CO2 gas slaughter footage censored
When two campaigners filmed the suffering of pigs inside a slaughterhouse gas chamber, they were arrested, sued and ordered to delete the footage. But truth matters. We have the footage.
In August 2025, footage from inside a CO2 gas slaughter chamber was broadcast on Germany’s largest public television channel and covered in leading national newspapers.
The images taken at a pig slaughterhouse were every bit as distressing as you might imagine and they shook the country. Until then, people had no idea that this is what the industry was actually doing to pigs while calling its practices “high welfare”. Caught out, the industry lashed out. And in an attempt to suppress the footage, and perhaps to punish the campaigners who obtained it and to deter others, Brand Qualitätsfleischtook Anna and Hendrik to court.
Exposing the “high welfare” lie
In that slaughterhouse, Anna and Hendrik had filmed terrified animals so desperate for air that they rammed their heads against the “gondola” until the bars were smeared with blood. The film shows pigs panicking, thrashing, and screaming in obvious, heart-rending distress and terror. But this slaughterhouse is not an aberration. Wherever CO2 gas chambers are filmed – whether that is in Germany, Australia, the USA, or Britain – the same severe distress and suffering is evident. Because this is the truth of CO2 slaughter. But the industry made a choice: instead of acknowledging it, they chose to suppress it.
Sued for showing the truth
Anna and Hendrik were arrested by the police and then Brand Qualitätsfleisch sued them for damages they say amounted to €98,000. Despite the judge accepting that the footage was real, that it showed animal welfare violations, and that it was in the public interest, the slaughterhouse won. Anna and Hendrik have now been forced to delete every image and every second of footage. And they are still awaiting trial for trespass. Injustice has been heaped on top of injustice.
Fuck that.
We’re publishing the footage
The industrial farming and slaughter industries only exist because they mislead and lie. They show us pigs in woodlands and chickens in pastures when the truth is those animals are trapped inside disgusting shit-encrusted factory farms and killed inside industrial slaughter complexes. And if anyone dares to reveal the truth, they are punished and silenced. But we will not accept that.
We got hold of the footage. And we are making it public.
Warning: this is distressing footage.
What happens next
Anna and Hendrik are currently waiting to find out if they will be forced to pay a large sum of money in compensation to the slaughterhouse. Their request to appeal the court’s decision was denied, but they fight on and have filed a complaint against that decision with the higher court. This is not over.
On the day of the verdict, Anna told the press, “The state does not protect animals.” And, despite the reassuring statements that every government seems to make about having the “best animal welfare standards in the world”, she is absolutely right. More than 20 years ago, the UK government’s own animal welfare advisory board recommended that CO2 slaughter for pigs be banned because of the obvious and severe suffering it causes. Every government since has ignored that report.
We cannot wait any longer. It’s time to sink this industry.
