A major supplier of free range pork to Britain's leading supermarkets is set to face trial next year over multiple animal cruelty charges, including allegations that workers were permitted to bludgeon pigs to death.
Covert Investigation Reveals Alleged Abuse
Norfolk Free Range, a company accredited by the RSPCA's welfare scheme, provides meat to supermarket giants including Waitrose, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Co-op, Aldi, and Lidl. The charges stem from covert footage captured by animal activists at Harford Farm in Caistor St Edmund, one of the 40 sites the business operates across East Anglia.
The footage, recorded over an eight-day period, allegedly shows workers attacking pigs with a long metal fencing pole, known as a hurdle pin, in two separate incidents. In one attack, a pig appeared to be left for dead. This evidence later featured in a 2022 documentary titled Pignorant, produced by vegan activist Joey Carbstrong.
Company Denies Multiple Charges
Following the release of the footage, two farm workers – a man and a woman – were dismissed from their roles. However, the company itself now faces six formal charges.
The charges include permitting the 'repeated striking of a pig with a hurdle pin', causing the animal to suffer by failing to prevent it. The company is also accused of two counts of failing in its duty to ensure animal welfare by not taking adequate steps to care for injured pigs.
Additional charges allege that the firm allowed the killing of pigs without a licence, killed animals without proper restraint, and permitted workers to inflict blows and kicks on animals. Norfolk Free Range denies all charges.
From Award-Winning to Courtroom
The firm is owned by millionaire farming entrepreneurs Steve and Sally Ann Hart, who have not been personally accused of any offences. Mr Hart's background adds a layer of irony to the case; he was a grain trader who used his last £500 to switch to pig rearing in the 1990s and later won Farmers Weekly’s Pig Farmer of the Year award in 2016 for his championing of animal welfare.
Financially, the company is robust, having made a profit of almost £4 million on a turnover of £9.2 million in the year to July 2024. It is also a member of the RSPCA’s Assured programme, which requires adherence to 'higher welfare' standards. It is worth noting that Harford Farm was not RSPCA Assured when the covert footage was taken but has been certified since.
In a statement released when the documentary was unveiled, Norfolk Free Range said: ‘We have been disgusted and distressed by the actions of our employees depicted in the footage. It is not acceptable and not representative of the way in which we look after our animals.’
The company is scheduled to stand trial at Norwich Magistrates' Court in June 2025.
