.

They're found throughout the world

and people think they're dirty

but they're actually quite clean.

They got a curly tail.

A little like noses.

They've got a language of their own.

Have many varieties and colors.

So what do you know about pigs?

They live in pens and we tend to eat a lot of them.

I don't know much about pig.

I know you can get the most meat off of them.

Easy to keep good for sausages, bacon.

What many people don't know about pigs

is everything that happens to them in order to end up

on the supermarket shelf.

I can't blame anyone for not knowing.

I had been fooled for most of my life,

but when I found out what was really going on,

I had to do everything in my power to expose it.

The majority of pigs in the
UK are killed in gas chambers.

The meat industry say it's humane,

but they definitely don't want the public to see

what's going on inside of them.

No one has ever planted cameras
inside of a UK gas chamber.

I needed to change that,

but it would be the most dangerous thing

I've ever attempted in my life.

For months I studied gas chamber blueprints.

I had to consider so many different variables.

Any mistake could be fatal.

I couldn't do this alone.

So I asked my partner Tarion
to come along for the journey

and I turned to Dan to go in as an undercover employee.

Put a ladder here.

This here is the access point.

And then we will climb up there

and walk across the roof to the stairwell.

Yeah, there's a stairwell, external stairwell.

Once we get on there, then it's just a walk around

and then the pigs are here.

So I'm 53 years old, you know what I mean?

I should be sat at home in me slippers and my pipe now.

But I need to do it.

I need to do it.

I spent 48 years of my life paying for this abuse.

So I've got a lot of karma to pay back.

You know what I mean?

A lot of karma to pay back.

And this is the only way I know how to do it.

Because we know what's happening to the animals,

we can't just sit by and let that happen.

We have to do everything in our power to help them.

Joey started planning this
even before we met in 2019

when he first told me about it all,

I was like, you are planning to do what?

It was just so many things to think about

and it was something that
we were discussing every night

and every day for almost a year.

So if God forsake anything does happen,

most I can do is ring 999.

He looks like a Frank.

You look like a Frank.

I wouldn't get away with Frank.

He's Frank all over.

You get away with Benny though.

Yeah, you definitely get away with Benny.

I'm a Benny.

Yeah, you look like a Benny.

This one is yours.

So that's my lifeline.

We wear these and then we wear the hats.

Mask.

Yeah, we've gotta be carrying that.

Test, test check.

When Joey and I first met, I didn't know

that he was a well-known activist

and when we were getting to know each other

I learned all about his background,

how he turned his life around

and began his work for animals.

Animals do not want to die.

It's just the world we live in.

It's a frustrating situation not being able to run

and help these pigs.

But the best way we can help is to advocate for them

and be their voice.

And things have stepped up and stepped up

as I've been an activist over the years,

and I keep pushing the envelope.

Understand that the language

of what they're trying to
say but suffering is universal.

You can see in their eyes.

So in 2015, Animal Liberation Victoria

released an investigation into the gas chambers

in Victoria, Australia.

The action coincided

with the release of footage, the group claims

shows abuse in the pork industry.

Members say it's part of a two-year investigation

where one of the activists
infiltrated a gas chamber.

That was the first time I'd ever seen pigs

in gas chambers.

And it was extremely shocking to me.

I didn't even know they were using these machines.

I'd heard about them in history,

I didn't know they were using 'em on animals.

And the idea you get when you hear about,

oh, the meat industry used gas chambers

is they must be using some type of sleeping gas.

So it must be painless.

And it's the impression that the marketing

of the meat gives you.

It's like well it's humane slaughter,

but that's not the case.

I did center my activism around gas chambers

from that point onwards.

It would be one of my main talking points

because to me I couldn't believe these machines

actually existed to kill these intelligent beings.

Do you know about gas chamber in the meat industry?

Gas chambers?

Not in the meat industry, no.

Do you know about gas chambers?

Yeah.

For pigs?

Ah, really?

I thought you were talking
about the Second World War

or something.

Yeah, but.

Oh, I didn't know.

I don't know anything about it

but I rather not know really

'cause it's pretty nasty, innit really?

They gas the pigs?

Yeah.

Do you know anything about CO2 gas chambers?

Yeah.

See this is why we're talking to people actually,

'cause a lot of people don't know.

No.

The first gas chamber was designed in the 1850s

by the British physician, Benjamin Ward Richardson.

In 1952 with the rise of factory farming,

Hormel Foods introduced the
concept of CO2 gas stunning

to the meat industry in the
USA, the practice was adopted

by the famous wiener manufacturer, Oscar Mayer,

notorious for advertising
their product to children

♪ Oh, I'd love to be an Oscar Mayer wiener ♪

By 1970, CO2 was introduced in Europe

and in 1988 gas chamber manufacturer, Butina,

had a hundred installations across the EU.

Right from the outset,

the industry promoted this method as humane.

This pamphlet from the seventies claimed

that the animals are gently put to sleep.

So gas chambers are used across the world

on many different species of animals.

The spent egg-laying hens will be gassed.

The little male chicks that don't make it

to the egg industry will be gassed.

We got chickens in the meat industry are gassed.

Turkeys as well are gassed.

There's also sometimes it's used on salmon and fish.

But the main method for pigs across Australia,

the US, Europe, and the UK is a CO2 gas chamber.

Is there a humane way to do this?

How would you feel if you were used for your body,

confined into a cage, and the only thing

you had to look forward to at the end of your life

is a gas chamber?

So when I found out about the chambers,

I started campaigning in Australia

and then I took it to the world stage, and went to the UK,

and done a lot of campaigns over there.

I've been in slaughterhouse myself.

I've been out the front of gas chambers in Manchester,

and hearing pigs scream for their lives.

High-welfare slaughter is a fairytale,

that is nonsense.

But everything sort of went up a notch

when I come across this notorious
gas chamber in Manchester.

Pilgrim's Pride is owned

by the Brazilian multinational giant JBS,

the world's largest meat producer.

Its customers include

just about every major
supermarket chain you can think of,

plus several fast food outlets.

On the Manchester site alone, some three-quarters

of a million pigs are gassed and killed each year.

It has been a focus of a lot
of animal rights protestors

over the years.

A lot of people know about this place.

It's actually notorious
because it's located smack bang

in a suburban area.

There's actually a path

that goes down the back of the chamber

where people walk their dogs

and you can hear the pigs screaming

and it's really haunting.

You know the screams are pigs.

Yeah.

Well, yeah,

but mom used to like vegetarian food as well.

I used to, I told you my mom used to live

in the third house on there.

Yeah.

I used to see 'em queuing up.

Yeah.

They was screaming.

I used to live on Wall Street,

and the trucks had come,

and I could hear from my bedroom window,

the pigs would wake us up about seven in the morning,

screaming.

Yeah.

And then my mum said to me,

they know they're gonna die.

Of course, they do,

they know it's coming.

They can sense it, yeah.

I had that thought to myself,

I thought if I really care about these animals,

these animals have to experience that terror

before they go down into
that gas, and they're screaming,

and they're like little infants in their mind.

They don't understand, and they scream in terror,

and beg for mercy and no one cares.

And I heard those screams for so many years

and I thought they have to experience

a horrible factory farm and go into this death pit.

And if I'm not willing to risk my life

to expose what's happening to them,

then I don't really care about it enough.

And that's sort of the way I evaluated it in my mind.

I was like, I've gotta do this.

I have to do this.

And it was something inside of me pushing me to do it.

Placing cameras inside of these chambers

wasn't gonna be easy.

That slaughterhouse is very secure.

There's workers there 24/7,

there's CCTV that's constantly operating

and there are security guards on site.

Get out.

You're on private property.

Bye-Bye.

Private property

Bye-Bye.

They wouldn't let someone
like me get a job at this place.

I'm a well-known person.

I've got a large social media presence

so I couldn't be the one to go into this place.

So the plan was we needed a worker to go in there,

do some groundwork, find out about the place.

I can't do everything,

but I had a pretty good person in mind who could.

Breaking news and some activists

have chained themselves off
and caused a total shutdown.

The police are there.

So we're gonna see how close we can get.

See if we can get some footage.

