Images Of Pigs Being Clubbed To Death By Repeatedly Being Hit On The Head In Slaughterhouse

Though most people are aware of the ways in which animals are (mis)treated in slaughterhouses, no one really talks about it.

Now, horrifying images that have surfaced from a Thai slaughterhouse have put the disgusting conditions in which animals are treated in the spotlight, and they're not easy to see. Here, pigs are clubbed to death.

Jo-Anne McArthur

The gruesome pictures showing pigs dying of injuries in a pool of blood, screaming as workers beat them to death are going viral.

The images have been captured by 43-year-old Jo-Anne McArthur, founder of We Animals Media, which is dedicated to ending animal cruelty.

Jo-Anne McArthur

She spent quite a lot of time exploring the Thai slaughterhouse.

¡°I wasn't the first to be welcomed here; the owner of the facility thinks it's important for people to see the process of slaughter and once welcomed a group of veterinary students to spend a morning here too. He said that many of them vomited,¡± Daily Mail quoted McArthur as saying.

Jo-Anne McArthur

She further said, ¡°On this particular day, I was welcomed and escorted through the slaughterhouse doors with an invitation to spend the morning taking photos. I explored the circuit; the holding pens, the kill floor, and the area where the animals are gutted, dismembered and packed into trucks.¡±

She captures horrifying images of terrified pigs coerced into a pen with iron nails and electric rods. They were stuffed in the smallest of spaces.

Talking about the pigs she said, ¡°Some screamed. Others seemed mute and immobile. Others shook. Many tried to escape when they were prodded or dragged soaking wet to the kill floor. Fear is recognisable across most species, and with the pigs here, it is undeniably palpable.¡±

The photojournalist captured the pigs being struck repeatedly with huge, wooden clubs. After that their throats were sliced open with a knife.

Apparently the reason for the clubbing is to ¡®humanely¡¯ stun the animals before slaughter. However, since pigs have thick skulls, stunning them only terrifies them more and does not really accomplish the purpose.

Jo-Anne McArthur

¡°Amid the chaos, pigs were left to bleed out for a minute or so in groups before another worker would jam a hook into their leg and then heave the animal into a vat of boiling water. The men would then set to scraping the pigs clean of hair, using sharp knives in a shaving motion, then deftly severing their heads and hooves. While men did the slaughtering and butchering, it was Burmese women in the back rooms who emptied and cleaned the pig intestines and organs,¡± she explained.

The photojournalist hopes that these images will have an impact on some and have them change.