SunPork and Swickers employees say Kingaroy abattoir footage ‘heartbreaking’

Employees at one of Australia’s largest pig abattoirs have reacted to the release of shocking footage that showed the alleged mistreatment of animals and led to disciplinary action for two workers.

Vegan activists encircled Kingaroy’s BaconFest on Saturday, holding signs and driving a mobile billboard around the entrances after releasing shocking footage of the handling of pigs at the town’s bacon factory.

Standing at the entrances of the festival, Animal Liberation Queensland activists held signs that said and drove a mobile billboard around the festival.

The video released on Friday, a day before the festival began, was captured by a drone on June 8 and shows pigs being hit and going limp as they were moved inside the abattoir as well as being shot with a bolt gun and having their throats being cut.

Two workers were stood down pending an investigation following the release of the footage.

A Swickers employee attending the festival, who asked to remain anonymous, said the video shocked them.

“It wasn’t good,” he said.

An employee of SunPork, the parent company that owns Swickers, said while the footage was “heartbreaking”, the two workers in the video weren’t a reflection of the company.

ALQ member Mo Orr said there was so much people didn’t know about how the nation treated animals, and she was disappointed by some people’s responses to the footage released on Friday.

“It’s been the traditional, ‘how did they get the footage?’ rather than, ‘oh my God, what is happening to the animals is horrific,’” Ms Orr said.

“There’s so much people don’t know about how we treat animals and how we use them for food.

“Even now, after so many years being vegan, even now I’m learning about new cruelties.”

From outside the festival, ALQ members were also offering festival goers a free “bacon and cheese” muffin sample which was actually plant-based, revealing this to tasters only after they had tried it.

ALQ’s campaign manager Amanda Holly said people were enjoying the product and were unable to tell that the product was vegan.

“We’re just really reinforcing that you can eat the same thing, same taste, same texture, but you don’t need to support the cruelty, the environmental destruction, and the human health impacts that are associated with the bacon industry,” Ms Holly said.

BaconFest ran from Friday, August 19 to Sunday, August 21.

Originally published as SunPork and Swickers employees say Kingaroy abattoir footage ‘heartbreaking’