Maybe go live on Instagram.

Stay back a bit.

Alright.

You don't need to touch me, mate.

I just thought he's really courageous

and he'd be the perfect person to go in undercover.

Okay.

So I went for the induction.

What I did find funny was the woman

who was taking the induction,

she talked about the vegan
activists outside, who protest.

And I've been one of those a few times over the months.

And then she turned around and she said,

but don't worry there's a lot of security at this place.

So there'd be no vegan activists
getting inside the factory.

Boop, she looked right at me

and I just couldn't help but smile.

And I'm here, I'm already here, girl.

So this is where the pigs are kept.

The pigs were kept in horrible dirty conditions.

As you can hear they're screaming.

They were scared.

I'm going to try and hide this camera somewhere.

They were kept in rooms right next to the gas chamber.

So they come up here, come up this ramp,

come into the gas chamber here.

They come out the gas chamber there,

which is right next door to where the pigs are kept,

and this is the fell floor.

Yeah, it's not very nice work at all.

The induction itself gave me a bit of indication

about what type of people that they employ.

People who haven't got any qualifications,

can only basic reading and writing skills,

which it isn't a bad thing.

I don't see that as a bad thing,

but it just speaks volumes about the type of work.

People who work in slaughterhouses

when they're engaging in the killing

or harmful behavior towards animals.

That's quite a traumatic experience,

especially if they have high
empathy towards animals.

And that traumatic experience

can lead to mental health difficulties.

So people who work in slaughterhouses

are significantly more likely
to experience depression,

anxiety, and other mental health difficulties

where they're now having to work out a way to cope

with those experiences so
that they can get the job done.

Being low-income workers,

they don't feel like they can leave this job

and go and do something else.

They have to find a way to get through it.

Yeah.

So animals are the primary
victims of slaughterhouses,

but the workers there are also affected.

My research focuses on the social

and psychological factors

associated with why people harm animals.

But more recently I've become
interested in this paradox

of people who can legally kill animals

and whether that's a psychological harm on them.

So you can have two people
who commit the exact same act.

One will be a cow, one will be a dog, but one will be paid

and one will be convicted of offense.

What you'll find is that
there are typically two types

of people who work in slaughterhouses.

You'll have the one type
where they are self-selecting

that form of employment.

There's something about
working in a slaughterhouse

that draws them in.

Unfortunately, they tend to be the type of people

who want to act out their aggression.

They wanna act out more
antisocial ideas in that environment

and they get paid to do that.

The other type are the people who probably

would be considered a bit more vulnerable

because they've been trying to get employment

in any sphere that they can.

But the slaughterhouse is the one opportunity

that they've been successful in gaining

and as a result they are not coming in with the idea

to harm animals or kill animals,

they just know that this is a job

where they're gonna have to do this.

Not understanding what impact it might have on them

and their wider family.

I worked at the slaughterhouse in Manchester.

For me, it would've been the last place I wanted to work,

but because I was on such hard times, I needed the job.

My misses were pregnant and was about to have a baby.

So for me, it wasn't a second guess of a question that,

yes, on Monday I start there.

So I started on a Monday.

You walk in and the first thing you see

is piglets hanging from the ceiling

and hooks going through the skin.

And below them is just a river bed of blood

that's just flowing all the way through the abattoir.

And in the background, you can hear the piglets

squealing for their lives.

And it was our job to remove the pig's toenails

and to burn, singe the hair off.

And we'd rotate, me and this lad, and I seen

and witnessed one of them
rip pig's eyeball out of its head

and kick it across the abattoir floor.

And they all just started
laughing between each other.

Nobody stood back in horror
and went, what are you doing?

They become so desensitized to it.

They're there every day, a lot of them 12 hours a day.

They have been for 20 years.

I had to run out of the abattoir and ring my partner

and say, I can't physically do this.

It's not right.

The screaming I feel stays with me.

But even more so than the eye.

I know that doesn't sound the best,

but just hearing them, it's
like hearing a person scream

before they're killed.

They just echo through the abattoir

and it's something of nightmares.

Hearts, lungs, guts.

Yeah, I work in slaughterhouses.

And I would be assessing for disease,

any issues within the carcass
and looking at the tails.

And sometimes you'd end up going down to the gut room

and looking at how many
worms were coming out and stuff.

You're quite a pivotal role as a vet in the industry

in that you work with Red
Tractor, RSPCA, laboratories,

pharmaceutical companies, nutritionists,

geneticists, and of course, the producers.

And then four years I spent as a pig vet,

so commercial pig vet.

And that involved working
with hundreds of Britain's farms

covering a huge area of England.

I mean they stink as well, these places,

you can smell the fear, the gut contents,

the excrement, the blood, like hot blood,

burning skin and hair.

Yeah, the slaughterhouse work
has obviously stayed with me

for some time.

Working in slaughterhouses

is quite a traumatic experience.

There's no amount of
preparation that people can have,

even though they're going in

knowing that they're gonna kill animals.

But once you walk through
the door, all the sensory stimuli

that you experience is overwhelming.

And so as much as possible to keep,

maintain that employment,

people will develop these coping mechanisms

to look after themselves.

Unfortunately, they can be quite problematic

like drugs or alcohol.

This could spill out in terms of aggression

and violence in their personal lives.

That could be in their homes

or it could be out amongst others.

I often drive by the slaughterhouse

but I live five minutes up the road.

So every time I do it takes me back to that place

of where I can hear them screams,

I can see that river of blood,

I can see them people abusing the carcasses

and it's not nice, it stays with me.

It stays with me every day.

I'm already here, girl.

So then she talked about the shifts

and she said there's a hygiene team that worked

from four till midnight, which
I jumped up straight away,

I says, I'll do that.

She was so happy

because nobody wants to do that job you see.

To be honest with you,

this was the first major investigation I directed.

So I was a little bit out of my depth,

but I gave Dan some hidden cameras to start planting.

Then on the following Monday I started,

so what I did in the first
week was I started walking in

and looking at places to place my camera

and then just making a move towards them,

and looking suspicious, and climbing on things,

and looking over things.

And I did this every day to see

that if I got pulled in the office and I never did.

So that was that, everything was set in place.

So Dan was looking for an opportunity

to start placing these cameras and he ended up

placing them in a pretty good positions.

Yeah.

So Dan first got me the kill floor footage

and when I saw it, I was like wow,

we've really got a glimpse from inside of here.

There'll be someone there
slapping the pigs on the back

and pushing 'em into another compartment

and then a mechanical door pushes them in.

It's all machines and pushing

these sentient conscious beings

into this sort of death chamber.

And then the door comes closing down behind the pigs.

I could see the footage
that he got from the kill floor.

It's just something out of a horror story.

These poor little childlike beings being strung up

and stabbed to death all day.

Thousands of them.

The pigs, their dead, lifeless bodies

being dragged out by their little trotters

and hanging down there.

It's just a pool of blood.

And then, but I needed Dan to to get a glimpse

of inside the chamber.

So I only asked them to put a
camera on the top of the hatch

to get a glimpse of what happens

to the pigs from the top.

I looked in that gas chamber and it's really deep.

I mean I was even going to plant a camera in the bottom

of the gas chamber and when I lifted the hatch

and stuck my head and I could just smell the gas

and I went dizzy instantly.

And I put that down, I thought no.

Sod that, no way.

What we're looking at here is the top

of a two-story gas chamber sunk into the ground.

A carousel system of cages
takes the animals from the top

right down to the bottom where the concentration

of CO2 gas is deadliest.

So you can see the pigs going in,

you can see them from the top there.

There's just one extra part we needed

and that was inside the chambers

to see what actually happens to their behavior

when they're in that gas.

But it's not gonna be easy either

to get a camera inside the cage.

It's another level of risk.

So you couldn't just do it as a worker in there

and messing around on a ladder.

It was something that needed a lot of planning.

We needed to take in so many different variables,

there were so many different
things that could go wrong.

Yeah, so this is the-

I can't work that out.

So while planning the next phase of the mission,

I wanted to hear from the
people who were still involved

with the use of gas chambers.

I wanted to see why they
were still using gas chambers

to kill pigs.

