Viva! pig gassing bus adverts REMOVED by Transport for London
Viva! is once again being censored for telling people the truth about animal agriculture.
As part of our Gasping for Life campaign, which exposes the horrors of pig gassing in the UK, we launched a month-long advertising campaign on dozens of TfL buses servicing Uxbridge and West London. The ads showed an image of a young pig with the words: “Next stop, the gas chamber.”
Following a complaint reported by Jewish News, which said some passengers had taken offence at the message, TfL decided to remove the adverts “as soon as possible.”
The advert was never intended to cause offence to members of the Jewish community. We understand how deeply painful the words ‘gas chamber’ give the horrific historical associations. We never intended any comparison with it.
We used those words because they describe what happens. These installations are chambers filled with gas. Conscious pigs are lowered into a chamber or pit containing extremely high concentrations of carbon dioxide, where they struggle for breath and suffer severe distress before they lose consciousness. ‘Next stop’ referred to the journey pigs make to these killing systems. It was never meant to cast bus passengers as victims.
Around 90% of the ten million pigs farmed in the UK each year are killed in carbon dioxide gas chambers. CO₂ stunning is highly aversive to pigs and causes them to scream, panic and fight for breath. The Animal Welfare Committee (AWC), the government’s independent advisory body, has recommended ending the practice since 2003 because of the suffering it causes.
Viva! opposes the slaughter of pigs by any method. Gasping for Life focuses on CO₂ gassing because it is how almost all pigs in the UK are killed, and because so few people know about it. But pigs are sensitive, intelligent animals who do not need to die for our food.
Our ads targeted Uxbridge because that is where Pilgrim’s Europe, one of the UK’s biggest pork producers, quietly bases its headquarters. When we spoke to hundreds of local residents in September, most had no idea Pilgrim’s operated in their town, and few knew how pigs are killed. Our bus adverts used simple messaging to raise awareness, calling on people to find out more and take action.
Taking the adverts down doesn’t change what happens inside these chambers. Millions of pigs a year still go through a method that the government’s own advisers say causes severe suffering.
This isn’t the first time advertising bodies have censored us due to external pressure. Our “Dairy is Scary” advert, highlighting the cruel industry practice of separating newborn calves from their mothers, was pulled from hundreds of UK cinemas in 2025 following complaints from farming unions and a subsequent ruling by the ASA.
Too often information about how animals are farmed and killed is blocked from reaching the public. We won’t let that stand.
When people learn the facts, most are horrified. 81% of the British public are opposed to using CO₂ slaughter to slaughter pigs and nine in ten want intensive farming methods to be banned.
They can take down our adverts, but they can’t silence the truth. Viva! will keep campaigning, by every means we have, until no pig is gassed and no pig is killed for food.
About the author
Craig Thorpe
Craig is a Campaigner at Viva!. He coordinates public campaigns that expose the cruelty of factory farming and inspire people to take meaningful action.