ANIMAL rights campaigners are calling for the closure of an abattoir where they say up to 3,000 pigs a day are slaughtered.
Protesters are holding regular vigils outside the Pilgrim’s Europe plant at Westerleigh, north of Lyde Green.
They believe the method used to stun the pigs before slaughter, using carbon dioxide gas, is cruel and that the animals suffer “immense distress” during transportation to the plant in trucks.
The protests, which take place every other Monday morning outside the plant and on nearby Westerleigh Road, are coordinated by the Bristol Animal Rights Collective, and also involve members of other groups, including Bristol Animal Save and We The Free.
People had travelled from as far as Evesham, Swindon and Weston-super-Mare to take part in a demonstration seen by the Voice in March.
Carol Sharpe, from Downend, has been attending the protests, which happen fortnightly on Monday mornings, since 2018, a year after the first one was held.
She said: “We do it to raise awareness.We ask passing drivers to beep in support and one of us uses a clicker to count how many we get – some weeks it’s over 250.”
Jody Wilkins, who travels from Weston to regularly take part, said: “We also go there as a mark of respect to the pigs, to bear witness to the trucks coming in and raise awareness to the public that the facility is there.
“The industry tries to keep this side of it secret.”
Jody said carbon dioxide is used on 90% of pigs slaughtered in the UK and was “an extremely painful way to die”.
The campaigners are calling on people to watch a documentary called Pignorant, released last year, which includes undercover filming at an abattoir using carbon dioxide.
The Voice has contacted Pilgrim’s Europe to request a comment on the protests, the campaigners’ claims that the use of carbon dioxide is cruel and that animals suffer distress during their journey to the abattoir.