Especially, since the science on CO2 being so cruel

had been around for decades.

So it ended up, we reached
out to around 40 organizations

including 12 animal research scientists.

And either no one got back at all

or people were just trying to handball us off

to other organizations.

But finally, there was a breakthrough.

The first to respond to our requests

were some members involved with animal welfare

For more than quarter of a century,

scientists have been clear that high levels

of carbon dioxide for killing pigs

causes severe respiratory distress.

And that the animals show a profound aversion

to that killing method.

And this was not only the case

from independent scientists,

but the method has also been condemned

by the UK's only government's
farm animal welfare council,

way back in 2003.

The European Union's own scientific committee,

EFSA, condemned it in 2004

and reaffirmed that condemnation in 2020.

The science is clear.

Killing pigs using carbon
dioxide is absolutely inhumane.

CO2 is currently used
because it's in the legislation.

The Animal Welfare Committee does not have a remit

on what goes into legislation and what doesn't.

We only advise what could be in the legislation

and what doesn't.

So clearly we said in 2003 that
CO2 was not the best method

for using for the stunning pigs

and that we should phase it out if at all possible.

That this cruel and
scientifically condemned method

by scientist after scientist is now being adopted

by the industry in the UK and internationally

as the humane way to kill pigs.

Why is that?

Because they can kill more pigs

in the same premises at a lower cost.

Yeah.

So in 2003, the Animal Welfare Committee,

who are an arm of Defra called
for a ban on CO2 gas chambers

and they wanted that implemented
within the next five years.

But that never happened.

Our recommendation is to Defra

and Defra's minister obviously
receives that information

and then can advise what action should be taken.

Alright.

I think maybe 'cause we're in
London, we should go to Defra.

So it'd been four months and we still hadn't gotten

a response from these organizations,

and I just got so sick of being hand-balled around

and there was only one thing left to do.

This is Defra.

Hey.

Hey, mate.

And a security guard stopped us out in the front

and said no, you can't film in here.

Is this Defra here?

You can't film this in this bit.

You've gotta stay there.

Oh, that's all right.

Do you wanna pass a message on

that we are making a documentary,

we want to speak to someone from the Defra office?

I dunno how you do it, but-

Oh, we're just gonna be filming out here anyway.

No worries.

Thank you.

So we rang the buzzer

at the British Meat Processes Association

and no one was there.

You've reached

the British Meat Processes Association,

how can I help you?

We're just making an independent documentary

on the meat industry and we've been trying to email

to get someone from the industry to make a statement.

Pilgrim's didn't get back to us either,

so we decided to visit them at their headquarters.

We've got a bunch of people making comments

and we don't have the other side making any comment.

Have a seat.

Yeah.

Sorry, who are you?

My name's Joe.

We're making a film on pig welfare, CO2, have mentioned.

Are you filming with that camera at the moment?

We wanna ask those who
pride themselves on high-welfare

and use gas chambers, why they use gas chambers,

why they use CO2?

Well, I
think it's fairly well documented

that it's one of the humane methods of slaughter?

Well, it's humane slaughter.

But actually,
we're all working from home,

so unfortunately, there isn't anybody in the office.

So yeah, well, they actually tried to get us in touch

with the Farm Animal Welfare
Council but when we reached out

to you guys for an interview.

So clearly we said thousand in 2003.

But the Farm Animal Welfare
Council, they actually called

for a ban of CO2 gas chambers back in 2003.

I hadn't been aware.

We declined to give a comment.

Why is that?

But we really wanna ask you

because you only use gas chambers here.

Yep.

And you're predominantly pigs.

And I think

it's widely accepted that gas stunning

is currently the most humane
way of stunning animals.

Again humane slaughter.

And I know

that there's a huge amount of research

going into alternative methods at the moment.

When you say it's the most humane method currently,

but you're looking for alternatives,

why are you still killing pigs

if you know that that method is cruel?

We told you we're making a documentary

so there's no suspicion of us being a threat.

There's no crime being committed.

She looks like who works there, hey?

But it turns out that the way that DEFRA greeted us

was with armed police.

But essentially, if we suspect you

of suspicious behavior, which I'm being honest.

But we told 'em we're filming a documentary,

they do legislation for the meat industry.

Oh okay.

So we're investigating the meat industry.

Yeah.

We went to Defra see if anyone would come out

'cause we tried to email them, call them.

So we thought we're in the area.

We'll go film a scene out the front of there.

Yeah.

They told the police that we were trying to encroach

on the building so they lied to the police.

We had nothing to hide.

We showed 'em the footage.

We're just there to do an interview basically.

Yeah, the police were just really nice.

But wish I could say the same for Defra.

Take care.

Take care, mate.

No worries, mate.

Enjoy your late lunch.

Thank you, mate.

Appreciate it.

See you, buddy.

The following week we did get
a written response from Defra.

We are committed to
ensuring all animals are treated

with the utmost respect at all stages of life.

However, the government
recognizes that high concentrations

of carbon dioxide are aversive to pigs.

And alternative stunning methods

that can replace this in a commercial environment

need to be found.

So this was the UK government telling me

that they treat animals with the utmost respect.

How is it respectful to put these conscious,

intelligent beings in a CO2 gas chamber

that they know scientifically

causes them immense suffering and fear?

How on earth is that respect?

They also mentioned the classic line

about UK farming industry.

"The government has a strong track record

for raising the bar when it
comes to welfare measures."

This messaging is repeated over and over

by industry spokespeople

until it sinks into the minds of the public.

When you think of UK farming, like what comes to mind?

Free-range farms and everything like that.

So pretty good on the most parts of things.

So UK is some of the highest
standards in the world maybe?

I would say so for sure.

Yeah.

When you're in Tesco, you ever see green grass

and the animals in the grass and stuff like that?

Yeah.

And what does that tell you?

Gives it a good picture.

Mr. Speaker, The conservatives
were elected on a manifesto

with commitments on animal
welfare and the environment.

And so some of the highest animal welfare standards

in the world.

Not only will we protect animal welfare standards.

The UK has the highest animal welfare standards.

And we are committing to maintaining

our high standards on animal animal welfare.

We will be able to increase
our animal welfare standards.

That will mean that Britain sets the gold standard

for animal welfare and for
protection of animals overall.

We will not compromise on animal welfare.

That means that if anyone
abuses animals in their care

or is cruel to another animal,

then they can face up to five years in jail.

So the phrase the UK has some

of the highest welfare standards in the world,

it's something you'll hear a lot.

And one of the biggest perpetrators

of this propaganda from the industry

are a group called Red Tractor.

So just by looking for the Red Tractor,

you can see that it was
produced to British standards

and is British food.

All Red Tractor animals are treated

with compassion and have everything they need

for a good quality of life.

For peace of mind

about what goes on your table

when you shop, just look for the Red Tractor label.

At this point, Red Tractor are a joke.

They've been exposed that many times

that I can't believe they still exist.

But it's almost like they get exposed.

They're all over the newspapers

for being incredibly egregiously cruel to animals.

And Red Tractor put out some PR spiel going,

oh, you know, we care about animal welfare,

we take it very seriously and then it just goes away

and people forget about it.

But at this point, Red Tractor

are like a really low benchmark
for animal welfare actually.

I believe this is the offices here.

There's another one that says feeding ignorance,

which is true.

Red Tractor feed ignorance

because no one ever looks into it.

So many exposes of Red Tractor farms

have come from an organization called Viva!,

founded by Juliet Gellatley.

My degree is in zoology.

And I have been studying the
impacts of farming on animals

and the wider impacts for a few decades.

Red Tractor is set up by farming groups.

Its guarantors are people
like the National Farmers Union,

Dairy UK.

It is set up by farmers, for farmers.

There is no independent scrutiny.

Around 95% of UK pigs are Red Tractor assured

In the industry, essentially, self-policing.

You don't have a government oversight,

you don't have any independent body going in there

that is solely focused on the welfare of animals.

They are all schemes to
market products essentially.

And pretty much every supermarket uses Red Tractor

as a way of saying to the public,

hey, this meat has come from an animal

that's being kept in high-welfare conditions.

And guess what?

It's British so it must be good.

