The public is constantly being told that our pig farms have high welfare standards.

But a new investigation by Animal Equality has found award-winning farms keeping pigs in squalid, barren conditions and locking mothers in tiny cages that prevent them nurturing their piglets, who often die right beside them.

At a Lincolnshire farm, we filmed pigs living knee-deep in slurry. During two visits to this farm (in January and May), our investigators also filmed breeding sows with large sores, multiple dead and dying piglets, and a pig with a rectal prolapse, which was being bitten by other pigs.

At a second farm, located in Dorset, our investigators filmed gestating sows locked in tiny individual stalls, a practice banned in the UK in 1999. During two visits to this farm, in February, our investigators also found pigs confined in barren pens with profound ear wounds caused by bored pen mates. We have presented these findings to the Government officials responsible for monitoring farms and asked them to ensure the meagre legal protection farmed animals have is enforced.

But consumers have the real power to end this suffering by leaving meat off their plate. Check out the great selection of delicious plant-based foods and recipes at www.veganuary.com. To read more about this investigation, visit www.animalequality.net.

TONI SHEPHARD

Executive director, Animal Equality

Belfast Telegraph