BREAKING: Notorious Pig Gas Chamber DEMOLISHED after ‘Pignorant Film’ EXPOSÉ

Duration: 11:29 2004 transcript words EN summary

Video summary

The video documents the historic demolition of Pilgrim's slaughterhouse facility in Ashton-under-Lyne, a site notorious for operating a gas chamber that annually killed approximately 750,000 pigs. Following an investigative exposé released by "Pignorant Film" and featured exclusively in The Guardian on May 2nd, 2023, the footage went viral with millions of views, triggering immediate internal turmoil at the company. Within two days of the investigation's release, key directors departed the organization, and just fourteen days later, Pilgrim's officially announced the closure of the Ashton site, citing unfavorable market conditions as the primary reason despite evidence suggesting otherwise. The narrator argues that the official explanations for the shutdown are contradictory and likely serve only as damage control measures to avoid admitting responsibility to activists. While the company claimed there was no feasibility to modernize an old suburban facility or that operations would transfer to other sites like Spalding, these justifications were undermined by facts showing those alternative locations were already at full capacity. Furthermore, insider reports indicated that management explicitly acknowledged shutting down the site due to pressure from the investigation rather than economic necessity, highlighting how a small group of activists successfully exposed horrific realities that forced such significant industry changes. The closure resulted in severe consequences for the pork sector, contributing to a ten-year low in total pig slaughter numbers across the UK with 1.1 million fewer animals killed in 2023 alone. Although the industry attempted to blame breeding shortages on farms rather than facility closures, the loss of this massive processing hub dealt a catastrophic blow that they refuse to publicly acknowledge as stemming from activist efforts. The site, which had operated for seventy years and housed one of nine major gas chambers responsible for ninety percent of national pig slaughter, is now being flattened to make way for warehouses, symbolizing a potential shift where everyday people are taking matters into their own hands rather than relying on corporate or government intervention. Ultimately, the video concludes that while other mass slaughtering continues globally, this victory demonstrates the immense power held by grassroots campaigners and consumers who withdraw financial support from abusive industries. The narrator emphasizes that these corporations operate like a house of cards built on shaky ground; when exposed through fearless action and public awareness, they can be forced to collapse under their own weight without admitting fault. By continuing to oppose expansion plans for remaining facilities and refusing to fund such operations, the public ensures that sites like Ashton-under-Lyne become symbols of downfall rather than centers of cruelty, proving that collective human agency can dismantle even the most entrenched systems of animal abuse.

