Animal welfare campaigners staged a protest outside Cranswick’s Hessle headquarters as they call on ending the use of carbon dioxide chambers to slaughter pigs
Mobile gas chamber rolling towards Cranswick HQ in Hessle(Image: Animal Justice Project.)
A conspicuous mobile gas chamber rolled through the streets of Hessle as protestors campaigned outside the headquarters of the UK’s largest pork producer, demanding a stop to the use of carbon dioxide (CO₂) to slaughter pigs. Animal Justice Project brought its Turn Off The Gas campaign to Cranswick’s head office in Hessle on Thursday, where protestors attempted to meet with CEO Adam Couch.
They tried to present Mr Couch with an “outstanding commitment award” for “his contribution to misleading the public and helping keep Britain’s gas chambers out of sight”. Cranswick declined to meet with campaigners.
The campaign is calling on the Government to deliver its consultation on ending CO2 gas slaughter for pigs and to consider phasing out the use of gas chambers altogether. In December 2025, the Government’s Animal Welfare Committee recommended CO2 slaughter should be stopped.
A consultation has not yet been launched, and Animal Justice Project says pigs are “continuing to needlessly suffer”. Cranswick told Hull Live it operates in line with all relevant laws.
Cranswick has been under fire in recent years for footage which emerged appearing to show acts of abuse towards piglets. The company ceased operations at Northmoor Farm, near Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, in 2025 when undercover filming captured staff allegedly mistreating piglets at the site. The footage appeared to show employees gripping piglets by their back legs before hurling them against the ground, employing a prohibited killing technique dubbed “piglet thumping”.
The footage was collected over a period of weeks in 2024 by an undercover investigator for Animal Justice Project. Last year, the firm confirmed that animal welfare practices and monitoring were strengthened as a direct response to the controversy.
Campaigners also visited Cranswick’s Preston abattoir. “Turn Off The Gas” has toured other key locations connected to Britain’s pig industry, and earlier this week disrupted the Royal Norfolk Show when activists entered the Grand Ring holding signs saying ‘Stop Gassing Pigs To Death.’ The tour also visited abattoirs in Norfolk and Spalding .
On Monday, it visited Defra’s headquarters in Westminster, alongside actor and animal advocate Peter Egan, as well as Sainsbury’s HQ. Animal Justice Project is calling on Sainsbury’s – which has signed a ten-year partnership with Cranswick – to support mandatory slaughter-method labelling so consumers know own-brand ‘pork’ products come from pigs who were slaughtered using CO2.
More than twenty years after Government advisers first recommended phasing out aversive gas systems for pigs, ministers have committed to consulting on the future of CO2 pig gassing. Animal Justice Project wants the consultation to be delivered within this Parliament and before the next General Election.
The charity raised concerns that the consultation will simply seek to replace the use of CO2 with argon – which some scientists and advisory bodies consider to provide welfare improvements compared with high-concentration CO2. While argon is generally regarded as less aversive than carbon dioxide, pigs remain conscious during the induction phase and may still experience distress, loss of coordination, intensive convulsions and oxygen deprivation before losing consciousness.
Animal welfare experts have noted that pigs still die from brain hypoxia when argon slaughter is used, and air hunger and gasping may still be evident, as with CO2. Animal Justice Project said “rather than simply replacing CO2 with a different inert gas, the public deserves a broader conversation around the slaughter of pigs”. The organisation also says the public is “largely unaware of the issue despite its scale”.
Several MPs have provided their support for calls to end carbon dioxide slaughter, across parties including Labour, Liberal Democrats, the Green Party and several independent MPs. YouGov polling of 2,140 British adults commissioned by Animal Justice Project in May 2026 found only 12 per cent of people correctly identified CO2 gas as the primary method used to kill pigs in the UK. The study also found respondents were “significantly more likely to regard CO2 gas slaughter as unacceptable than acceptable once informed about the practice”, said the charity.
Animal Justice Project is calling on Defra to publish a timetable for its promised consultation, launch it before the end of 2026, and ensure it examines whether gas chamber systems themselves should continue to be used, rather than simply considering alternative gases. “Most people have no idea that pigs are routinely killed in gas chambers in Britain,” said Claire Palmer, director of Animal Justice Project. “The Government is preparing to make decisions about the future of pig slaughter, yet most people don’t even know these systems exist.
“For more than twenty years, scientists, animal welfare organisations and government advisers have raised serious concerns about gas chambers. The question now isn’t simply what should replace CO2, it’s whether gas chambers themselves should continue to be used at all. Different gas, same chamber. If people are disturbed by the reality of pigs being gassed to death, the most powerful response is to choose plant-based foods, while supporting farmers to transition away from animal agriculture.”
Actor and animal activist, Peter Egan, said: “I’m not surprised that most people don’t know pigs are killed in gas chambers. The industry doesn’t talk about it, retailers don’t tell consumers, and most people have no idea what happens behind slaughterhouse walls.
“We shouldn’t be debating how to make gas chambers more acceptable by changing the gas. We should be questioning why we’re using them at all. And ultimately, if we want to spare pigs from suffering, the most humane choice is not to eat them in the first place.”
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