RSPCA investigates piggery after activist group footage shows pigs eating carcasses

Australia Broadcast Center

16-07-2025

Warning: This article contains distressing content about the alleged mistreatment of animals. It also includes graphic images of injuries and animal living conditions that may cause distress.
The ABC has chosen to exclude or pixelate some of the more confronting images provided.
The RSPCA is investigating alleged animal welfare breaches at a South Australian abattoir, after footage emerged showing pigs feeding on carcasses, and living alongside dead and decomposed animals.
Victorian activist group Farm Transparency Project (FTP) said it captured the images in June during separate visits to the site on Long Plains Road, Dublin.
On June 26, the group supplied an edited 16-minute clip to the RSPCA, which carried out an inspection the following day, according to correspondence between the organisations.
In a statement, an RSPCA spokesperson said a report had been received "in relation to concerns regarding the welfare of animals at a property north of Adelaide".
"Our inspectorate are currently investigating the complaint and as such, no further comments will be provided at this time," they said.
The ABC reviewed the vision, which was taken on June 14 and 20, according to FTP executive director Chris Delforce, and has been published on the group's website.
Mr Delforce said it depicted conditions inside four sheds where livestock were housed, but the ABC could not independently verify the filming location.
Initially, the clip shows several live pigs having difficulty wading through a pool of mud, along with masses of living and immobile pigs huddled together.
In at least two instances, pigs are seen cannibalising carcasses belonging to other pigs, and on a further two occasions can be seen eating other unidentified animals.
One close-up shows a pig with a bone-deep, open wound on its back, roughly 10 centimetres across.
Another, which the ABC chose not to publish, showed a live pig attempting to walk with a tennis ball-sized growth protruding from its anus.
In another segment, more than a dozen dead pigs have been piled into a pen, but at least three appear to be alive and trapped in the gaps of the gate.
When one of them is pulled free, it appears unable to walk on its hind legs.
Drone footage showed 13 enclosures on the property altogether, but Mr Delforce said the others were in "normal conditions" and animals appeared "healthy and relatively bright".
The initial batch of video was taken by a group Mr Delforce described as "Adelaide-based investigators", while he and a colleague captured follow-up vision to verify the conditions.
Piggery owner Andgar Proprietors declined to comment on the footage, including whether the company was aware of the conditions and if it took any steps to rectify them.
In a statement, Australian Pork chief executive Margo Andrae said the industry group was carrying out its own investigation and would support the RSPCA's enquiries.
"Any breaches of animal welfare have no place in Australian pig farming and are fundamentally at odds with the values and practices our farmers expect of their peers.
"The Australian pork industry remains firmly committed to upholding the highest standards of animal welfare."
Mr Delforce, who co-founded FTP in 2014 with the aim of forcing the closure of the Australian meat-processing industry, said "it was some of the worst conditions [he'd] ever seen" in investigating more than 40 abattoirs.
This year, the SA government introduced new maximum penalties for animal cruelty of 10 years' imprisonment or a $250,000 fine, but Mr Delforce said he had "very little faith in SA authorities".
He cited another SA abattoir which had been granted an exemption for stunning goats before slaughter, but in 2023, the group captured footage of workers failing to do so immediately after cutting their throats, as recommended by best practice guidelines.
The Department of Environment and Water advised him it identified no animal cruelty offences, but did conduct an on-site education visit.
"There's all sorts of things you can do to pigs that you couldn't do to a dog or cat, and that's just because there's money to be made," Mr Delforce said.
"We need the public to show them that they have to grow a spine and stand up to these industries, otherwise nothing is going to change.
"We want this place to shut down, and nothing short of that is going to be acceptable to us."
The department, which was also sent the footage, said it did not provide comments during ongoing investigations.
South Australia's Environment Minister Susan Close defended the state's animal welfare regime.
"South Australians have little tolerance for acts of animal cruelty and the government is overhauling a number of pieces of legislation pertaining to the management and care of animals to bring them into line with community expectations," she said.
"There are also numerous codes, including the Model Code of Practice for the Welfare of Animals, Livestock and Poultry at Slaughtering Establishments (Abattoirs, Slaughterhouses and Knackeries), to ensure animals are treated humanely.
"The government also had input into a national review of livestock processing standards and guidelines."
It is unknown when the RSPCA will hand down findings.