Read the full video transcript

Look at this. Look at this. Pilgrim's Ashton-under-Lyne, the location of the horrific pig gas chamber being demolished. Demolition crews there taking the whole thing down. And here we are. We got some drone footage of the place completely flattened. If anyone's not familiar with this place, this is the slaughterhouse gas chamber that was killing about 750,000 pigs a year. And we investigated it in February 2021 and brought out UK's first-ever vision from inside a pig CO2 gas chamber in the country. And I just want to talk about the timeline of events here leading to this demolition. Because we know that the industry would never credit something like this to activists or to grassroots campaigners. Because otherwise that empowers us, you know? This is the timeline of events. We released this footage May 2nd, 2023 through The Guardian newspaper that did a exclusive on this. We reached out to Pilgrim's a few days beforehand, right? And they were notified to a for a right to reply. They had a crisis management expert hooked in on They were They were given access to the email. So, they were in crisis, okay? They They responded by saying, "This is not our gas chamber. This is not our gas chamber." The article goes pretty viral. So does the footage get about 2 million views on social media. 2 days later, two big directors of pig supply chain director and an agricultural director left the company suddenly. About 2 weeks later, on the 16th of May, so exactly 14 days after the investigation was released, Pilgrim's Ashton announces the closure of their site. 542 people to lose their jobs there. And since then, it's been completely abandoned. Now, they cited unfavorable market conditions and no feasibility opportunity to modernize or grow the site, which is pretty interesting, right? They're not going to say, "Oh, Joey Carbstrong and his team released shocking just unjustifiable footage of this facility and we just can't handle the PR backlash we're going to get and it's going to ruin our income going forward with all of our, you know, companies that we supply Pork to." No, they said it was unfavorable market conditions, etc. They said their operations will transfer to Spalding and Westerly and and and 90 new roles will be created, right? But, they could never transfer 750,000 pigs to be killed at those two sites. They're all Those sites are already at capacity. Another justification they used for closing it down was that that it's it's too old and really there's no there's no way to expand the site down there because it's in a suburban area. But, wait a second. If you shut down because of unfavorable market conditions, you don't have money to expand the site anyway. So, which one is it? Is it unfavorable market conditions is why you closed or no feasibility to modernize and grow the site? Why would you want to grow a site if you're not making any money, right? So, those two things contradict. It's just They were just lumping things on excuses on for shutting this place down when they knew a little short time later they knew Pig Truth was coming out. This all screams of damage control and them not wanting to know that these, you know, small group of activists have caused such chaos for them just by simply leaving cameras and exposing to the public what they do that they were forced to close the site. Their final slaughter happened on the 7th of July 2023. Closed ever since. And for the year of 2023, this is another interesting statistic, a total of 1.1 million fewer pigs were killed in the country. Which is a drop of 10%. That was the lowest number of pigs slaughtered in the UK since 2013. So, 2023 was a really bad year for total pigs being killed. Now, when you have a site killing 7% nearly of the entire total UK pig slaughter coming out of that location alone. Now, that's a huge blow to the industry. So, did was that site closing did that contribute to the total pig kill going down for the UK? Well, of course it did. Of course it did. Now, they they cite that the reason for you know for the total pig kill going down was like there wasn't enough pigs being bred and and all of this stuff on they're blaming the farms that are on the ground. But, wait a second. Where were you going to transfer this 750,000 pigs to be killed? Like another gas chamber? Your gas chambers are all at capacity, right? And if it was the case that it wasn't uh that the pig that the total pig slaughter going down wasn't because of the closure of that chamber, then why are you trying to expand currently Pilgrim's Westerleigh in Bristol site? They're trying to expand that now and they put in an application to expand that in uh 2025, which had 2,000 oppositions to it on the planning commissions, which uh I think is still in in discussion. So, if you can oppose it, if it is in your local council area that Westerleigh site, please do oppose it because um they're trying to expand it now. Now, I have an insider as well working at um there was an insider working at Bristol who told me that the management talked about me quite a lot. And that they had increased their security significantly and that they told him, now given this is coming from an insider, but an insider that works there, said that the managers specifically indicated to him they shut the site because of that investigation. So, it only makes sense and it makes sense that they will never admit that because you see the industry is a house of cards, particularly the pork industry. That I think there are about nine of those gas chambers left and they those nine gas chambers, they kill 90% of the pigs in the country in those nine sites. The other, you know, I think there's a about a hundred or so other smaller slaughterhouses kill the other 10%. So, these gas chamber facilities are incredibly valuable to the pork industry cuz they kill the majority of pigs, right? When one gets shut down, that's a huge hit to the industry. Now, they can't just say, "Oh, can this farm send their their their animals a hundred fifty miles away down here and down here?" That's it. That that's just They're just The farms are just going to stop breeding as many pigs. That likely explains the incredible drop of pig slaughter for 2023. And we released Pignorant in 2020 uh early 2024. So, for for them to They didn't really recover in 2024 either that that that significantly. I believe this caused a huge huge problem for the pork industry that they don't want to admit and that they that they never will publicly admit again because of the powers of activist because they are a house of cards that when something like this happens, like all we do is expose what they do it can have catastrophic consequences for the industry, and they can just shut down. And here we are, beautiful scenes. Beautiful scenes of Ashton, which was running for 70 years. That site, 70 years there was a slaughterhouse there. And now demolished to make way for warehouses, I believe. Incredible incredible scenes, and I would say that I would be down there at Pilgrim's Manchester to witness the demolition and to walk across that flat ground. But I'm banned from Manchester. The entire greater Manchester area due to my last investigation, so go down there. Leave some flowers down for the animals who suffered in the most horrific way at the hands of Pilgrim's. You You our team took a lot of risks getting that footage and um and at the time I was quite worried about it going wrong and me not making it, but taking those risks had a huge reward. And although the pigs are still being mass slaughtered all over the country and world, it is a win. It's just beautiful. It's a beautiful sight now. We That that activists have been going to that place for years. I believe it was the second uh save movement in the world that was uh second chapter of the save movement in the world that started there. Long time ago. Um and I started going there in about 2017 when uh the save movement was already operational there and you could just hear the pigs screaming from the from the fence there. It's a public walkway. I just remember thinking to myself like, I've seen the footage come out of Australia. I just wonder if it's the same in there. It's got to be. And and they used to gaslight the people out the front uh the activists that the workers used to say, "Oh, no, the pigs are just play fighting." Or one said that they're just mating with each other or something. It's not the pigs screaming in the gas chamber. They don't scream in the gas chamber. Then >> It'd be a horrific way to die, eh? To drown in gas like in a dark >> squeal >> 2 years later, we got the footage and there was no doubt after that. There was no doubt after that. Let's just take this time to realize the kind of power that we on the ground have. And yes, we're dealing with a empire. But that empire is resting on shaky ground. And they're playing with small margins. And although there might have been economic issues with the pork industry, this was the final the final thing that tipped them over the edge. And they've just decided to demolish the site. Let this empower you to fight because it might seem like it's insurmountable, but really, the industry are never going to admit that what we do makes a difference, right? They're going to They're going to say it's because of other reasons. It's all other It's always other reasons other than activists or people on the ground making change and people making decisions not to give their money to these horrible horrible um companies, right? But really we do have a lot of power and I just want to remind you of that because if we never decided to make a difference or to even try because we thought it was just not going to happen, then maybe we wouldn't see a flat car park where a horrific gas chamber used to be. And we're seeing that now with people on the ground starting to take it matters into their own hands. And I really do think there's a there's a shift happening where just normal everyday people have had enough and they don't want their money going towards these horrible animal abusers anymore and they're taking matters into their own hands and we have to realize that it's our money that makes these industries lucrative and grow and it's the removal of our money alongside taking action, fearless action, that causes these industries to fall. Don't ever rely on the industry or the government to do this for us. The power is in your hands and you just have to believe that it's possible and together we can make the world a better place for animals. And let the demolition of Pilgrim's Ash be symbolic of the downfall of the entire industry of animal abuse. Watch Pig Iron. Uh you can watch Pig Iron on It's still on Amazon Prime. It's still worldwide to watch on Just Watch. You can go to pigironfilm.com or pigironfilm.com and you can watch how we we did the investigation and everything behind it. Thank you all for your support and I'll see you all in the next video.