They really need somebody who knows about pigs,

cares about welfare, isn't financially invested

in any of it just to be rocking
up on farms without notice.

Yeah.

So I did some undercover work
during the making of the film

and I've visited a Red Tractor-approved pig farm

multiple times.

From the farms that I've seen myself,

which are many across the UK.

Viva! must have filmed

in maybe a hundred different pig farms.

The legal requirements for farmed animals in the UK

is appallingly low.

Yeah, Phoenix the hedgehog.

Copy that.

We're gonna make our way over now.

I usually have a backup team with me just in case

an irate farmer comes out with a shotgun

'cause you never know when
you are actually trespassing

on these farms.

Check this out, she's just given birth.

There's umbilical cord, dead
piglets after birth everywhere

and there's a piglet here having some type of seizure.

It looks like the mother's
about to birth more piglets.

These poor, poor, intelligent feeling beings.

What does it say about us as a species

that we can do this to motherhood.

It's supposed to be a time of celebration and joy.

This is actually a dead piglet inside of a sack.

Pigs that are pregnant I have seen in a sanctuary.

And they go along

collecting all these different nesting materials

and the other pigs in their family help them.

You can sense that excitement
and that joy at the prospect.

And we've just degraded it into something

that's there to make money for people.

Look at her.

They can never do their nesting behavior.

They've got nothing to
actually build the materials with.

And then they're giving birth into feces often.

This little baby is still moving

and her siblings that are stepping all over her.

The bars prevent them from doing basic mothering

to their own babies.

And again and again, in pretty much every farm

I've ever filmed in, you will see the dead

left with the living.

Poor darling, look.

They are shown no compassion.

They are left there to give birth all night.

There was no carer there.

I was in there for three hours and no one came.

So these piglets are there suffering

in this horrible factory farm.

And then their babies are taken away at just three

to four weeks old, where they're given nothing.

And I mean nothing.

They never see sunshine,

they never feel the rain on
their back, they never play.

Play's really important to pigs.

And they cannot develop normally without it.

And so it develops aggression and lots of problems

that go with that.

And by six months old, they're sent to slaughter

and that is all, that's what
the human race gives to them.

Around 11 million pigs are slaughtered

in the UK each year.

On top of that, if you work
back with the mortality rates,

there will be 2 million pigs that don't make it

from birth to slaughter at five or six months old.

And here's the last one, more after birth,

piglets, suffered mother, abomination.

And for the mothers themselves,

imagine the psychological impact of repeatedly

having your babies taken away.

So remember, these are one
of the most intelligent animals

on the planet.

They know they're going
through the whole process again,

and that they're gonna be put in a cage again,

and they're gonna have their babies taken away again.

And that is the repeated life

of a factory-farmed mother pig.

And is she rewarded at the end of it.

No.

When she gets to four to five years old,

so the number of piglets she produces starts to fall,

she's then slaughtered for cheap meat.

You look at the face of the
mothers and it is heartbreaking.

We should be ashamed that we are still doing this,

civilized society today that should know better.

And this is the norm.

My God.

Yeah.

So I went into another shed

and the piglets were a little bit older,

they were more like little toddlers at that stage,

cute little puppy dogs.

And I was looking down at their little beady eyes

looking up at me and they just looked so adorable.

And I just thought about the fate that awaited them

and it started to make me feel really sick actually.

So I had another plan.

Rescuing pigs isn't straightforward,

their experiences with humans haven't been good.

I had to pick up a pig and the piglet was screaming.

It's okay.

So I had to comfort this
piglet and just like a little baby,

they calmed down and then I put them in the bag.

I didn't want to just rescue one pig

because they need a companion.

And I didn't want 'em to be scared or sad.

So I had to get another one.

Again, I reached down to grab another one

and had to calm the other one
down and put them in the bag.

But then what you notice is there's hundreds

of other piglets in there.

And the bittersweet part about rescuing animals

is you can't rescue them all.

So it's a reality check that most of those animals

won't make it out alive

and they'll have to continue to suffer.

It's okay, babies, freedom.

Beautiful.

And they won't have to go to the gas chamber.

So two survivors.

So in the UK, there are charities set up specifically

to prevent cruelty to animals.

And why weren't more of 'em speaking out

against the use of CO2,
particularly the world's oldest

and largest animal welfare charity, the RSPCA,

the Royal Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

And they had Queen Elizabeth, as their patron.

Legislation will also be brought forward

to ensure the United Kingdom has and promotes

the highest standards of animal welfare.

The high-welfare rhetoric is so ingrained,

even the queen herself used it in parliament.

What's the RSPCA?

It's the Royal Society for the Protection of Animals.

Who are the RSPCA?

Are they like the police for animals or is that?

Yeah, that's close.

That's close.

Animal protection services.

Yeah, go on.

Okay.

The RSPCA is set up to protect animals,

to prevent cruelty to animals.

♪ Love, sweet love. ♪

And when people think of the RSPCA,

they think, oh, they look after dogs and cats.

They rescue dogs and cats,

and you might see them
looking after a starving horse.

So when they think of the RSPCA, they think,

oh, well they take care of animals.

Specific animals.

Do you know much about the RSPCA?

Quite a bit because I do support them.

I do send them money.

Send them money?

Because they do, I think they do a brilliant job

with lost animals and animals

that haven't been very well treated.

Yeah, like dogs, and cats, and horses.

Yeah, any.

Our cats came from them.

Oh really?

When their name goes on something,

there's an automatic assumption

that it's high-welfare in some kind of way.

And so they're manipulating the public's perception

of what it is that they're buying.

Outdoor bred pork RSPCA Assured.

More pork, RSPCA Assured.

RSPCA Assured.

And what would it tell you?

What would the logo tell you?

I just hope that it would mean

that the animal has been
treated in a better condition,

had a better life in comparison to the other option.

Okay.

Well, you'd think that the animals

have been better looked after.

They've not been mistreated,

they've not been cruelly treated.

Okay.

I don't know.

'Cause RSPPCA are people that protect animals,

but if that was on, if it was on the meat

then how's that fair?

'Cause you're killing that animal then.

Well, that's taking an animal's life, innit?

Oh, that's made me think a little bit.

Okay, go on.

Okay.

No, well, I'm not even trying here, you're going there.

So when it comes to discriminating between species

of animals, like a dog should be valued

and the pig should be on a plate.

The RSPCA are a big culprit here.

They sort of perpetuate
how you treat a dog differently

as you treat a pig.

Why wouldn't you eat the dog meat?

Tell me.

Because I've never had a dog.

But I really like dogs.

I'm sure if I'd spent loads of time with pigs in my life

and I knew loads of people with pet pigs

that I thought were really cute,

then I'd have more of a thing against eating pigs.

So the closest most people come to pigs

is when they see them in the supermarket chopped up

and wrapped in cellophane on the shelf.

Most people haven't gone to a sanctuary

and connected with a pig.

Most people have never been inside a factory farm

and connected with a pig or connected with a pig

on a truck outside of a slaughterhouse.

So if that's the closest people have come to pigs,

you can see how they'd have this level of disconnect

and how they would just see pigs as food.

They all have different expressions.

Some are more scared than the others,

some are more curious, some
just look tired and relaxed.

Others just look terrified and worried.

They all have different faces and personalities.

For me and another activist
who have been out the front

of slaughterhouses looking
into the eyes of these animals

who have been inside farms
and witnessing their suffering

and been on sanctuaries and seeing their behavior,

and how playful and curious they are, just like dogs.

It's impossible for us

to see these sentient conscious creatures as food.

We are born into this world

and we learn everything about the world.

We learn about plants, and about colors,

and about the way the world works,

and we learn about animals too.

But as children, we really care about all animals.

But we're always taught that the dogs and cats at home

are to be loved, and cared for, and cherished.

But the pigs, and the cows, and the chickens

are to be chopped up and put on our plate.

'Cause when they look down
at their plate, what do they see?

They see chicken or they see
a fish finger or they see ham

and there might be a picture
of a pig on that packet of ham.

And as we grow up, society confirms that to us,

advertising we see fish fingers, and burgers,

and they are discriminating between these animals

based on species.

