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Woman Walks Free From Pig Farrowing Crate After 21 Days And Nights In Trafalgar Square

Writer: Animal Rising Press
Animal Rising Press
Sep 22
3 min read

Animal Rising vows further factory farm exposés as group says three-week action marks beginning of long-term campaign to end factory farming.


Animal Rising campaign lead Michelle Farnham has today (22 September) walked free from a pig farrowing crate in Trafalgar Square after spending 21 consecutive days and nights confined inside it, without leaving once.


Michelle emerged from the crate at 11am, after first entering it at 7am on 1 September, completing an extraordinary physical and psychological challenge designed to bring the reality of factory farming into public view.


She greeted a crowd of approximately 100 supporters and was joined by her partner and family following the three weeks of intense isolation.


Thousands of passersby encountered the installation during its three weeks in one of London’s busiest public spaces, with many stopping to speak with Michelle about the action and the conditions faced by animals in factory farms.


The action attracted national and international media attention, with high-profile visitors including former RSPCA president Chris Packham and Green MP Adrian Ramsay. [1]


Animal Rising said at the event that the end of Michelle’s confinement marks only the beginning of a long-term campaign against factory farming. The group is calling on the government to commit to ending factory farming by 2040 and says further investigations and exposés of conditions inside British farms will follow.


Michelle’s action was inspired by Luna, a mother pig whose life Animal Rising documented for a month on a Suffolk factory farm. [2] Michelle was confined in similar farrowing crate, of the type used in around 90% of indoor British pig farming systems to confine mother pigs around giving birth and nursing their piglets. [3]

Around 200,000 mother pigs are confined in farrowing crates in the UK each year. Sows can spend four to five weeks at a time inside the crates, unable even to turn around. [4]


Michelle commented:

“Today, after 21 days and nights, I get to walk out of this crate. But 200,000 mother pigs in the UK are confined in farrowing crates every year, and they have no choice about entering or leaving. They are put through the same cycle again and again until their bodies are no longer considered productive.
“No matter how difficult some of the days inside this crate have been, I have always been conscious that what I have experienced is nothing compared with what pigs like Luna endure, or the suffering of the millions of animals trapped in factory farms across the UK.
“I can walk away today and know that I never have to enter this crate again. The pigs cannot. That is why this cannot end with me leaving Trafalgar Square.
“It doesn’t need to be this way. We are calling on the Government to commit to ending factory farming by 2040, with a clear plan and pathway to move away from a broken system that treats living, feeling individuals as units of production. We can build a kinder, sustainable food system. Factory farming has no place in that future.”

A petition to free Luna is now approaching 30,000 signatures. [5]


Michelle is available for interview about her experience of spending 21 days and nights inside the crate, the physical and psychological impact of this time, and why she believes the UK must move away from factory farming.


To arrange interviews or follow-up coverage, please contact press@animalrising.org or +44 1225 29 6691


High-quality pictures and videos: https://show.pics.io/animal-rising-breaking-news 

All images and videos in this file, on our social media and website can be used with credit to Animal Rising under ‘fair use’ for the purposes of reporting.


ENDS


Notes to Editors


[2] Luna investigation and footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efbUsgUYUCA

[4] RSPCA information on farrowing crates: https://www.rspca.org.uk/getinvolved/campaign/farmcages



 
 
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