L214, the association for the defense of animals used as food resources, released this Thursday, August 19, new shocking images of mistreatment, this time in a pig farm in Yonne, and an unprecedented testimony, with its face uncovered, of a former whistleblower employee.
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“
They cut the tails live and do the castrations live [...] If a [piglet] can, they take it and slam it on the ground. Sometimes, we still see it moving in the bucket,
”testifies Grégory Boutron, facing the camera with his face uncovered, a first for a whistleblower in an accused pigsty.
Former employee for two years and two months of the SCEA breeding of Tremblats II in Annay-sur-Serein (Yonne), Grégory Boutron recently resigned from his post after falling into depression following the mistreatment he observed .
The former employee, who says he has "
never seen a control
" in two years and two months spent in this breeding, indicates to have alerted the director on the subject but, faced with his inaction, he lodged a complaint with the gendarmerie then entered L214.
"
I would like the manager to stop working in this area and the box to be closed because it will never stop
," said the former employee.
Formal notice from the operator
The videos, taken with his mobile phone, show sows swollen by screwdrivers all over their body, or dying on the concrete floor of the farm, as well as young sows whose teeth are cut with pincers.
The pigsty is an intensive breeding of 1,800 sows, three times the French average.
It is managed by the Provent-SDPR group which directly or indirectly operates around a hundred pigsties, according to L214.
Contacted, the management of the company, based in Savoie, did not react to the accusations of L214.
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Contacted by AFP, Sébastien Arsac, director of investigations and spokesperson for L214, indicates that the association lodged a complaint Wednesday with the public prosecutor of Auxerre, denouncing "
numerous breaches of the regulations
". The association calls for sanctions against breeding but also a ban on the live cutting of tails and the slapping of piglets: those who are considered the least profitable are violently knocked out just after their birth. This operation is supposed to kill them quickly but it is far from always the case, according to L214.
In a press release, the Yonne prefecture indicates that the operator of the pigsty was "
put on notice
" following an inspection of the farm on June 1, and the finding of "
non-conformities
" . This unannounced check, carried out by the veterinary services of the Departmental Directorate of Employment, Labor, Solidarity and Population Protection (DDETSPP), "
followed a report filed with the gendarmerie
". specified from the same source. "
The DDETSPP informed the operator that a new inspection would be carried out to verify the compliance of his breeding
", according to the prefecture, which ensures the "
full mobilization
" of the veterinary services of the DDETSPP.