And these aren't morally relevant differences.

What's morally relevant are
the fact that both these animals

are conscious beings who don't want to die.

That's why they both deserve equal treatment.

But that's not the case in society.

Pigs are naturally very inquisitive animals

and I mean they're incredibly intelligent animals

and they can see what's happening, smell, feel.

They are very social and they are easy to train.

Exactly the same as dogs.

There's a lot of evidence
for how complex the behavior

and the learning ability of pigs is.

And one of the things which we did was to see

whether they could learn what you see in a mirror

and they learn what is in a mirror is over here

and not over there.

And they use the information

and in fact, there's only a limited number of animals

where that has been demonstrated.

This is hamlet.

He's amazed animal psychologists,

by learning a computer game
designed for chimpanzees,

Hamlet has to move the cursor into the blue area

around the screen.

When he does, he gets a sweet.

The scientists make it
progressively harder for Hamlet,

yet he succeeds every time.

Oh, good boy, that was good.

Pigs have been shown in
studies to have the intelligence,

the cognitive capacity of a 4-year-old human.

They outstrip dogs in a lot of tests.

We've seen pigs painting pictures on the internet

and doing puzzles that you would expect a child

to struggle with and they're doing it with ease.

You can train them to do a lot of things

at least as well as dogs can.

I'm doing a PhD here at the department

and specifically, we compare how dogs and pigs

communicate with humans.

And you might think why pigs,

they are like super different from dogs.

But interestingly, they shared
common things with dogs

that make them perfect
for our comparative research.

What was very surprising for me, first of all,

is to discover that they can
really adapt to a human family.

There is a tendency for people, for humans

to act as though no other species

has any significant ability

and that humans are enormously different.

But actually the more you look at other species,

you find that the similarities are far greater

than the differences.

And all the animals we keep as farm animals

or pets are really quite sophisticated.

So once people understand
how smart pigs actually are,

they'll then begin to understand how aware they are

of when something bad is going to happen to them.

You look at them in a slaughterhouse situation,

they experience emotional contagion

so they can empathize with those around them.

So hearing those sounds,
smelling what they're smelling,

and the fact that they are
aware enough to kind of process

what might be happening there is really,

it's an awful thought, I think.

If I'm gonna sell you something, right,

and you'd feel guilty if you knew,

what would I say to you to make you buy it?

Stick a free-range label on there,

that probably would help the
consumer willingness to pay

and willingness to continue buying that product.

If you like seeing some meat

and one said British-made bacon

and one said free-range, what would you choose?

Free-range.

Yeah, same.

I would feel probably
better about a free-range label.

Free-range kind of gives me the idea that, yeah,

they've got more space to roam around.

A little bit more like open pasture,

a little bit more quality of life

before they get turned into bacon.

Companies tell us that it's all hunky dory

and everything's fine,

easily, they could be lying to us

and we could just eat it up.

The public perception of a free-range farm

would be what you see on the labels.

So a big stretch of field, lovely grass or plants

with all these little pigs
running around quite happily.

I decided to go check out a free-range farm.

I'd never been to one before

and I wanted to go see for myself what it was like.

Approaching this free-range farm, it was idyllic.

The hills were rolling in green,

and you could see pigs from the highway playing,

and they had a lot more room.

It was a stark contrast from
the factory farms I'd been to.

So basically, we kept driving
till we found an entrance.

As we walked up.

I did not expect to see what we witnessed.

Oh god.

Oh no, oh God.

It's okay, sweetie.

She's cold and scared.

It's okay, darling.

This is absolutely shocking and sickening.

How long has this pig been here like this for?

This is gross animal neglect.

This is sickening animal cruelty.

It's okay.

Oh my god.

It stinks man.

This smells like dead bodies and rotten feces.

It's really, it's horrible here.

Oh my God.

The diarrhea.

Just diarrhea just squirting out.

Yeah, they've all got these hernias, man, hey.

She's got blood all over her.

It looks like there's blood here.

There's blood on this pig's face.

I felt helpless there.

To think that anyone could leave

animals suffering like that.

And you think like, what have
they done to deserve that?

I've seen all of that before.

All the different manifestations
of sick and dying pigs.

Incredibly common to see that.

The stench, pigs are coughing.

They've got like pneumonia or something.

They look really sick.

This baby is really sick.

She's gasping and she's struggling to breathe.

It's okay.

It's okay, sweetie.

I know.

They were coughing and wheezing.

It was just heartbreaking these little pigs.

Little family being very protective

over this little sick piglet here,

you can see she's suffering.

I think the RSPCA sold out years ago

where farmed animals are concerned.

They're not even taking court prosecutions now

for farmed animals.

They pass it on to trading standards.

The RSPCA do very little to protect farmed animals,

which is staggering really.

We see ourselves as a nation of animal lovers

and yet the animals that we abuse by far the most

have almost no protection.

There's about five or six animals here

that desperately need help right now.

There's so many.

If there's a dead bin here,

they're doing the killing from down here.

Jesus Christ.

After witnessing what we saw on this farm,

we decided to launch a
full-scale investigation there.

So we also visited other sites connected to the farm.

Oh my God.

Oh my God, that's all foaming and worse.

This is absolutely sickening.

Oh God.

It's the cheapest way to deal with animals

that are not economically viable.

That is absolutely gross.

That was sick.

So about 15 minutes into our first visit,

we did set up surveillance cameras.

Blunt force trauma up until
very recently used to be legal

for piglets under 10 kilos.

So swinging them by the back
legs and smashing the skull,

you now have to use an instrument for any pig

over four weeks old or over 10 kilos,

you have to use a bolt gun is the most common thing,

so penetrative, because they have very tough skulls.

Yeah, it's not acceptable to
use blunt force trauma at all.

Particularly a pig over 10 kilos,

it's never been acceptable.

Okay, so we left the camera pointing at this animal

who was paralyzed.

We've got a worker on site.

It is 7:26.

He's got a metal bar.

He's still going.

He's hurt his leg.

We have got you, you scumbag.

Instead of getting vet care for this animal,

they've grabbed an iron bar

and bludgeoned this animal in their head.

How shocking.

It was pretty logical to assume

they've all been beaten to death

because they were suffering and sick.

There's no mercy, no help, no vet care, just an iron bar.

Ruthless, savage, sickening.

No wonder those pigs were
so protective of each other.

No wonder they were trying
to protect each other from,

they thought that we might do the same thing.

They're very smart animals, pigs,

they're very smart animals.

And here he comes again.

Wow.

What a monster.

No help for this animal.

Just a bar to death.

Absolutely shocking.

Absolutely just.

But one of the most shocking things about it all

was that the owner of this farm

was named Farmer of the Year.

His photos have appeared across media outlets

where he and his company have been celebrated

for receiving various awards,
including one from the RSPCA.

But if this is an award-winning company,

I wonder what the ones that don't get awards look like.

The free-range label doesn't have a legal definition.

So there's not very much
transparency with the public

is what I'd say in terms of labeling.

It's not that clear what you're actually getting.

We later found out that this site is connected

to multiple major pig
producers, including Pilgrim's UK.

And that the pigs raised there

are actually destined for their gas chambers.

So at about 2:00 AM, me and Dan

dressed as maintenance contract workers,

made our way around the back of the slaughterhouse.

Like we're actually doing this now.

We had ladders and a big bag of equipment,

oxygen tank, harnesses, everything.

It was heavy.

We got us on the fire escape and that was part one.

And we start walking now
in the slaughterhouse grounds.

That was where everything could go wrong

from that point onward, if we got pulled by anybody,

anybody saw us, people could recognize me.

So we get into the door, and there's a washroom,

and the taps are running.

I said, Joe, they're automatic taps,

as soon as anybody walks in front of these taps,

these taps come on.

So we're freaking out a little bit

because if we'd been a few minutes earlier,

we would've run straight into one of the workers.

And then we had the plastic see-through curtains

and that was the final little
bit before the gas chamber.

So I put my head through there, there was nobody there.

Straight through, right on,
right again to the gas chamber.

We get to the gas chamber and I'm just like, thank God.

Because once we get to that gas chamber,

we're kind of half safe from getting caught.

