Chris Packham supports Trafalgar Square campaigner who is spending 21 days in a pig crate to highlight cruelty in farming

Chris Packham has visited an animal rights campaigner who is spending three weeks confined inside a pig farrowing crate in Trafalgar Square.

The wildlife presenter and activist met Michelle Farnham yesterday (Wednesday) as she marked the ninth day of her protest against factory farming.

Michelle, 28, entered the crate outside the National Gallery on September 1 and has vowed not to leave it for 21 consecutive days and nights.

The Animal Rising campaign manager is able to stand up and lie down but cannot turn around, replicating a fraction of the confinement endured by mother pigs in farrowing crates.

Chris Packham said: “Any animal being subjected to this level of confinement is horrific. And we have to remember that farrowing crates are not some fringe practice, they are routinely used across the British pig industry. This crate shows us what happens when animals are reduced to units of production, rather than recognised as individuals with needs of their own.

“The problems with factory farming extend far beyond what happens inside these crates. We’ve built a system that confines huge numbers of sentient animals in intensive conditions, while placing enormous pressures on our land, climate and wildlife. We need to look honestly at the true cost of farming in this way, both to animals and to the natural world.

“Factory farming has become deeply embedded in the way we produce food, causing immense suffering to the animals on these farms and taking a devastating toll on our environment. We urgently need to move away from these animal factories and towards a more sustainable future. We can’t keep accepting this as normal. It’s a broken system, and it needs to end.”

Packham resigned as president of the RSPCA in 2024 following Animal Rising’s investigations into RSPCA Assured farms and slaughterhouses.

Animal Rising is calling on the UK Government to commit to ending factory farming by 2040 and publish a roadmap for the transition.

The Government’s Animal Welfare Strategy for England states that approximately 92 per cent of indoor pig production systems continue to use farrowing crates.

Pigs due to give birth and nursing piglets can be confined for a month at a time, while commercial sows typically give birth twice a year.

Speaking from inside the crate, Michelle said: “It has been a lot of logistical work, and at night I have people come to sit with me as I sleep to keep me safe. Sometimes it has been really hard, but I try and keep it in my mind that the pigs have it much worse.

“At least it is dark at night for me and I have a sleeping bag and pillow, in the farrowing crate the lights are on all the time.”

Michelle has pledged to remain inside the installation around the clock, including when she needs to use the toilet.

She said: “When I need to go to the toilet I am covered in a tarp and have a bucket, I am not leaving the crate at all, as that is what the pigs endure.”

The campaigner admitted the physical and emotional strain of the protest had begun to take its toll.

She said: “On Monday I definitely had a wobble and it all started to get to me a bit, I missed my boyfriend and my cats. But in general it has been ok because of the level of positivity for what I am doing. So many good conversations and that is what is keeping me going.”

Michelle studied Animal Management for two years and has reviewed hundreds of hours of undercover footage recorded inside UK pig farms while working alongside veterinary and animal welfare law experts.

Her protest coincides with the release of previously unseen footage documenting a month in the life of Luna, a sow confined in a farrowing crate at Red Court Farm in Ipswich.

Animal Rising is calling for Luna to be released into a sanctuary rather than being subjected to another pregnancy, birth and separation from her piglets.

Michelle said: “I want people to see just how restrictive and abhorrent the factory farming system is.

“I've seen firsthand the physical and psychological suffering these crates cause. Right now, tens of thousands of mother pigs are confined in farrowing crates just like this one, unable even to turn around.

“I'll be inside this crate for 21 days. It will be a huge physical challenge and I know it's going to be tough, but at the end I get to walk away. But the pigs don't get a choice. Once they're released from the crate, it's only a matter of time before they're confined in one again.

“And this is just one example of the suffering built into factory farming. We don't have to accept this system - we’re asking the government to bring an end to factory farming for good.”