A new investigation once again reveals the terrible hygiene and health conditions in the intensive farms that are emblematic of Italian excellence.
In May, the Animal Equality investigative team collected new footage of mistreatment and filth inside a farm affiliated with Gruppo Bompieri. The facility is located in Mantua, in Lombardy. Here, adult pigs and piglets are reared, also linked to DOP-branded production — one of the symbols of Italian excellence.
Yet the conditions found by investigators are alarming. Animal carcasses and multiple infestations are just some of the serious problems documented through footage that was partly broadcast on Cartabianca — a current affairs programme hosted by Bianca Berlinguer — on Rai 3 in June 2021.
What strikes you when watching the investigation's footage is the total neglect inside the farm. In addition to dead piglets in weaning cages, others are forced to live in cramped spaces alongside the corpses of fellow animals. Adult pigs, meanwhile, are kept in pens flooded with untreated slurry and with faeces in the feeding troughs. Not to mention the filth, scattered everywhere, and the concealed bodies of animals abandoned with open wounds, without having been properly disposed of as required by regulations.
It is evident that the entire rearing process, from weaning to fattening the pigs, is not being carried out correctly. Investigators also observed animals with large umbilical cysts, wounds and hernias. Further compounding the situation, the investigation uncovered infestations of snails in the workers' bathrooms and cockroaches throughout the farm, including in the areas used for feed. Finally, the presence of a colony of cats in very poor health inside the farm increases the risk of disease spreading and of animal suffering.
Alongside the mistreatment of animals and the appalling hygienic conditions in which the facility finds itself, the risk of environmental pollution from this operation is a further hazard that Animal Equality is contesting with the authorities.
The facility in question is located just a few hundred metres from the bank of the river Oglio, a tributary of the Po. In the area outside the farm, between the sheds and the slurry containment barriers, Animal Equality has identified a dangerous slurry spill, right next to the riverbank. Given this situation, the risk of damage to the local water table becomes all the more significant.
These findings, as well as laying bare unspeakable suffering for the pigs being reared, highlight the high level of hygiene and health risk that this facility (like so many other farms in Lombardy) can pose to animals, farm workers and citizens alike.
Following the broadcast of the first footage on Rai 3, we reported the facility to the authorities and are also in the process of contesting the new findings with all the relevant authorities. We will not stop until justice is done.