We can climb up on the top of it and keep our heads down.

Just hope to God no one sees us on top of that thing.

Gets on top, lifts the lid and that was it.

You could see right into the gas chamber.

This is the thing, right?

No one had stepped onto that cage yet.

I didn't know whether, if I stepped onto that cage

it was just gonna start moving
and drop me straight down

to the bottom.

I didn't know whether the gas was invisible.

I didn't know if I was gonna
start getting dizzy in there.

My main concern was once Joe stepped on that

to be ready to grab him, if it started moving.

But I stepped onto the cage, it didn't move.

Took a breath in of air and I was also relieved

that there wasn't, from what I could feel,

much gas in the chamber.

My heart is like rushing.

And I had to focus

because I had to start connecting secret cameras

to the cages.

First of all, I needed to fix a camera to the top part

of the cage, pointing in.

To me that was the most important view.

'cause we wanted to see what happened to the pigs

as they went down into the gas.

And I set another one up pointing into the front

of the other side of the cage.

These cages rotate, so it's like Russian roulette.

So in order for me to quickly
know where the cages were

that had the cameras on them I used the white marker

and marked the top of the cages.

And then I wanted to set one up

underneath one of the gondolas, the big cages,

so that it would follow the
cage below it and film the pigs.

And then I thought, what if someone switches it on?

I'm sat on this cage with
machinery, and cogs, and chains.

Joel's lied on this grill

with his arm underneath one of these cages.

If this started, Joe would get his arm ripped off,

I'd get crushed into the ceiling.

So that's it.

Heart's going, I'm worrying.

I'm stressed, I'm listening.

I then all of a sudden.

Super loud.

I'm just like, I look up at Dan like,

they just turned that gas chamber on?

What is that?

Dan's freaking out.

I was just waiting for things to start turning.

There's nothing I could do.

Started again.

Joel starts getting the camera, put it on.

Three times that happened.

So my heart's pounding.

My body was saying, get the hell out of here.

Don't think I'm gonna be able to reach that man, eh?

Yeah, but my mind was saying, stay,

you have to finish this mission.

So I just pushed the fear in the back of my mind

and just kept placing cameras.

The fourth camera, I placed on the fly-walk,

this central platform in the
middle of the gas chamber

so that no matter what, we would get a view

of the animals going down into the gas.

And I would always be able to retrieve it.

Now, we had to get outta that place without being seen.

We had to get outta that place without being caught.

So we start walking across the kill floor again.

Luckily, there's no one there.

We go back into the washroom, there's no one in there.

We goes past the taps,
we goes through the corridor,

out the door.

And we make our way outside.

Like huge sense of relief.

That is like, whoa.

Yes, we've done it.

We've done it.

Yes.

But obviously it wasn't over yet.

Oh, fantastic.

We're not there yet.

Yeah.

The retrieval is gonna be-

It's gonna be a bastard

It's gonna be a bit scarier.

Yeah.

I didn't feel any better actually,

because that was like the easier part of the mission.

The harder part would be retrieving.

And if those cages had got to the bottom

and Joey had to climb down
there and go down the ladder

and into the gas, that was a deadly zone to be in.

We've attached all four cameras

and we've made it back safely,
which is an amazing result.

But for now, we just gotta try to calm down

because tomorrow's the big day retrieving,

and that's the more dangerous day.

We need that footage.

We need them cameras to have worked.

We need those cameras to got what we wanted to get.

Now I feel like we're just one step away.

What if I told you that the RSPCA,

that they put their stamp of approval on pigs

that are killed in these chambers.

Would that make you think that the gas

was more actually humane?

I'd absolutely think so.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

If they've got the RSPCA stamp on it,

I'd think it's more ethically correct.

Yeah.

What would you believe if you're seeing

just a couple of packages with RSPCA or whatever?

Yeah.

You wouldn't feel as guilty about it, would you?

Yeah.

So the RSPCA had been misleading the public,

their assured logo has been put on meat

from pigs killed in gas chambers for years.

I needed clarification.

So I began searching their website

and surprisingly it was easier

to find recipes for bacon than their position on CO2.

We found out there was a massive farming convention

and because they'd been declining our interviews,

we decided to go in undercover as consultants.

Okay.

That's good.

Acting for the farming division of Pilgrim's BQP,

Tarion and I got passes to a major industry event

where they were due to have a stall.

It looked like just about every organization

we'd been ignored and turned down by were there.

But today was about just one.

Here we go.

RSPCA Assured.

Dedicated to farm animal welfare

and CO2 gas chambers apparently.

You work for the RSPCA Assured?

Yes.

Yeah.

Oh, cool.

Uh, BQP?

Yeah.

Nice.

We've had a few consumer concerns

and they were talking about CO2 gas.

We don't do that anymore.

We've now moved away from that completely.

RSPCA Assured then?

Yeah.

Oh really?

Yeah.

Well, I mean, we're dedicated to farming welfare.

We wouldn't want anything bad to be happening

to any animals, if we can.

Well, the main thing question would be

that the welfare concerns are being handled

on the ground with farming.

Yeah.

But in the slaughter, in the abattoirs.

Yeah.

There's still the CO2 issue.

Okay, cool.

I'll go grab, Barry, he's an abattoir expert.

You bear with me.

Who do you work with at BQP?

We are consultants.

You're consultants for BQP?

What we wanted to know is RSPCA will assure

the meat that comes from the pigs

that are killed in CO2 chambers still?

Is that true?

I dunno 'cause I'm part of certification.

I'm just more interested in

where you work at BQP that's all.

Are you part of BQP as well?

Yeah.

Who do you work with at BQP?

Why so many questions.

Because BQP don't exist anymore, that's why.

Yes, we do.

Right.

Okay.

We still supply Pilgrim's Pride at Manchester

and there's a CO2 unit there

and RSPCA-approved pigs will go to their chambers.

RSPCA don't run the abattoirs.

So you'd be better off
speaking to the abattoir people.

No.

Yeah.

But you work for RSPCA Assured this label is on bacon.

Right?

These pigs go into gas chambers and they,

have you seen footage from inside of there?

Inside of CO2 gas chambers.

And what did you think about, what did you think?

They're suffering in the gas chambers.

How do you know they're suffering?

They are definitely suffering.

I would encourage you to watch the footage,

but the stamp is being put on the bacon

from pigs that go to the gas chambers.

And you told me

that they don't use gas chambers anymore, RSPCA.

Sorry, what?

I'm lost, buddy.

That's okay.

We're just asking simple questions.

That's all.

So am I.

What's the name of your company.

We told you we told you BQP?

No.

You said you're doing consultancy for BQP.

Yeah.

So freelancing.

Yeah.

So what's the name of your freelance company?

Freelancing.

I don't have to give you all my personal information.

No, no.

We're just simply asking questions

'cause RSPCA are a big
organization, charity organization,

and we wanna know about

why they're still approving gas chambers.

That's all.

Just a simple question.

We're just inquiring about animal welfare, that's all,

as a concerned consumer.

But no one seems to have answers.

You seem to have a lot of information.

I'm not sure what answers you're looking for.

Well, but basically simple question.

It's why do RSPCA assured still put their logo

on pigs that are killed in CO2 gas

after they've called for a ban.

So, what I'm gonna do

is I'm gonna take your
question and your contact details.

Why were they getting so defensive

when I was just asking simple questions

about their own guidelines?

I know it's a lot of pressure for you, mate,

but we just wanting to know, that's all.

It made me feel like they were holding back.

I would say the RSPCA in its duty

and I think in the public eye,

the public would expect the RSPCA

to actually protect animals.

I think them signing off on a source method,

which is known to be causing pain and distress

on a massive scale.

We're talking millions and millions of animals

suffering like this every year.

I think that's false advertising for one.

But I think it's also quite awful.

Like I would implore any policy-maker at the RSPCA

to sit through that footage of pigs in gas chambers

and not change that policy.

Finally, the RSPCA did get back to us.

"We are keen to see more humane methods developed,

including the commercial use of inert gases,

which are not adversive to pigs.

Currently, high concentrations of CO2

or electric stunning

are the only commercially
viable methods available for pigs.

