If You’re Still Eating Bacon, You Need to See This Video

In January 2017, PETA Germany received shocking video footage from a whistleblower inside a pig breeding and fattening farm in Günthersdorf, Brandenburg. Immediately, the group’s legal department submitted a criminal complaint to the district attorney and sent the video to veterinary authorities. In June, new footage from the same farm showed that nothing has changed.

These fastidiously clean animals are still trying to wade through the ankle-deep excrement that they are forced to live and eat in. The stench is unbearable. Pigs suffer from massive abdominal growths that are seemingly left untreated. Sows are still confined to gestation crates so small that they are nearly immobilized and their legs constantly protrude into their neighboring pigs’ crates. Ill animals are left to suffer alone in barn corridors, and weak, severely injured, dying, and dead piglets lie all over the floors.

Because the animals cannot even stretch their legs, the gestation crates are smaller than what is allowed by law. Similarly, the pigs tightly packed into fattening pens are not given even the small amount of space per animal that is legally required. But the farm seems unconcerned that these abysmal living conditions violate federal animal-welfare laws, which are not being enforced.

PETA Germany has now filed a criminal complaint about the veterinary office’s lack of action. They sent the shocking new footage to the Frankfurt/Oder prosecutor’s office, demanding that the farm be closed immediately and that its operators be banned from owning animals.

If you think that conditions for animals are better in the United States or another country than in other places around the world, think again. Eyewitness video footage taken by PETA, our international affiliates, and whistleblowers around the globe has proved one truth to be universal: In the meat industry, animal welfare is of little concern.

And if you’re still saying, “But bacon tastes so good,” give vegan bacon a taste. There are numerous varieties, and many nonvegans prefer vegan bacon’s lack of unappetizing fat. I like to bake mine in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes, so it’s extra crispy and crunchy, not greasy. If you’ve had Betty Crocker Bac-O’s or McCormick Bac’n Pieces, you’ve already had vegan bacon, and you probably liked it. The pigs you saved certainly did.