Animal Rights Action Network <http://www.aran.ie/> has just released
heartbreaking undercover footage obtained directly inside an Irish pig
breeding facility in Ireland. The footage is today front page headlines in
The Irish Sun.

The horrific footage shows cruelty to pigs, including a grown adult pig,
which, in the video appears to be prolapsing, (her insides hanging out from
her anus). The pig is repeatedly hit forcefully over the head, crushing her
skull as she screams in pain, whilst continuing to be violently hit with a
sledgehammer by the employees at the facility. One employee that works
there, claims this way of killing the animals is an every day occurrence and
is the normal way to do so at the facility-although not legal by any
standards-this way of killing the animals helps to save costs without
calling for a vet to 'humanely' kill the pigs that the facility feels they
cannot sell onto slaughterhouses in Ireland and abroad. During the
investigation many baby piglets have been found dead with their skulls all
bashed in, ironically killed in the very same way. This way of killing pigs
that are unwanted violates Irish animal welfare laws. ARAN has furnished the
Department of Agriculture in Dublin with the findings of the investigation,
after a lengthy meeting with department officials nothing yet has came
about. The Gardai are now investigating the matter further. Irish media
outlets have also came out supporting our finding's.

Some other footage obtained inside the facility include:-

* Workers were seeing smashing the head of a live grown adult pig whom
appears to be pro-lapsing with a sledgehammer, the animal continues to take
the blows of the hammer whilst screaming in pain, before she eventually
drops to the ground and convulses, all this been watched by employees of the
facility.
* A Truck full of dead baby piglets whilst another grown pig lies dead
for up to two days as stated by the investigating employee.
* Dead piglets lie among live piglets.
* Grown adult pigs confined to tiny farrowing crates, the pigs cannot
move whilst their piglets gather around.

"Every time we pull back the curtain on slaughterhouses or their animal
factories, we reveal atrocities that would make most people lose their
lunch," says Stephan Wymore for ARAN. "The horrendous abuse documented at
this facility clearly violates Irish animal welfare law, and we're asking
that these people and this company be held accountable."

This week it was announced Barclays and four other large investors dropped all shares in Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), Europe's largest and most exposed vivisection laboratory. LSR stock owned by institutional shareholders has now fallen to 12%, placing HLS $4 million below the NYSE minimum listing standard for market value (the only stock exchange listing the company, a major target in the campaign to close HLS).

Following a legal challenge against the CEO's proposal to purchase all of the outstanding LSR stock, an intense global campaign and recent repression against SHAC in Birmingham, a total of 797,284 shares have now been sold. Barclays Global Investors, Barclays Plc, Hartford Investment Management Company, Rice Hall James and Associates LLC, Bank of New York Mellon and Wells Fargo sold all their shares, of which over 400,000 were held by previously largest shareholder Barclays.

The much anticipated Time for Action 4 movie, documenting the SHAC campaign from 2007 - 2009 is now available!

The DVD also contains all of the previous Time for Action movies, as well as undercover footage from inside HLS from 1997 - 2008, and the Channel Four documentary that launched the campaign.

To order a copy, please send a minimum donation of £4 to SHAC, c/o FRIEND, 89 Bush Road, East Peckham, Tonbridge, Kent, TN12 5LJ, please remember to include your name and full address.

Click below to watch the preview
FLV http://www.indymedia.org.uk/media/20...
Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLquW...

Click below to watch the trailer
FLV http://www.indymedia.org.uk/media/20...
Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ymj1Q...