So more research and development is needed

into more humane alternatives,

"which will require significant investment."

So why on Earth was a charity that's set up

to protect animals so concerned

with what's commercially viable.

That's like a human rights organization

prioritizing corporate profit
over the rights of people.

We found out that the RSPCA
has a technical advisory board

that sets a standard for their assured label.

And guess who's on it?

About a half a dozen representatives

from major players in the pork industry,

including a pig breeding company,

a major pork producer, Pilgrim's Pride.

So a charity that's set up to protect animals

also consults meat producers
on how best to kill them.

And it gets worse.

I also learned that the RSPCA gets paid by farmers

to be a part of their assured scheme.

But most shockingly, the
RSPCA receives a percentage

from the sold products.

This means the more assured meat that's sold,

the more money they make.

And this amounted to 4.5 million pounds in 2021.

This isn't just a conflict
of interest, this is a sellout.

So after the convention,

RSPCA had conveniently updated their website

to include their position on CO2 gassing,

they apparently use 90% concentration of gas

other than the legal requirement of 80%.

Because in their words it causes less suffering.

So do you think they just fall asleep,

sort of just go to sleep in the gas,

like a sleeping gas kind of thing?

It's not something I like to think about.

Yeah.

I would like to think it was-

Just gentle.

Just going to the dentist and just.

Yeah.

But I don't think it probably is.

Do you think they feel anything?

Do you think it's a pleasant experience or just?

Probably not.

Probably not a pleasant experience though.

No.

Because think about it.

If we was to get our oxygen taken away,

then it takes us a while for us to die

from asphyxiation, innit?

Yeah.

So I don't know.

It just so happens that the
gas chamber at Pilgrim's Pride

conforms to the RSPCA standard.

So I think it's about time consumers got to see

what they were paying extra for.

Well, it's either I put the goggles on my head

or I have the headlamp on.

'Cause this is what's gonna save my butt.

The tension in the room,

you could cut it with a knife.

It's called a lifesaver.

I look calm on the outside,

but on the inside I am terrified.

I can hold that onto the ladder

while I'm reaching around, grabbing stuff, you know?

And I'm gonna need this more tonight

because I'll be going down into the gas, potentially.

The most bizarre feeling though.

Haven't felt anything like it before.

Hoping that the chambers are at the top.

Camera needs to be ready to rock.

Okay.

Clipboard?

Clipboard is here.

When he was walking out of the door at the house,

there was a very strong possibility

that I would never see him again.

You ready?

Yeah.

Alright, here we go.

Round two.

Round two, piece of piss.

Let's get this shit.

Piece of piss.

If I have to put my oxygen tank on,

I'll put the tank on.

So basically we made our way back the same way,

I was thinking we're gonna get caught, this is it.

They might have sussed us out,

they might have found the cameras,

they might have the cameras in the office

and the police there waiting for us.

It's just like there were so many things

that could go wrong.

Dan's in front of me and he gets to the door

and he just stops.

Gets to the door, peeks through.

There's someone there.

And that was it, I just froze.

I just thought like, we're
dressed as maintenance workers,

let's just give it a crack.

Let's go.

And then Joey just walked straight past me

and walks right through the door.

And that was it.

I had to follow him.

That was it.

We walked through the door, McGaffey's there,

who'd known me for nearly three and a half weeks

when I worked there, he looked straight me in the eye

and I just looked straight ahead, carried on walking,

Streamlined straight to the gas chamber,

still thinking he's gonna yell out, stop.

Walk around the corner and I just thought

please don't follow us.

Please don't follow us.

But I didn't wanna look round.

'Cause if you start looking
round, you look suspicious.

We get to the gas chamber again,

climb up the ladder.

Gets on top of the gas chamber,

and then I just glanced over

and I could, nobody's followed us.

Nobody's followed us.

We're fine, we're great.

So Dan opens up the hatch and I was like, oh my God,

the chamber's filled with gas.

It was like a thick silvery mist and it shocked me.

So below the fly-walk is where the gas is.

So I had to be extremely
careful not to do anything stupid.

He wasn't climbing in, I noticed something.

It's like there's a haze, there's mist and it's pungent.

And then I began the mission
of pulling off the cameras.

I retrieved the first camera.

It's underneath the fly-walk quite easy.

The second camera I grabbed was at the top.

So I just pulled it off by the lens and chuck in the bag.

The other top camera, which
is an important camera to grab,

was in the second level.

And that's the death zone.

So I had to get the oxygen tank on.

I get my goggles on and I start squeezing my body down

this little gap to get down

and wrap myself around to get to the ladder.

This is a two-story drop below us.

There's gas.

And my worst nightmares were coming through.

He would have to go down that ladder.

And if anything happened, I would have to leave him.

I quickly stepped down, I step onto the second cage,

and I grab the lens.

And now there's gas, I'm smothered in gas,

there's gas all around me.

And I begin bringing gas in through my goggles

and I'm bringing it into my nose,

and it's going into my eyes, and it's fizzing in my eyes,

and it's starting to burn.

And I begin to hyperventilate.

I couldn't go after him.

I couldn't go and see if he was all right.

I couldn't help in any way.

I just had to sit there and wait.

And it was like an eternity.

It was like, it just went on forever.

So I'm thinking, God, I've got this camera in my hand.

I've got these goggles filled with gas,

and I've gotta reach back up to the ladder,

compose myself and start
pulling myself back up this ladder.

He comes stomping up and he is hyperventilating.

He can't breathe.

He's panicking, he's shaking.

Just trying to get some oxygen back into me actually,

put the third camera in the bag.

And there was one more to get.

This was the bottom camera, but it had swapped sides.

And now it was a lot harder to get.

I'm lying on the fly-walk, still a bit dizzy,

reaching out to this camera, trying to pull it off.

And it's caked in feces and urine.

It's just really slippery.

And my little arms aren't long enough

and I'm trying to pull this camera off

and I keep slipping and slipping,

and I just can't get a good grip.

We need every single one of these cameras

in case one has failed.

So we can't just leave a camera here.

So obviously, you needed someone with longer hands.

All right.

Be careful, Dan.

And then he laid down on the fly-walk

and I'm there on top of him holding him

by his waistband like this.

I can smell the gas again.

I gets down and gets my arm underneath

and I can just get my fingertips
on the edge of this block,

which is the camera.

And then I'm thinking, what if I drop the camera,

the footage, it's gonna go down to the bottom,

it's gonna hit the deck

and we're not gonna be able to get it back.

So I grabs it, it's slippery, it's sliding.

I pulls it and I thought, I'm just gonna have to go for it.

There's another way.

And just pulled it and it came away.

Yeah, got it.

But it was far from over because then, of course,

we have to get out.

So we get outta the gas chamber, we go down the ladder.

And I just thought to myself,
there is no power on earth

that will get these cameras off of me.

Like you will have to kill me

to get these cameras off of me

after all we've just been through.

If anybody caught us, we had a plan,

just run like hell and get out of there.

That was it.

That was the plan.

That's all we needed to do.

Walks back through, who was there still, McGaffey.

So we had masks on,

but I just distinctly remember
he looked up at me again,

but he couldn't see it.

But I had a big massive grin on my face

and I just nodded at him.

And then we walked out through the door.

So head down and just walk straight out of there

with a bag filled with four cameras

of secretly filmed gas chamber footage.

The first of its kind in the UK.

We've done it.

We've done it.

All those times I'd spent outside of that gas chamber

in Manchester, just right
there in the park by the wall.

And I was convinced

that what was going on in there was horrible.

Now we had the footage, and that footage does not lie.

The industry may lie to you,
but this footage is the truth.

Now, no one from the UK can ever apply the word humane

to these gas chambers ever again.

Now, there was no denying it.

What carbon dioxide does

is it makes the pigs have a deeply aversive reaction.

The chamber starts turning,

and as soon as they hit that second level,

they start freaking out, struggling,

desperately trying to escape.

They can't get any oxygen.

They look like they're suffering.

They start to hyperventilate.

They feel like they can't breathe.

The carbon dioxide then gets into their eyes,

their nostrils, their lungs,

they're burning from the inside out.

