Melrose Farm, Melbourne, North Yorkshire

(Filmed August 2008)

John Rowbottom is a director of Melrose Pigs Ltd and a member of the National Pig Association Producer Group, as well as sitting on the BPEX board.

• There appear to be no breeding facilities at this farm.
• Weaners live on slatted floors in an apparently utterly barren environment.
• In what appears to be the ‘sick unit’, one emaciated piglet lies dead. Five others are clearly ill. One, whose ribs are showing, is barely able to stand and props herself up against a larger pig who lies prone. Despite their obvious suffering, no bedding is offered to them.
• Some growing-on pigs live in small units on slatted floors – their only ‘enrichment’ is a chain. Their tails are docked.
• Other fattening pigs wade through the slippery filth of the dunging area of the pens. In the background, incessant coughing can be heard.