Veganuary founder accuses under-fire RSPCA Assured of ‘welfare-washing’ after new exposé

Veganuary and VFG co-founder Matthew Glover has called for the abolition of the RSPCA Assured scheme, calling it “misleading” and “meaningless”.

The vegan activist and entrepreneur has accused the scheme of “welfare-washing” after he recorded footage showing poor treatment of livestock from inside an RSPCA Assured pig farm.

The video, made in partnership with campaign group Animal Rising, showed pigs drinking unclean water and walking around in inches of faeces, some with large growths on their bodies and one missing an eye.

In the video, Glover said the pigs also had no space to exhibit natural behaviours or play.

“The RSPCA should be fighting against this and campaigning to shut these places down, not providing a label, an assurance scheme, which is actually supporting and endorsing this type of scheme,” he said in the video.

He has called on the public to write to the RSPCA to urge it to scrap the scheme.

The video goes on to say many promotional videos from the organisation are manufactured and don’t show the reality of RSPCA Assured farms.

“The RSPCA is misleading the animal-loving public by welfare-washing animal cruelty in Assured farms,” said Glover in a LinkedIn post. “Welfare-washing hoodwinks people to live in conflict with their own values, and slows our moral progress as a society by perpetuating a harmful status quo.”

He added that the standards are “rarely enforced” which means they’re “meaningless”.

“Continuing the RSPCA Assured scheme is not only harming animals, it’s harming the RSPCA’s reputation,” he added. “And it’s harming us as a society by holding us back from making urgently needed changes towards a kinder, more sustainable plant-based future.”

The RSPCA has been under increasing pressure from activists in recent months, with a steady stream of undercover footage shedding light on alleged poor treatment on Assured farms.

The organisation launched an investigation and wider review of the scheme last week, including unannounced visits to more than 200 randomly chosen members, after hearing concerns.

“We want to give our supporters, partners and the public confidence that RSPCA Assured is consistently delivering better welfare than standard farming practices,” said an RSPCA Assured spokesperson. “So, we launched an independent review of RSPCA Assured, which has been carried out over several months, including unannounced visits to more than 200 members of the scheme. Once we have analysed our findings, we will take any robust action necessary.”

It comes as RSPCA vice president Brian May last week stood down from the role due to “appallingly bad standards of animal welfare at member farms of the RSPCA Assured scheme”.

He wrote in a post on Instagram that he “cannot in all conscience remain a figurehead of the organisation while the RSPCA avoids its responsibility to put its house in order”.

Elsewhere, food sector stakeholders had been asked to have their say on the future of assurance schemes as part of an independent review into the sector. 

Commissioned by AHDB, the NFU and its equivalents in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, the industry-wide review is examining topics such as how farm assurance can better deliver value to scheme members, and whether standards have developed to meet the evolving needs of members and the markets they serve.

The RSPCA Assured scheme has been approached for comment.