Foston Update: Positive Step as Environment Agency Rejects Pig Farm Application
Action Alert from All-Creatures.org

FROM

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)
February 2015

[VICTORY UPDATE April 2015: Foston ‘Pig Prison’ Application Withdrawn After 35,000 People Took Action]

ACTION

Earlier this week, the Environment Agency rejected an application from Midland Pig Producers regarding their proposed intensive, US-style factory farm in Foston, Derbyshire. The agency said it would “offend human senses”.

However, the final decision rests with Derbyshire County Council and will be taken this summer. Please, add your voice at this crucial moment and join thousands of other compassionate PETA supporters who have spoken out against the cruel plans.

Jo-Anne McArthur
Image Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals

Sign an online petition here.

Derbyshire County Council
County Hall
Matlock
DE4 3AG ENGLAND
[email protected]
fax 01629 533295

INFORMATION / TALKING POINTS

Midland Pig Producers (MPP) has submitted an application to build an intensive, US-style factory farm in Foston, Derbyshire, that would imprison up to 25,000 pigs at a time and send 1,000 pigs a week to slaughter.

Pigs are not commodities: they are intelligent, sentient animals with distinct personalities. The proposed factory farm would subject them to horrific cruelty in many ways:

  • Confinement indoors in crowded conditions causes pigs severe mental and physical stress.
  • Pigs on factory farms are subjected to mutilations, such as having their tails docked and their sensitive teeth ground down without anaesthetics.
  • Pigs on factory farms are denied the opportunity to engage in natural behaviour, such as foraging for food outdoors and building nests for their young.
  • Confining so many pigs to one location will guarantee high levels of disease, infection and injury. Intensive farming also contributes to the spread of disease, including swine flu, to the human population.
  • Pigs are usually transported to the abattoir when they are between 4 and 7 months old. They do not travel well, and many die or experience heat stress during the journey. Once they arrive, they are shackled and hoisted into the air, have their throats slit and are left to bleed to death.

There are also fears that this pig "prison" could pave the way for more large-scale, intensive factory farms in the UK. We need to resist every step towards greater intensification of pig farming in this country.

The application, which was withdrawn and then resubmitted, has been rejected by South Derbyshire District Council and is opposed by local groups, the Soil Association, Friends of the Earth and thousands of compassionate PETA supporters who have spoken out against it. In the latest development, MPP's plans have also been rejected by the Environment Agency because of the expected "significant pollution due to odour". However, the final decision rests with Derbyshire County Council and will be taken this summer.

FYI: Email response to personal note sent:

March 18, 2015

Re: Planning application CW9/0311/174 Land off Uttoxeter Road, Foston

Dear Sir/Madam

Erection of a 2,500 breeding sow pig rearing unit with grain store, feed mill, feed hoppers, mess block, water treatment buildings together with storage buildings feeding an associated anaerobic digestion facility, service building, digestate and methane gas storage tanks supplying an electricity generation facility and incorporating a visitor centre, 4 agriculture workers dwellings with garaging, strategic landscaping, including the formation of bunds, a surface water attenuation pond, and rainwater retention area with site parking facilities, weighbridges, security fencing and associated infrastructure, Land off Uttoxeter Road, Foston for Midland Pig Producers
Application Code: CW9/0311/174

With reference to your representation in respect of the above planning application, I write to inform you that on 17 March 2015 the applicant withdrew their application.
 
Yours faithfully,
 
Planning Control
Economy, Transport and Environment | Derbyshire County Council
Shand House, Dale Road South, Matlock, Derbyshire, DE4 3RY
01629 539800

Thank you for everything you do for animals!

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