The animal rights association L214 denounces the treatments reserved for pigs in a breeding farm in the Aube region supplying the leader in the charcuterie Herta, via a video broadcast on Wednesday, December 1 where we see in particular blows to animals.
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In the images, shot in August and September 2021 according to the association, a man is filmed carrying a series of dry blows on the back of a sow using a plastic instrument.
Earlier, another slams the heads of two piglets to the ground to kill them, a practice tolerated if the animals are dying.
We then see him throwing live piglets unceremoniously into a plastic container to practice with his colleague interventions often observed in breeding: section of the tail to prevent it from being eaten by fellow creatures, trimming of the teeth to limit the inflicted injuries. to other piglets and to the udders of sows.
Males are also castrated without anesthesia, a practice that will be banned on January 1, 2022.
"
Herta will know how to draw all the consequences
"
According to L214, the farm belongs to the company Promontval which has nearly 20,000 pigs (including nearly 1,500 sows - the national average is 250 - and their descendants) on two sites and recently obtained authorization to expand.
She is involved, according to the association, in the “
Préférence branch
” of Herta.
In this sector, "
our breeders undertake to respect a guide of good practices
", underlines on its site the leading brand of charcuterie in France.
Read also The L214 association condemned for the dissemination of a clandestine video
In a statement released shortly before the video was made public, the company said it had been informed "
of the imminent publication of a video against a pig farm
."
It indicates that it “will
analyze this video, as soon as it has access to the images, and will launch an audit
”.
"
If breaches of the rules were indeed to be noted in this breeding, Herta will know how to draw all the consequences
", adds the group, while deploring "
the relentlessness of L214 against the breeding
".
L214 files a complaint
The association announces that it is filing a complaint for "
mistreatment of animals and consumer deception with the prosecutor of Troyes
". Requested by AFP, the Ministry of Agriculture and the prosecutor's office in Troyes had not followed up on Wednesday evening. The Aube prefecture did not wish to communicate.
L214 has already targeted a
Herta de l'Allier “
Preference sector
” farm
in two videos published in late 2020 and early 2021. Herta had suspended
its supplies “as a
precaution
” after the first video.
The group had taken them back after an internal audit and after the local health authorities had concluded that
the farm was
"in
good condition and that there was no major non-conformity
".
However, the authorities had asked for "
corrective measures
" in terms of watering, reduction of the density or replacement of the slatted floors.
According to the association, criminal proceedings were initiated in parallel by the Moulins prosecutor's office and a hearing will be held in January.
