Investigation: Hogwood 2018
On 2 January 2019, Channel 4 Dispatches aired a documentary called The Truth About Vegans.
In the documentary, Dispatches made several allegations about Viva! and our investigation of Hogwood Farm.
Viva! agreed to be interviewed on the condition that we could film the entire interview to show if our comments were taken out of context; however because Dispatches refused, we declined to be interviewed as it was clear the producers had a pre-determined agenda. When Dispatches contacted us, the bulk of production had already been completed and Viva! had been positioned as vegan extremists.
Hogwood Farm is a horrific place in Warwickshire, which houses 16,000 pigs and is one of the largest pig farms Viva! has ever seen. The conditions for pigs there are so appalling that Viva! launched a campaign in 2017 urging supporters to take action.
Take a look at the sheer amount of local and national press coverage received on Hogwood.
- On Wednesday 24 January representatives from Viva! Campaigns visited the Animal and Plant Health Agency office in Worcestershire, where they handed in the 49,500 petition signatures collected since the initial investigation.
- On 5 July 2018, one year on from our initial investigation, investigators return to Hogwood Farm to see whether anything’s changed.
- Read Juliet’s personal account of the horrors at Hogwood Farm.
- On Saturday 11 August Viva! hosted a second Nationwide Day of Action against Tesco for failing to drop Hogwood Horror Farm.
- Representatives of Viva! Campaigns attend the IGD Awards and present Tesco executives with a combined total of 77,000 signatures to drop Hogwood Farm.
- Despite tireless efforts from Viva! and our supporters, Tesco still refuses to drop Hogwood Horror Farm as a supplier. On Saturday 24 November a peaceful demonstration was held outside two Tesco superstores in London. Thirty activists attended, along with Kay Lovelle and a giant video van.
- On 2 January 2019 Channel 4 Dispatches airs a documentary called The Truth About Vegans.
- In response to the Dispatches episode ‘The Truth About Vegans’ the Viva! Campaigns team travelled to central London on 18 January 2019 to host a photocall outside Red Tractor HQ and Tesco. Accompanying us was a red tractor which we adorned with the loud and clear message that you cannot trust the tractor, as well as a large digital video van broadcasting shocking pig cruelty. On the day we were joined by Cath Kendall, animal rights activist and cruelty-free blogger.
