A police investigation has been launched after the French animal rights group L214 published a video on Thursday, August 19th, from an intensive pig farm in the Yonne département in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.

The images are accompanied by the account of whistleblower Grégory Boutron, a former employee who has told how he quit his job and fell into depression after being shocked by the mistreatment of the animals. 

“What shocked me was seeing the person in charge relentlessly stab the sows with a screwdriver when they didn’t want to move, or hit them in the head with a metal bar,” Boutron said.

“They cut their tails with an iron,” and castrate piglets without anesthetic, he said.

Images filmed by Boutron with his mobile phone show piglets moving after being struck against the floor, and squealing while they are having their teeth and tails cut, as well as pigs being given electric shocks and red marks supposedly resulting from being prodded with a screwdriver.

“Before I left, they bought an electric battery, and when there was a sow that didn’t want to keep walking, they set upon her.”

Warning: disturbing images

🚨 NOUVELLE ENQUÊTE @L214 🚨
Un lanceur d’alerte dévoile des images effroyables filmées dans un #ElevageIntensif de l’Yonne. Cruauté, infractions à la réglementation. Exigeons des sanctions, la fin du claquage des porcelets et de la coupe de leur queue.
👉 https://t.co/BbF78DC8lF pic.twitter.com/TBlXFIO3s5

— L214 éthique & animaux (@L214) August 19, 2021

Agriculture Minister Julien Denormandie condemned the practices in a tweet on Thursday, and confirmed that authorities had already begun investigating the farm before the video was released.

Je condamne avec fermeté les pratiques inacceptables relayées par les vidéos d’un élevage porcin de l’Yonne. Cet élevage est visé par une enquête depuis le mois de juin dernier, bien avant la vidéo. Elle permettra de sanctionner les manquements aux règlements en vigueur.

— Julien Denormandie (@J_Denormandie) August 19, 2021

“An investigation was launched in June following a complaint made against this farm. It remains ongoing,” the Ministry of Agriculture and Food said in a press release, adding that they “strongly condemn the unacceptable practices shown in these images”.

“If the inspection undertaken in June did not flag any unacceptable situations or behaviours like those seen in the video constituting acts of cruelty […] further investigations will be carried out.

“In addition, the castration of piglets without anesthetic, as shown in these videos, will be banned in France from January 1st, 2022.”

Local prosecutor Hugues de Phily confirmed to AFP that a complaint had been made in February and that the gendarmerie had been charged with undertaking a preliminary investigation.

The intensive farm houses 1,800 sows. It belongs to the Provent-SDPR group, which manages, directly or indirectly, a hundred pig farms across France, according to L214.

The organisation has called on the government to ban the practice of “thumping” piglets against the ground, as well as cutting their tails without anesthetic.

They have launched a petition which you can sign HERE.