U.K. Study: Thousands of Farmed Animals Scalded Alive, Frozen to Death

Following an investigation spanning two years, the U.K. Food Standards Agency issued a new report showing shocking abuse of farmed animals. The abuse ranges from freezing to death to being scalded alive.

Between July 2014 and June 2017, the FSA documented a total of 9,511 animal welfare violations committed by slaughterhouse employees, truck drivers, and farmers. Over 4,400 breaches were deemed category four—the most serious—meaning that the animals were subjected to “avoidable pain, distress, or suffering.

The report documented a host of atrocities: a cow “violently slammed against a wall following an argument between two workers, chickens and pigs lowered into scalding water while fully conscious, and a cow taken to slaughter with a facial lesion “completely full of worms. Thousands of animals were killed without proper stunning.

In this shocking video a slaughterhouse worker is caught throwing and kicking sheep and pigs:


In the U.S., Mexico, and Canada animals raised and killed for food suffer similar abuse. A 2015 Mercy For Animals undercover investigation at a Foster Farms chicken slaughterhouse in Fresno, California, revealed birds being scalded alive. This is common in slaughter plants. In 2013 The Washington Post reported that more than 1 million birds are scalded alive each year in the U.S. alone.

Having conducted over 60 undercover investigations at factory farms and slaughterhouses, MFA has exposed time and time again that animal abuse at factory farms is simply business as usual. Don’t believe us? See for yourself:


The best thing we can do to stop animal cruelty is to end our support of the industries responsible for it. Click here to learn more about switching to a humane vegan diet.