And these animals are terrified,

in most hideous pain and suffering.

And that goes on for 15 seconds, 30 seconds,

up to a minute or more.

That is what some tried to describe

as humane slaughter.

Fairly well documented that it's one

of the humane methods of slaughter.

All Red Tractor animals

are treated with compassion.

The gas stunning

is currently the most humane
way of stunning animals.

Be able to do that and maintain

those high standards and quality standards

for which we have a very good
reputation across the world.

We all know it's wrong.

We all know slaughterhouses are bad.

That's why no one wants to look at the footage.

And we all know it's not humane.

Carbon dioxide, killing of pigs

is non-stun slaughter of the worst kind.

This footage is so clear.

Just the innocent animal is
just desperately gasping for air

and flailing about in pain.

It's something nightmares are made of.

Couldn't be more cruel to the pigs

if you just cut their throats

and just left them to die.

Jesus.

When they get down into the gas, see, it's moving down.

Oh.

You'll see when they start to react.

Absolutely unbelievable.

Oh my God.

That's horrific, man.

That's absolutely, that's barbaric to a point.

Yeah.

Yeah, no, that's awful.

Can we stop with that one, please?

Yeah, no, I don't agree with that.

That's awful.

That is so cruel.

And in fact, it's upset me watching that.

The most appropriate thing
would be to stop killing pigs.

If you can't do it in a way

that's not gonna cause extreme suffering,

which I think the consumer expects.

They're given this humane
slaughter lie, essentially.

So if we can't do that,

we absolutely shouldn't be slaughtering pigs at all.

So theoretically, what humane alternatives to CO2

would the AWC like to see in the future?

We don't know what the answer is.

And there's work going on at the moment

on the use of nitrogen foams.

But if we knew what the answer was,

I can assure you we would've recommended

that it had to be in place now.

Until there is an alternative available

wouldn't the recommendation be

to just stop killing pigs altogether?

I thought you might ask that.

We've had the problem, haven't we?

I can only say that I'm not here to make any comment

about people's lifestyle and people's choices.

I'm here that people farm and therefore,

while people are farming, I believe those animals

must have a good life and a good end.

But just from the AWCs position,

wouldn't they just advise the government

you should stop killing pigs immediately

because they're suffering
horribly in these chambers?

No, we haven't advised that.

And I don't think that comes under our remit.

Even as advice.

Even as advice

The industry know there's no humane, humane,

viable method of slaughter at the moment.

But economically, that's what we've got.

A possible alternatives may
be using a non-aversive gas

to render the animal unconscious, argon, for example.

I've known researchers
looking into alternatives to this

and stopping eating pigs and poultry as a result.

Even the ones they're trialing as a better option

are absolutely horrendous.

And CO2 is worse.

Other examples, electrical stunning,

which has its own problems.

They're getting a shock

through their brain and their body.

That's not at all acceptable.

I'd really like to expand on it a bit

because the conversation
usually is steered towards trying

to find the right way to kill.

Wouldn't the most humane thing be

to not kill the animals at all.

Through the animal's eyes
their life is just as precious

and important to them as your life is to you

or mine is to me.

If you wouldn't trade places

with an animal in a slaughterhouse

to be humanely slaughtered,

I think that will tell you
everything you need to know

about whether or not it is justified

to do this to these innocent beings.

The word humane slaughter,
what do you think of that word?

It's a non sequitur.

The two don't go together.

You can't treat someone humane

and then slaughter them, you know?

Well, how can it be humane if it's a slaughter,

that's impossible.

They don't go together.

Come on.

That's just another way to pull the wool over our eyes.

It's all about finance.

So the word humane means to show compassion,

kindness, or benevolence.

How can you be kind to an animal

when you are robbing them of their existence?

Animals have a desire to live.

They want to continue their experience.

And whenever you are thinking about what's humane,

what's not humane,

try to put yourself in the victim's position.

If you didn't feel any pain before you were killed,

would it be morally acceptable to kill you?

That's a question people have to ask themselves.

And especially for something as trivial as a flavor.

Ask yourself this, is the fleeting satisfaction,

the fleeting taste pleasure
you get from eating an animal

worth more to you than an animal's entire existence

is worth to them.

You have to weigh that up.

I don't think there's any
such thing as humane slaughter.

Those animals do not want to die.

They are full of life, and curiosity,

emotionally sensitive beings
who want to explore the world.

How can something be humane

when you are taking from an animal

the thing that is the most precious to any animal,

including us, is our life?

Humane Slaughter Association.

What a joke.

There is no such thing.

It's us trying to fool ourselves that we can be kind

to animals by killing them,
by actually taking their life.

This decision isn't about survival.

This isn't life or death, it is for the animals.

But it's really just a choice

of changing to a plant-based product for us.

And just because we've done something

for a long period of time,

that doesn't mean we should continue to do it.

There's a lot of bad things

that have happened throughout history

and just because they're part of traditions

or have been passed down through generations,

that doesn't mean we have a moral justification

to continue doing them.

Just as we believe that all humans deserve

to be treated with dignity, respect, and compassion,

we should also extend

that same moral consideration to animals.

All sentient beings, no matter their species

deserve to have rights
protecting them from enslavement,

exploitation, abuse, and murder.

You're here.

Come on.

So immediately after I rescued
the piggies from the farm,

we took them straight away to a safe place.

Awaiting them was basically a new home

where they could be with their own kind

and they can just live out their lives

and do all the things pigs love to do,

nuzzle in the ground, and play with hay,

and eat all the lovely foods.

So yeah, it was a very wholesome moment.

There you go.

There you go.

Just like a puppy.

I feel you never see what's wrong with it

until you see it and witness it.

And I would've never have
thought I would've been a vegan.

It never crossed my mind.

My parents and nobody I know is, really.

But that turned me,

that turned me the complete opposite way.

No longer eat meat at all.

And witness what I've witnessed it isn't a nice thing

and I wouldn't wish that on anybody

to witness what I've witnessed.

But I feel people do need to
realize what we're consuming,

So three months
after I'd rescued the two piglets,

we visited the animal sanctuary
that was now their home.

They had a surrogate mother

and they were free to run around and play.

It's so funny.

Can we think for ourselves

and actually think, okay, yeah,
we've been doing it this way

for a while, but actually we are healthier as a vegan.

We have a chance to save the planet,

reduce greenhouse gas emissions,

reduce wildlife extinctions by going vegan.

And we don't have to actually
kill these creatures at all

and put them through this absolute torture

because by far the most cruelty

that's committed in the UK

is to farmed animals by a million miles.

If I was gonna eat that hot dog

that I just ate in a cinema and you came and told me

that this hot dog here, gas chamber is mad,

I would've put it down.

It's just, that's wrong.

I would actually come on,

I'd come and stand outside and say, stop.

Yeah, seriously.

I think I've realized for
myself that I couldn't expect

the industry to do the right thing.

I couldn't expect the government
to do anything about it.

I raised all these concerns and nothing changed.

I was in that industry for four years

solely with the purpose of improving welfare.

And I couldn't change anything.

So I think consumers mustn't rely

on any sort of welfare improvements coming

further down the line.

It is really, truly horrific.

And I don't know how to word that seriously enough

like it is, I've got such a bit of PTSD

from what I had to do in that industry.

And I think the only solution
is to not buy into it at all.

Do not fund any of these industries

that are exploiting sentient beings.

Based on my experience,
it's very clear that the industry

and the government won't make this change for us.

Not while there's this much money involved.

So the people at home

and the people who are buying these products

really have to realize

that the power really is in their hands.

The power is in their hands.

So much so that if everyone in the UK

and the world stopped buying these products,

slaughterhouse would no longer exist.

'Cause there would be no reason for them to.

So if every single individual had the mindset

that together we can make a difference,

then they can realize really
the power is in their hands.

So there's been some huge breaking news.

Pilgrim's have announced
that they'll be closing down

their Manchester gas chamber.

This comes just two weeks after we released

the footage on social media,

which garnered over 2 million views

and made national news headlines.

We actually did it.

We shut 'em down.

But that's not the end of it.

There are still gas chambers
all over the UK and the world.

Although we've won the battle, the war is far from over.