'Horror Story' Pig Farm Hogwood Expected To Close This Year

Hogwood pig farm is expected to close for good in September.

The controversial pig farm was the subject of four undercover investigations by Viva!, a vegan campaigning charity, between 2017 and 2019. Each investigation found significant animal welfare violations.

Brian Hobill, the owner of Hogwood Farm in south Warwickshire, UK, has applied to turn the site into 10 homes. This is the third planning application to turn the former pig farm into housing, and both previous attempts were rejected by the council.

The 2020 animal rights documentary Hogwood: A Modern Horror Story followed Viva! investigators as they observed animal cruelty, overcrowding, illness, and death – all of which are common in factory farming – at Hogwood on multiple occasions.

The planning statement reportedly confirms that Hogwood Farm will permanently close in September, regardless of whether Hobill’s planning application is successful. It also references the impact of Viva!’s investigations as a contributing factor.

‘No more pigs will suffer’

Juliet Gellatley, a writer, activist, and the founder of Viva!, said, “This news comes far too late for her and for the countless animals who suffered some of the worst welfare violations I’ve seen in three decades of investigations. But it means that no more pigs will suffer at Hogwood from September, and that matters enormously.”

“This is what perseverance looks like. It’s undeniably a victory for the animals,” Gellatley added. “One that belongs to every single person who stood outside those gates, shared our footage or simply refused to accept the status quo.”

‘What we found at Hogwood was not an anomaly’

Photo shows a pig in a cage at Hogwood farm — Viva! The UK kills 10 million pigs for food every year

According to Viva!, Hogwood’s owner was unable to regain Red Tractor assured status following the four investigations and accompanying public outrage.

Furthermore, all efforts to sell the business to companies such as Cranswick, Pilgrims, and Karro (which together farm 80 percent of all pigs in the UK) were met with “strongly negative” reactions. Last year, Viva! notably found many “serious welfare violations” at two different Red Tractor assured Cranswick pig farms.

“What we found at Hogwood was not an anomaly,” Gellatley said. “It was a window into an industry that works very hard to keep the public from seeing what happens behind locked gates. When people do see it – whether they eat meat or not, whether they’d call themselves an activist or not – they’re appalled. And when they act on that strength of feeling, change follows. Hogwood’s closure is proof of that. It won’t be the last factory farm to be held accountable for its actions on our watch.”