The shocking scenes will be played in a Spanish courtroom today as four men go on trial for animal cruelty.
The workers were filmed hitting the animals over the head with iron bars before digging dirty metal swords into their sides repeatedly.
The piglets inside the sows were pulled out of their mothers’ stomachs alive after they were slaughtered.
One of the men plays up to the camera as a pig writhes squealing and dying in front of them after he stabs it repeatedly along with a colleague.
He flexes his biceps as he stands over the animal after murdering it in the most savage way possible while a colleague jokes out loud: “Rest in peace.”
The shocking images were filmed at El Escobar farm in Fuente Alamo, Murcia, south-east Spain and published by a worker shocked by what he saw.
They led to the arrests of four men due to go on trial today.
Miguel Rodriguez, a veterinary hospital anaesthetist, has described the footage as the worst he has ever seen.
He said: “It’s the most horrible case of animal mistreatment I’ve seen in my career. The suffering these animals have endured is comparable to the pain we’d suffer as humans in that situation.”
Javier Moreno, international director of animal welfare organisation Animal Equality, which is also prosecuting the defendants, added: “This is without doubt the cruellest thing we’ve ever seen.
“We want a historic and exemplary sentence.”
The organisation has launched a petition which has already been signed by more than 66,000 people calling for a change in the law to stiffen the penalties for animal mistreatment.
State prosecutors are calling for a one-year prison sentence for each of the accused men – the maximum under Spanish law – as well as a three year ban from working with animals.
They will be unlikely to spend a single day in jail if they receive the sentence – because sentences of two years or less in Spain are normally suspended for first-time offenders.
The footage first emerged in February 2012 when Animal Equality was sent the 6.40 minute video.
Marcos Verduga, the worker who leaked the video, said at the time: “From the minute I set foot on the farm I saw the animals were being mistreated every day.”
Police arrested the suspects 48 hours afterwards, leading to a criminal probe led by a judge and today’s trial in the city of Cartagena.
The farm owner expressed his shock and condemnation after the footage was made public and said he had idea his animals were being mistreated in this way.
Note: If you click the link below, you can access the video.
(The Sun UK - Sept 27, 2016)
